SPORTS
Friday, December 13, 2019
East Oregonian
B3
Pac-12 commissioner says missing playoff ‘harmful’ to league
By RALPH D. RUSSO
AP College Football Writer
NEW YORK — A Pac-
12 team has made the Col-
lege Football Playoff just
twice in six seasons and
none of the last three.
If anyone should be
leading the charge toward
expanding the current four-
team model, you would
think it would be Pac-12
Commissioner Larry Scott.
“I completely get that
it would really release the
pressure of being the one
that’s been on the outside
looking the most in the first
six years to say that auto-
matically we’ve got our
champion (in),’’ Scott said
Thursday. “But we also
have agreements through
2026 (the championship
game) that I think will be
very challenging for us to
all agree how we’re going to
amend and change.”
Scott, in New York for a
forum on college athletics
sponsored by Sports Busi-
ness Journal, said while
changes to the playoff are
already being discussed
behind the scenes, being
halfway through the current
12-year television rights
contract with ESPN means
there is no urgency.
“I’ve tended to see in my
10 years here these things
don’t change until they have
to,” Scott said.
Last year at this time,
speculation about playoff
expansion was the loudest
it has been since this post-
season format was imple-
mented in 2014. The Big
Ten having its champion
left out for a second con-
secutive season had Com-
missioner Jim Delany and
coaches and athletic direc-
tors in that conference
grumbling publicly about
the selection process.
AP Photo/D. Ross Cameron, File
Commissioner Larry Scott speaks during the Pac-12 NCAA
college basketball media day Oct. 8, 2019, in San Francisco.
The university presi-
dents who oversee the play-
off released a statement the
day of last season’s national
championship game that
tamped down the chat-
ter, saying it was ‘’way too
soon’’ to know if expansion
was even a possibility.
This year, the four teams
for the playoff fell into
place without controversy
after Utah lost the Pac-12
title game to Oregon. That
left the Pac-12 as the only
Power Five league with a
champion that had lost more
than one game.
“The committee’s gotten
a little luck,” Scott said.
Scott called getting left
out of the playoff “painful.”
‘’And this year, to be
the one league of the five
that doesn’t have a team
in it, that’s harmful to our
positioning, our brand and
everything we’ve got,” he
said. “First and foremost,
we’ve got to be better. And
we’re engaged in: Is there
a better mousetrap going
forward?’’
Scott said the Pac-12
would only support expan-
sion if it meant guarantee-
ing spots for the champions
of each Power Five confer-
ence. The Pac-12 would
also be protective of the
Rose Bowl, its longtime
partner and a showcase that
dates to 1902.
Scott added he would
like to see more consistency
among the conferences in
how they schedule if the
playoff format is going to
change.
The Pac-12, Big 12 and
Big Ten all play nine confer-
ence games. The Southeast-
ern Conference and Atlan-
tic Conference each play
eight conference games.
The SEC and ACC have
never missed the playoff.
Big 12 Commissioner
Bob Bowlsby said he would
like each conference to
require its members to play
at least 10 games against
Power Five competition,
regardless of whether those
were conference or noncon-
ference opponents.
Scott said he would sup-
port that, but he also noted
much more goes into sched-
uling than playoff posi-
tioning. Across major col-
lege football, schools are
trying to schedule more
appealing games as a way
to reverse declining atten-
dance trends.
AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File
In this June 29, 2019, file photo, Los Angeles Angels starting
pitcher Tyler Skaggs throws to the Oakland Athletics during
a baseball game in Anaheim, Calif.
SWITCH & GET A
MLB, union agree
to testing for opioids
after Skaggs’ death
By RONALD BLUM
AP Baseball Writer
SAN DIEGO — Major
League Baseball will start
testing for opioids and
cocaine, but only players
who do not cooperate with
their treatment plans will be
subject to discipline.
Marijuana
will
be
removed from the list of
drugs of abuse and will be
treated the same as alco-
hol as part of changes
announced Thursday to
the joint drug agreement
between MLB and the play-
ers’ association. In addi-
tion, suspensions for mar-
ijuana use will be dropped
from the minor league drug
program.
Opioids are classified as a
drug of abuse under the joint
big league program, which
began in late 2002 and
until now has limited test-
ing to performance-enhanc-
ing substances and banned
stimulants.
Talks to add testing for
opioids began following the
death of Los Angeles Angels
pitcher Tyler Skaggs, who
was found dead in his hotel
room in the Dallas area July
1 before the start of a series
against the Texas. A medical
examiner’s office said the
27-year-old died after chok-
ing on his vomit with a toxic
mix of alcohol and the pain-
killers fentanyl and oxyco-
done in his body.
“Players from our side of
the equation recognize that
there was an opportunity to
take a leadership role here
in this discussion,” union
head Tony Clark said. “Play-
ers aren’t immune to issues
that affect all of us, and so
the situation this year only
heightened that, brought it
even closer to home.”
Clark said the extent of
opioids use among play-
ers is “difficult to gauge”
and the union concluded
there “wasn’t necessar-
ily a need to take a census
as much as there was tak-
ing a leadership role in the
conversation.”
“I’m just thankful that
the players union and MLB
were able to address a seri-
ous issue in our nation that
doesn’t have any boundar-
ies and crosses lines into
sport and work together for
the betterment of our play-
ers,” Angels general man-
ager Billy Eppler said. “It
shows a lot of human touch
on the powers that be and
I’m thankful for it.”
Under the changes, MLB
will test for opioids, Fen-
tanyl, cocaine, and syn-
thetic Tetrahydrocannabi-
nol (THC). Players who test
positive will be referred to
the treatment board estab-
lished under the agreement.
“It is our collective hope
that this agreement will
help raise public awareness
on the risks and dangers of
opioid medications,” deputy
baseball commissioner Dan
Halem said.
Until now, big league
players referred to the treat-
ment board who failed to
comply with their treatment
plan for use or possession of
marijuana, hashish or syn-
thetic THC had been subject
to fines of up to $35,000 per
violation. Going forward,
marijuana-related conduct
will be treated the same as
alcohol-related issues, and
players generally referred to
mandatory evaluation and
voluntary treatment.
Players and team staff
will have to attend man-
datory educational pro-
grams in 2020 and 2021 on
the dangers of opioid pain
medications and practical
approaches to marijuana.
Moves by some states to
legalize marijuana use fac-
tored into the change.
“It was a part of a larger
conversation that was reflec-
tive of the attitudes chang-
ing in many parts of the
country,” Clark said.
Players subject to the
minor league testing pro-
gram, who are not on
40-man rosters and not cov-
ered by the union, were sus-
pended until now for a sec-
ond or subsequent positive
marijuana test. Halem said
the big league and minor
league programs will treat
marijuana use the same way
going forward.
“The minor league pro-
gram obviously affects a
number of our PA members
every year because we have
a number of guys who sign
major league contracts, then
wind up finding themselves
removed from the 40-man
roster during the course of
the year,” Clark said. “So
this was something that,
again, as part of the dis-
cussion for the overarching
baseball player community,
was important.”
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