Commentary: Pat Haden allowed to stay on College Football Playoff selection panel

A wild weekend of egregious errors and brain burps has smartly been reworked into common-sense damage control.

College football leaders finally started making dollars and sense.

USC Athletic Director Pat Haden wisely got out in front of his inevitable fine and reprimand by issuing a Sunday-night apology for his sideline behavior during Saturday’s game at Stanford.

Monday, the Pac-12 Conference took appropriate action by reprimanding Haden and Coach Steve Sarkisian, while also fining Haden $25,000.

The College Football Playoff, in obvious coordination with the Pac-12 release, issued a statement saying that Haden would be allowed to remain on the football selection committee.

“Emotional outbursts at games are not a matter for the playoff committee to deal with,” executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement. “This does not affect Pat Haden’s capability as a committee member. We recognize that athletic directors cannot be dispassionate about their own teams, and that’s why we have the recusal policy.”

That policy prohibits Haden from being in the room when USC is discussed by the other members of the 13-member committee.

The mistake was allowing active athletic directors to be on the panel in the first place. The CFP wanted to make the committee look more like the NCAA basketball selection committee.

College football, though, is a completely different animal with considerably higher stakes. There are only four tickets to the football playoff, compared with 68 for basketball.

Yet the decision was made to allow current ADs, and with comes unintended consequences.

Other ADs on the panel include Barry Alvarez (Wisconsin), Jeff Long (Arkansas), Oliver Luck (West Virginia) and Dan Radakovich (Clemson).

Haden needed to be reprimanded but his actions did not warrant a knee-jerk dismissal from a committee that will start meeting weekly in October to determine this year’s playoff field.

The CFP is stuck with the system for now. It can revise as it moves forward, much as the BCS did in its chaotic, 16-year existence.

And wasn’t that a hoot?

Haden’s contrition should suffice. Of course athletic directors are going to become emotionally involved with their schools’ football fortunes. Duh, that’s what they get paid to do.

The CFP slipped into some piety when it said its committee would not attend games and act like bowl reps in loud jackets.

But, of course, five committee members have a front-row seat to every game.

One made the mistake of going down to the field and conversing with officials during a game that could impact the four-team playoff.

Haden admitted his mistake. Now, please, let’s move on to the next mistake.

Unless you think there aren’t going to be any.