Big Sky Confronts Slippery Situation

Players from Sacramento State greased their jerseys with nonstick cooking spray on the sidelines during their loss at top-ranked Montana last weekend, the Big Sky Conference said Thursday at Helena, Mont.

The league and Sacramento State are trying to figure out how many players applied PAM -- a cooking spray -- to their uniforms and if the coaches knew about it.

“We’ve confirmed that an incident occurred that involved putting a foreign substance on the uniform,” Big Sky Commissioner Doug Fullerton said. “The athletic director at Sacramento State [Terry Wanless] confirmed that it occurred.”

Wanless said he was still investigating, but believed three players were involved. He said he had not decided yet what punishment the players might face. The school also could face punishment from the conference if it’s determined that coaches knew what was going on.

“We’ll decide the penalty, depending upon who we find at the bottom of the pile,” Fullerton said. “I think it’s a serious ethical breach.”

Fullerton said applying cooking spray to a football jersey could make it more difficult for opposing linemen to block and tackle.

“It actually does work, to a certain extent,” he said. “That’s why there’s rules against it.”

Sacramento State’s Coach John Volek said, “I have no knowledge of Sacramento State players using PAM.”

However, Volek was not on the sideline during the game. He was serving a one-game suspension after having complained about the officiating in his team’s 31-30 loss to Montana State a week earlier.

Defending national champion Montana rallied from a 21-14 deficit to beat Sacramento State, 31-24, and tie an NCAA Division I-AA record with a 24-game winning streak.

Todd Goodrich, a University of Montana photographer, said he noticed two players spraying each other near the end of the first half. During the second half, Goodrich said, he saw two more players spraying each other with a can of PAM and snapped several photos.

“They were pretty blatant about it,” Goodrich said. “Right there on the sidelines.” The photos were being turned over to the league.

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