La Salle, you know I respect your opinion...and yet I think you have this one wrong. What does a perceived bias have to do with his being on the field? And again, what does his field behavior have to do with being on the committee? Okay so nobody has ever seen an AD do that before. And? There's a first time for everything and it has nothing to do with his character which is what you seem to be questioning. Like I said, committee members are required to shut up when it comes to discussion of "their" team if they have a current affiliation. Haden cannot discuss USC just like Jeff Long can't discuss Arkansas and Rice can't discuss Stanford. Do you really believe that only a current affiliation puts one at risk of bias? Are you any less a Tiger fan today than you were 10 years ago? What's funny is that a sizable section of USC fans have been deriding Haden for 3 years now for being too much of a wuss with the NCAA. They feel like Haden grabbed his ankles and made USC look weak.
Even if she did, it wouldn't matter. 1 loss teams from any division not the SEC would never get into the final 4. Is it the committee format you object to or the members? If it's the members, who are some of the names you would like to see?
I just think that was an example why Haden and Jeff Long and others who are still employed by universities have no business being on a committee that selects the 4 playoff teams. Haden is arguing with refs in defense of Sark being penalized for a sideline infraction. Again if USC is 5 in the nation at the end of the year how will his USC bias not come into play?
Current or former employment or even mild affiliation do not guarantee nor eliminate the potential for bias. How can you find 13 people with zero affiliation who are also knowledgeable? Hell some of the East Coast media folks who have participated in past polls have said they don't stay up late enough to actually watch Pac 12 games and only look at scores! Affiliation does not determine character. Someone is either going to participate appropriately or they aren't. What happened yesterday is not an example of anything in particular and certainly doesn't suggest Haden will be biased. Look at how he grabbed his ankles with the NCAA.
They shouldn't have had a selection committee. Hell they way they selected the teams for the BCS was the only part of the BCS that was actually right.
