*** The Pac-12 Hotline newsletter is published each Monday-Wednesday-Friday during the college sports season and twice-a-week in the summer. (Sign up here for a free subscription.) This edition, from Jan. 13, has been made available in archived form.

Intense Spotlight

The Pac-12 hasn’t participated in the College Football Playoff in 1,108 days, but it will have a significant presence throughout tonight’s showdown.

Perhaps even an outcome-altering presence.

An officiating crew from the Pac-12 will be in charge of the proceedings, with all the pressure that comes with it.

The assignment was made in early December once it became clear that the Pac-12, lacking a playoff participant, was the only Power Five conference that couldn’t place a team in the championship.

The upside for officiating the biggest game of the season is limited — if everything goes well, few notice — but the downside is momentous.

Pac-12 officiating has been under intense scrutiny for 15 months, beginning with the instant replay scandal in Oct. ’18 and continuing through several gaffes this season.

The last thing the conference needs is a blunder that impacts the national championship.

Yes, an SEC officiating crew was severely criticized for controversial calls in the Ohio State-Clemson semifinal.

But if controversy emerges tonight, the blowback will be twice as severe.

Here are the specific assignments, as reported by footballzebras.com:

Referee: Chris Coyte

Umpire: Frank Villar

Head Linesman: Darryl Johnson

Line Judge: Dale Keller

Field Judge: Kevin Kieser

Side Judge: Clay Reynard

Back Judge: Joe Johnston

Center Judge: Jim Wharrie

Replay: Terry Leyden

• Worth noting I:

Coyte was involved in a highly-controversial incident at the 2017 Music City Bowl, when he ejected Kentucky running back Benny Snell for making contact with him.

It was an extremely poor decision by Coyte, who initiated the contact, then booted Snell for responding.

Even worse — much worse — was the backlash: Coyte received threatening calls, according to an ESPN report.

* Worth noting II:

Two of the officials reportedly assigned tonight, Keller and Kieser, were part of the unfathomable blunder during the Cal-Washington State game this season.

Referee Matt Richards mistakenly marked off a penalty on WSU, leading to the Cougars losing 57 yards in field position. (They were not happy with how the conference handled the explanation.)

Richards was suspended for one game while the other members of the crew, including Keller (line judge) and Kieser (field judge), were “downgraded.”

The Pac-12 selected the officials for tonight and determined their specific assignments, according to the conference.

The pressure is on, like never before. — Jon Wilner

Hot off the Hotline

• The ‘Saturday Night Five’ instant-reaction column was football-centric. We made the case that Mike Leach is a bigger loss than Chris Petersen, highlighted the difference in resources between Washington State and Mississippi State (i.e., the Pac-12 and the SEC) and looked at staff salaries across the Pac-12 (and more).

• Our Pac-12 basketball rewind, a new feature appearing each Monday, examined Washington’s downturn without Quade Green, Stanford’s rise, USC’s evolution, the pervasive chaos and the marked difference in schedules through two weekends of conference play.

• ICYMI: Could commissioner Larry Scott’s media strategy backfire? The latest news from the SEC and ESPN sure feels ominous.

• ICYMI II: The Friday newsletter provided an update on Pac-12 football players in the transfer portal. (The total, at last check, is in the 70s.) Previous editions of the newsletter are available in archived form.

Support the Hotline: Several Hotline articles will remain free each month (as will the newsletter), but for access to all content, you’ll need to subscribe. I’ve secured a rate of $1 per week for a full year or just 99 cents for the first month, with the option to cancel anytime. Click here. And thanks for your loyalty.

Key Dates

Select men’s basketball games included. (All times Pacific.)

Jan. 13: National championship (ESPN, 5 p.m., New Orleans)

Jan. 16: Utah at No. 24 Arizona (Pac-12 Networks, 5:30 p.m.)

Jan. 16: No. 25 Colorado at Arizona State (ESPN2, 6 p.m.)

Jan. 17-20: NFL Draft decision window

Feb. 5: National Signing Day (regular period)

Feb. 23: NFL Combine begins

Huddle Up

(Note: The Hotline newsletter includes links to sites that could require a subscription once the number of free views has been reached.)

• Four draft-eligible Oregon defensive starters will announce their plans at a joint news conference at 11 a.m. Their decisions will shape the North race.

• A rare piece of good news for UCLA on the personnel front: Playmaker Demetric Felton is returning for his senior season.

• What changes should we expect from Washington State in the post-Leach era? Beat writer Theo Lawson surveys the landscape in Pullman.

• The Oregonian’s John Canzano describes Leach’s departure to Mississippi State as “leaving a conference that is flailing in the high seas of major college athletics for one that has proof of buoyancy.”

• Angus McClure, a well-regarded recruiter, is Cal’s new offensive line coach.

