“You would think that because the refs were donating their pay to a recognized charity, … the pink whistle infringement could be overlooked, and certainly not punished as severely as was done,” noted a commenter on the website for Tacoma’s News Tribune. “If we are talking about setting an example, what kind of an example is the association making by punishing a good ... deed?”

But Washington’s referees aren’t the only ones paying a price for displaying their support for breast cancer research. Coy Sheppard, a senior kicker at Mendenall (Miss.) High School, claims he was booted from the team after refusing to trade in his pink cleats for a more traditional color. “The young man was defiant, and I don’t know many coaches in the state that wouldn’t do the same thing,” Simpson County Schools deputy superintendent Tom Duncan told WLBT.com. “And his dad understands completely.”

“I do understand, and we don’t condone being disrespectful to coaches,” Joey Sheppard, Coy’s father, told the NBC affiliate. “But he was standing up for what he thought was right. He's had five or six different colored shoes throughout his last two years of kicking for Mendenhall, and when he got the pink shoes, that's when it became an issue. I think it is the pink shoes."

The move comes after a botched call originating from the replay booth during the third quarter of the Oct. 9 game between BYU and San Diego State at LeVell Edwards Stadium in Provo, Utah. BYU running back J.J. Di Luigi appeared to fumble, but officials on the field ruled him down before losing the ball. When SDSU coach Brady Hoke asked for a review, officials in the booth ruled there was not enough evidence to rule a fumble on the play, and BYU scored five plays later en route to a 24-21 victory.

In the aftermath of what Provo's Daily Herald is calling "fumble-gate," BYU employee Chad Bunn and the two other replay officials were suspended for a game, and Bunn — who was the replay communicator on Oct. 9, not the head replay official who made the ruling — has reportedly lost his job with the MWC. Then, SDSU radio color commentator Chris Ello, during a recent XtraSports show on 1360-AM, called Brigham Young University an institution "without honor" and claimed that BYU players and fans are racist. He later apologized for most of his tirade.

BYU officials have referred all questions about the replay incident to the MWC, but Dick Harmon, a sports columnist for Utah’s Deseret News this week claimed that Bunn — who worked as a video coordinator for BYU for 21 years — “got hung out to dry” and that the “mysterious public slaughter of Bunn … was unwarranted.” He cited the conference's policy of not identifying game officials who are disciplined and not announcing publicly any action taken against them in course of their duties, then accused SDSU's Hoke of doing just that. But Hoke says his informant was someone at the MWC, who obviously broke league protocol.

At this point, plenty of fingers appear to still be pointing, with no single media story emerging as the definitive report of what happened both in that replay booth and in the days following the incident. Adding fuel to the fire are several sources who told The Tribune that many MWC schools have employees in the replay booth, and most have alums working there, too. This may not be the last we hear about this fiasco.