Kentucky AD Mitch Barnhart recently sent an official letter to the PAC-12 Conference addressing the poor officiating in the Music City Bowl.
Here are details from the Herald-Leader:
“We feel great disappointment that what was supposed to be a quality bowl experience for our young people and our university was marred by these incidents,” Mitch Barnhart said in a letter he sent late last week.
There has been no response to the letter from the Pac-12, which supplied the officials for the bowl game against Northwestern, a UK spokesman said Thursday, the day the Herald-Leader acquired the letter via an open records request. Three days after the Music City Bowl, the Pac-12 told the Courier-Journal it stood by the postgame statement made by head official Chris Coyte.
In the letter to David Coleman, the conference’s vice president for officiating, Barnhart strongly disagreed with the ejection of UK running back Benny Snell from the game for contact with Coyte.
“The intent of the no-contact rule — protection of officials — was not adhered to in this case,” Barnhart said in his opening paragraphs. “Video of the incident does not support the call made on the field or the statement made by the officiating crew postgame.”
He added later: “The character and intent of a quality young man in our program have been unfairly called into question as a result.”
Check Out the Complete Letter Here
