Let’s review. USC’s football program allegedly allowed agents, proto-agents and/or runners to run rampant (I’ll ignore for the moment that this was not actually proven), and failed to monitor the activities of one “high-profile athlete” (two athletes counting O.J. Mayo, who played basketball, not football), or rather said athlete’s family. An assistant coach supposedly knew about the athlete’s family’s activities (again, we’ll ignore that this was not actually proven). For these crimes against amateurism, USC was hit with the “lack of institutional control” hammer, and suffered the most serious penalties in years, which were not reduced on appeal even after arguably more serious violations subsequently emerged at Ohio State and Auburn.
Meanwhile, in Chapel Hill… North Carolina’s football program allegedly allowed agents, proto-agents and/or runners to run rampant, and failed to monitor the activities of numerous rule-breaking players and of an assistant coach who was working for an agent… AND had massive academic fraud to boot, involving university employees and like a dozen players (all of whom played football, not basketball). Yet according to the NCAA, North Carolina did not lack institutional control, and is guilty only of the lesser charge of “failure to monitor.”
Is there any possible rationale for this, other than “it’s North Carolina football, who cares?” or “we’re the NCAA, we don’t heed no stinkin’ precedent!”? Can anyone come up with something else plausible, or even something implausible, that would even begin to rationally explain this unbelievable case of indefensibly disparate and discriminatory treatment? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
I’m not at all inclined to be a conspiracy theorist, like some of my fellow Trojans who think the NCAA is specifically out to get USC because — what? they’re jealous of us? why on earth would they hate USC?!? it makes no sense! — but this is pretty f***ing ridiculous. In fact, it’s gone beyond ridiculous. Auburn was ridiculous. Ohio State was ridiculous. This is criminal!
If North Carolina gets anything less than a two-year postseason ban and a 30-scholarship reduction (i.e., what USC got for indisputably less serious charges, which were only partially proven), USC should drop its post-Garrett nice-guy act and, as dcl keeps saying, sue the bastards… or set up a secret meeting with Texas, Notre Dame and a handful of other high-profile programs, to discuss secession from the corrupt, incompetent, hypocritical, unaccountable overlords of college sports otherwise known as the NCAA.
(Not that I actually want the secession scenario to happen; it would be terrible for the mid-majors, obviously, in both football and basketball. But for heaven’s sake, this is utterly absurd. Has any organization ever sacrificed as much credibility, through a series of unforced errors and nonsensical decisions, as the NCAA has in the last year or so? It’s beyond infuriating — and remember, I started out as a lone Trojan voice in the wilderness last summer, defending the NCAA’s penalties and saying we should take our medicine and stop whining. But subsequent events have proven that the NCAA’s critics were right, and I was wrong. The NCAA, or at least its enforcement arm, appears to be irredeemable — rotten to its core, incapable of doing its job in a reasonable or remotely fair fashion. So, what do we do? How do we blow up the NCAA without blowing up college sports?)
P.S. Upon reflection, I suppose my Grand Unified Theory of NCAA Inconsistency would go something like this:
1) The NCAA brought the hammer down on USC because the bureaucrats in power felt public pressure to “do something” and “show they were serious,” and they were all-too-happy to do so in USC’s case not because they’re OMG EAST COAST BIASED PAC-10 HATERZ, but because USC was perceived as thumbing its nose at the NCAA (even while formally cooperating in the investigation) by virtue of retaining Mike Garrett, hiring Lane Kiffin, etc. Basically, the NCAA — like all unaccountable bureaucratic entities tend to do — acted largely out of pique, with the “judge and jury” focused more on the notion that USC was not properly respecting their authoritah than on the actual facts of the case.
2) As subsequent cases (Auburn, Ohio State, North Carolina) emerged, the public pressure equation subtly changed. Pundits and casual observers started panicking — We can’t have all these major programs suffering USC-style sanctions or worse! We can’t have death penalties! — so the “do something” and “show seriousness” rationale faded somewhat, replaced by the notion that perhaps the NCAA’s amateurism rules themselves are the problem. Also, in the case of UNC, because the football program is so low-profile, nobody cared all that much.
3) Logically, the transition from #1 to #2 should have led to USC winning its appeal. But remember, these are unaccountable, and therefore (by virtue of human nature) corrupt, bureaucrats! They can’t admit they were wrong! That’s Rule #1 in the Unaccountable Corrupt Bureaucrat Handbook! So they stuck by their guns in the USC case, even while unilaterally disarming in the various other cases on their docket. And they defend this by saying, literally, that precedent doesn’t matter, because every case is unique. Did I mention they’re unaccountable and corrupt?
If you think about the NCAA more as a third-world kleptocracy than as a sports governing body, their decisions actually make a fair amount of sense.
Since congress can’t seem to fix the economy or stop arguing about gay marriage maybe they should take on a problem they CAN fix, and clean up the NCAA, surely even THEY can’t make it worse right?
I totally agree. USC is behaving like whipped dog. The NCAA has acted in a completely biased, inconsistent, and incoherant matter. Sadly, I just don’t think the administration cares. If they really cared, they would not only sue the NCAA, they would also try to get their Congressional allies to investigate the NCAA and the one NCAA official in particular who testified under oath about the strength of the NCAA’s “due process”. Yeah, the NCAA has the due process of Alabama circa 1950. But I suspect that the administration really just wants the thing to go away. They view it as a distraction from their goal of becoming the Stanford of the south (although they’re about 50 Nobel Prize winners away from that goal, no matter how many $100 million donations they raise). Sadly, the only people who really care about this are us: the alumni and sports fans. The people who sit in the walnut panel board rooms and who write the $50 million checks (ie the people who matter) don’t really care.
