Larry Scott Reprimands Jeff Tedford For Comments About Pac-12 Referees

After California narrowly beat Colorado in overtime on Saturday, Jeff Tedford said something not very flattering about Pac-12 officiating. How do I know this? Not because he said anything particularly inflammatory -- heck, I couldn't even quickly find whatever it was with a Google search.

No, I know it because this just came to my inbox:

"The Pac-12 has specific rules that prohibit our coaches from making public comments about officiating, and this prohibition specifically includes comments that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference's officiating program," stated Scott. "The Conference expects each Pac-12 coach to adhere to our standards of conduct and to conduct himself or herself in a manner which will reflect credit on the institution and the Conference."

Not seen is Scott's first draft, which was wisely edited by the Pac-12 media relations department. But CougCenter has well-placed sources, and we were able to get our hands on it. Check it out:

"The Pac-12 has specific rules that prohibit our coaches from making public comments about officiating, because goodness knows if we allowed this, we'd all have to listen to coaches drone on and on for hours about it because our officiating is that bad," Scott said. "This prohibition specifically includes comments that create doubts about the credibility of the Conference's officiating program, because let's be honest -- our officials are already good enough at doing that on their own. They don't need any help, OK? The Conference expects each Pac-12 coach to adhere to our standards of conduct and to conduct himself or herself in a manner which will reflect credit on the institution and the Conference, even if we don't demand the same out of our officials."

OK, he didn't really write that. But you know that's what he was thinking!