Last week, at the half of a riveting game between Stanford and Washington, Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott made himself available to reporters inside the CenturyLink Field press box.
It took all of one question before the conversation steered to a hot-button topic in the league, as well as a few other conferences in the country. The gathered media wanted to know what Scott thought about the idea of a Pac-12 injury report, spurred by recent run-ins with, among others, his two young, passionate Los Angeles-based coaches.
USC's Lane Kiffin and UCLA's Jim Mora have made it clear, glaringly, that they will not stand for anyone -- even those on the athletic department payroll, in Mora's case -- compromising their team's efforts with too much information about injured players. Each coach has banned reporters from practice or (briefly) from covering the team. A similar situation is boiling at Oklahoma State, where Mike Gundy wasn't pleased last week that information about quarterback Wes Lunt's status was reported.
It's quite an impasse: fans wanting the info, reporters trying to do their jobs and coaches -- under immense pressure and scrutiny -- trying to win games. As he wades in, Scott acknowledges that it's a complicated matter, one with two distinct sides in a tug-of-war. While Scott's allegiance would seem to lean heavily toward the coaches, he did say he wants to play fair with the media.
To read Travis Haney's full blog, including matchup information on this week's biggest games, you must be an ESPN Insider.
Travis Haney
ESPN Insider• Joined ESPN as Insider's national college football writer in April 2012
• Previously wrote for The Oklahoman and The Post and Courier
ABOUT THIS BLOG
Travis HaneyTravis Haney joined ESPN in April 2012 as Insider's national college football writer. He previously covered the University of Oklahoma Sooners for The (Oklahoma City) Oklahoman for one season, and the University of South Carolina Gamecocks for The (Charleston, S.C.) Post and Courier for four. Additionally, Haney has contributed since 2003 to ESPN publications and projects, including ESPN The Magazine.
A native of Cleveland, Tenn., Haney's initial introduction to a college football cathedral was Neyland Stadium. He later graduated from the University of Tennessee, in 2003, and has spent time covering the Volunteers, the University of Georgia, Clemson University, and other schools. Safe to say, football, and football in the South, was injected into his bloodstream at a young age.
Haney is the author of three books -- Gamecock Glory and Gamecock Encore, which chronicled the South Carolina baseball team's run to the 2010 and 2011 national championships, and State of Disunion, a historical look at the Clemson-South Carolina football rivalry that he co-wrote with Larry Williams.
Haney resides in Charlotte, N.C. You can follow him on Twitter here.