I actually think that the fans should file a class action lawsuit against Reggie Bush, that wannabe-agent, and USC under the theory that all three defrauded those who paid for 2004 national championship tickets and merchandise. Since Bush, his agent, and USC (via their employee Todd McNair) knew that Bush was ineligible, they knew that the national championship game and victory were essentially advertised and played under false pretenses. I’m not a lawyer but this sounds like something that wouldn’t ultimately work, but I think as long as it could survive a few rounds in court, it would possible serve three purposes:
1) Light a fire under USC’s @ss to fight the NCAA because you would be huring the leadership where it hurts – the pocketbook. Right now, they really have a limited incentive to fight this because they already cashed the checks from the 2004 season and people are still buying tickets for the upcomming seasons (we and still get the TV $$$).
2) Attempt to penalize the actual wrong doers. Perhaps the biggest issue with NCAA penalties is that they only hurt the players left behind and the fans, not the actual wrong doers. Can you imagine a world where criminals were never penalized for their crimes, only their parents were? Reggie still has his millions, and the agents don’t care what happens to the school. Let’s at least try to set a precedent that if you give or take money, you are essentially defrauding the fans who buy tickets under the assumption that the games they are watching are played under the rules and will count in the record books. People pay differently depending on whether a game is a real game or a scrimmage. An inelligible player makes a game a de-facto scrimmage.
3) Crystalize whether Todd McNair really did know about Reggie’s relationship. This alleged knowledge was supposedly a major reason for why the NCAA dropped the hammer on USC (of course, now with UNC, this excuse sounds silly). USC’s culpability in a class action suit would basically hinge on McNair’s knowledge. Let’s see whether a fair jury under fair rules of due process would come to the conclusion that McNair was aware of the Reggie payments.
Given that McNair is allready suing the NCAA seems like he probaly didn’t know much, otherwise why bring it up in open court where they can do a far more invasive investigation?
I agree 100% that USC should sue the NCAA, at the very least the vacated wins should be restored unless they can PROVE the school knowingly played an ineligible player. And potentially financial damages for lost postseason play and scholarship losses.
I need a smart, preferably Notre Dame-trained lawyer to confirm: Is the reason for USC not to sue related to the ability of the NCAA to then depose USC administration officials and players (past and present) and potentially uncover far worse details that the university would otherwise not want to wade into because it would mean winning the battle (i.e. the specific lawsuit about who knew what about Reggie Bush) but losing the war (now the NCAA has a bazillion other things to nail us for)?
The reason USC doesn’t sue the NCAA is because what’s the point? People want to sue on principle, that’s not beneficial to anyone. By the time the litigation is concluded in the year 2015, USC will have missed two post seasons (they’ve already missed one), they will have already gone through the 30 lost scholarships (beginning after next season), and they will have royally pissed off the NCAA, the people who have power over them in every sport.
The NCAA says the Orange Bowl in January 2005 didn’t happen? We all saw it, they still show it on CFB Live and other highlight shows. We all know how great that Pete Carroll USC team, an NFL style superstar team in college. USC will contend for national championships with the players they’ve recruited right now and over the next few years people will be astonished that a program that loses 10 scholarships per season can compete in BCS bowls, that will be the victory over the NCAA that can’t be awarded by any court.
I’m not at all inclined to be a conspiracy theorist, like some of my fellow Trojans who think the NCAA is specifically out to get USC because — what? they’re jealous of us? why on earth would they hate USC?!? it makes no sense! — but this is pretty f***ing ridiculous. In fact, it’s gone beyond ridiculous. Auburn was ridiculous. Ohio State was ridiculous. This is criminal!
You really do not know? It is very simple if you think about it. USC has made the SEC look bad. The only team in the nation blasting the SEC’s best. From 2003 to present day the NCAA has denied USC a NC spot and gave the nod to a SEC team. They would never let a USC SEC match up in a NC game because we all know what would happen. I would argue that money was the main motive but I do not believe it’s all money based on the NCAA’s actions. The vindictive penalties the NCAA gave USC were made to destroy the program. Never has a team that was caught paying players, paying recruits or anything that is considered Taboo in college sports ever seen this. -10 scollies for 3 yrs and no more than a 75 man roster at the same time. You add everything together and we are talking a decade worth of penalties on hearsay.
What trojan fans have been pissed about for years is that Paul Dee had no business judging USC or anyone for that matter. Everyone knows how bad he was in the early 90 and this is the person the NCAA puts in charge. The single fact that his Miami has been the biggest corrupt school anyone could imagine should be a reason to double guess his work ethic. Every single case he did should at the very least be reviewed. But that will never happen. 2 reasons. 1. the NCAA would have to admit how corrupt this person was. 2.He is a SEC honk and the NCAA is ruled by SEC honks. Emeritt the President is as bad as they come. He’s not from Washington he is originally from LSU. When LSU won the BCS NC that year and USC won the AP championship that year he said this. “They are not having a parade in Southern California like we are. They are the national champions like al gore is president”. That’s a fair minded guy for all of us to trust. Almost as bad as his comments if he thought USC was guilty. ” The evidence against USC is to overwhelming”. Have you read the report? “NO”. That’s how fair this is. FYI- Paul Dee is a Florida Alumn
I could rant on and on about the fairness of the NCAA but it will fall on def ears. ESPN wont tell the truth. They have financial interests in stake here. Not 1 second of bad press will ever come from ESPN about the NCAA or the SEC. How could any rational person explain the un-level playing field that has been going on. Haden is taking note of everything and one way or another it will come back and haunt the NCAA.
One last thing brace yourself for the Miami scandal to fade away. They have already let people go.