Tanner addresses SEC's response on officiating

Four days after a series of missed officiating calls during South Carolina's home football game against Florida, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey released a statement.

University of South Carolina athletics director Ray Tanner joined Jay Philips and Tommy Moody on the Halftime Show on 107.5 The Game on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the weekend's game and the SEC's response, among other topics.

Here is what Tanner said on several topics, transcribed by GamecockCentral.com.

"There’s disappointment when we have head coaches and assistant coaches and players that are giving there all and there are some things that happened that give you great concern. There’s emotion, that’s where I’ve been. I spent an enormous amount of time talking to league officials since Saturday afternoon, into the evening, into Sunday, as we get here today. We’ve had a tremendous amount of dialogue. I’m not allowed to share too much, there’s an opportunity for fines or suspension. My emotions land with our coaches, fan base, and players. You want them to be in the right situation and the right place to have an opportunity to have a great outcome. That was difficult on Saturday."

I would agree there should be some type of maybe public comment. I don’t believe in personal exposure. These officials aren’t trying to make mistakes. They’re trying to do the very best they can. It is tough, there are tremendous athletes running around that makes it very difficult to be an umpire, an official, or a referee. I get that part. I would like to see some more public sharing of information, if you will. It does get dicey. You know, how much. Is it every game? Is it just some games? It’s not as easy on say, comment on this game, that game, all seven games head to head that weekend. It’s not a perfect scenario. I do want to reiterate what you read; there is accountability. They’re not exposed and I won’t agree they should be exposed, but they’re evaluated week by week. Things do happen, things do change. Some of them are not invited back next year, just like some of us aren’t in our business.

I’m not going against it necessarily, but I don’t think there can be public exposure. I don’t think that’s going to be successful in the end. What you want is accountability, and we have that, but it’s not for public consumption. It is in place. It is. But when you’re in the middle of it like we were, I’ve been there and done that. I’m in garnet and black, and that’s the lense I look through. It becomes emotional. Players and coaches who are doing everything they can to win the game and you think this is tough, this is difficult, this is hard.

You can rest assured that I expressed my feelings, my concerns, my discontent, and some places we can go in the future. Not to get off on a rant or onto a different level, but we’ve evolved. Things have changed in athletics in general. Have we evolved enough from the officiating side? Do we need another official, do we need an official in the booth, do we need another opportunity for coaches to question the calls, more questionable calls? We have the technology to do it. Maybe we need to do more to get games right. I’m not talking about slowing games down. Do we need more opportunities to question the call?

I’m well aware in the Southeastern Conference there is accountability in officiating. I am aware of that. It’s not for public consumption. At the end of the year, during the year, during that week, it does happen. When you criticize the SEC or commissioner Sankey or Steve Shaw, those things are in place. I can attest to that. That doesn’t make me feel anything better about what happened.

After a game, Coach Muschamp, win or lose, has to face the media. Especially after a loss, that’s not a great place to be. He has to face it, he has to answer questions, he gets scrutinized. He’s followed up by the players who have to come in and do the same thing. If you do have a penalty in a game, if there’s a penalty called against your team or the other team, there’s a number that’s given to the guy that’s penalized.

I don’t think I was going to be satisfied, to be honest with you. No matter what anyone said, I wasn’t going to be satisfied. Commissioner Sankey took time to speak with me, Steve Shaw took time to speak with me more than once. I didn’t get to that point, I’m not at that point. We move on. Coach Muschamp is frustrated, he was frustrated, but he’s got a game he’s preparing for now in Knoxville. I don’t want to sit here and blame everyone in the world for everything. I’m a competitor. I don’t like what happened. It’s not easy to take, it’s not easy to digest. It’s very frustrating.