• Jimmy Lake’s staff is complete: He promoted analyst Derham Cato to the role of tight ends coach.

• Arizona’s latest staff hire, outside linebackers coach Andy Buh, is well-traveled and loaded with experience.

• We didn’t hear critics blasting Herm Edwards as a hypocrite for making staff changes, but azcentral’s Greg Moore did.

• Utah began the decade in the Mountain West and ended the 2010s as the back-to-back Pac-12 South champs. “This is apples and oranges,” Kyle Whittingham said.

• Utes athletic director Mark Harlan addressed the football program’s present and future with the Deseret News’s Dirk Facer.

About tonight:

• Five keys for LSU.

• Five keys for Clemson.

• Why LSU is built to beat the defending champions.

• No matter what he does, Trevor Lawrence just can’t seem to claim top billing.

• Want to win a national title? Better find an elite quarterback.

Legal Affairs

• ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg, writing for The Undefeated, examines the massive impact House Bill 3118 has had on hiring practices in collegiate athletics across Oregon. The bill is similar to the NFL’s Rooney Rule in that it requires at least one qualified minority candidate to be interviewed for a head coaching (or athletic director) opening. The law just turned 10 years old and, as Rittenberg notes: “The result has been historic gains in diversity hiring.”

Money Matters

• UCLA not only lost at home to Hofstra and Cal State Fullerton, but the Bruins paid $165,000 for the right to do so. That’s just one morsel of information in a fabulous deep dive by AthleticDirectorU into the finances behind the so-called ‘buy games’ that form the backbone of non-conference schedules. ADU examined more than 500 contracts to paint a picture of the current market: A typical buy game for a power conference host schools is $90,000. (Some can afford that more easily than others.) The report from ADU’s Andy Wittry includes a terrific database with details on all the schools and games.

On the Hardwood

• Arizona “just couldn’t guard” Oregon State, coach Sean Miller said after a loss in Corvallis secured an 0-2 weekend. (Shouldn’t it be the other way around?)

• Freshman point guard Ethan Anderson’s emergence propelled USC to an impressive win in Pauley Pavilion. “We just want him to play like the L.A. City Player of the Year.”

• Meanwhile, Bruins coach Mick Cronin was bunt after the shellacking: “Our defense in the second half is about as bad as it can get.”

• After losing his point guard and then losing two games, Washington coach coach Mike Hopkins has challenged his veterans. “Bottom line. More production.”

• Colorado fumed for a week, then took its frustrations out on Utah.

• What the Utes lack in experience, they make up for with a lack of physicality. That’s a bad combination, especially on the road.

• Payton Pritchard was at his best (and needed to be) in a narrow win over Arizona State.

• Did Cal’s Matt Bradley call ‘bank’ before he buried Washington to complete an unlikely weekend sweep for the Bears.

• Tyrell Terry led Stanford to victory (and first place). But his favorite NFL team didn’t have similar success.

• A quarter century after leading UCLA to the national championship, Jim Harrick works as an assistant coach for Cal State Northridge. “This is just one of the spots where one can find this city’s underground sports legend,” writes the L.A. Times’ Bill Plaschke. “The UCLA championship coach seemingly has a spot in every corner of town except UCLA … The bump in Westwood has since become an indelible pothole. Time has not healed all wounds, but exacerbated them.”

Medal Stand

A section devoted to content on Pac-12 Olympic sports.

• Unranked Arizona State swept the Oregon schools on an unforgettable weekend in Tempe. Per azcentral’s Jeff Metcalfe: “ASU is the first unranked team in NCAA history to beat top-five opponents in the same weekend in at least 20 years and perhaps ever, a statistic still being researched.”

• Oregon State was in position to take over the No. 1 rankings if the Beavers had solved their ASU problem.

• The Ducks’ recovery plan was pretty simple once they arrived in Tucson: Help us, Sabrina.

• Arizona lost by a combined nine points to the No. 2 and 3 teams in the country. That’s progress for Adia Barnes and her program.

• Borislava Hristova became Washington State’s career scoring leader (men or women) in a victory over Washington.

• Kyla Ross scored a 10 on the bars as UCLA’s gymnastics team won its home opener before 7,147 fans.

Looking Ahead

What’s coming on the Pac-12 Hotline:

• The national championship game means two things: My final AP ballot will be submitted and posted Monday night, and the Hotline’s ridiculously early top-25 rankings for next season will be published Tuesday morning.

• Our look-ahead to the 2020 Pac-12 football season begins next week, once the NFL Draft departures are set. Players must declare by Friday but have a 72-hour reconsideration period.

The next newsletter is scheduled for Wednesday. Enjoy it? Please forward this email to friends (sign up here). If you don’t, or have other feedback, let me know: pac12hotline@bayareanewsgroup.com.

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