Cameron fined $10,000 for remarks

Football coach Cam Cameron was fined $10,000 by the Big Ten office Tuesday for remarks directed at officials after Saturday's loss to North Carolina State. The fine will be taken from IU's share of network TV money. \nCameron apologized to both the media and IU fans Tuesday at his weekly news conference.\n"I was very concerned about the officiating after the game, but in the future that's not how we will handle things," Cameron said. "It was wrong criticizing the officials."\nCameron was fined for violating the fourth part of the unsportsmanlike conduct section of Agreement 10 in the 2000-01 Big Ten Handbook, which includes "publicly and unduly criticizing a game official."\nThe handbook states penalties for violating the agreement include, "a public reprimand, and, at the discretion of the involved institution, either a $10,000 fine (withheld from the institution's share of conference network television revenues) or a one-game suspension."\n IU athletic officials and Cameron settled on the fine.\n "You can say certain things, but the language that he used violated a Big Ten rule," athletics director Clarence Doninger said.\nDoninger said his office agreed with the Big Ten's findings that Cameron broke the agreement.\n Much of Cameron's postgame frustration was directed towards the Atlantic Coast Conference officiating crew headed by Thomas Zimorski.\n Cameron said there were "six to eight calls" that affected the outcome of the game.\n The most notable of the calls came on a holding penalty against IU's defense on a 4th-and-8 play late in the fourth quarter. The flag came late on the play after Philip Rivers' pass intended for Ray Robinson was tipped. If no call had been made, IU would have gained possession on North Carolina State's 24-yard line with less than two minutes in the game.\n"They're out there discussing, and they don't have any idea what they saw, why they saw it, if it was tipped," Cameron said of the play in the postgame news conference.\nCameron went one step farther after the game and said in front of a horde of TV cameras and print reporters that the officials robbed IU of a victory.\n"We played well enough to win the football game. Period," Cameron said after the 41-38 defeat. "You can slice it anyway you want, the football game was flat taken from Indiana University."\nThe athletics department and Cameron filed a complaint to Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany and Supervisor of Football Officials David Perry, and the matter is being looked into by the conference. \n"We are still concerned about officiating, but (this) needs to be done in a prescribed manner," Doninger said. "Cam said he is sorry, and I believe him."\nCameron said he will handle similar situations differently in the future.\n"We will do everything we can in the future to handle it through the Big Ten office," Cameron said. "Those guys will handle it for that point forward. I apologize to everyone and we will focus on football and things we can control"