ysubuck;1730479; said:
Thomps,
You are a reasonable fan so I'm curious as to your take on all of this. I might have missed it as I haven't read this entire thread, but I would be fuming at Pete Carroll. He fostered the Hollywood image by allowing runners/agents, actors, musicians in to practice and on the sideline for games.
Who are you pissed at? PC? Mike Garrett? Reggie?
Been far too long a process to still be fuming at anyone. I think Lake, Michaels, and Reggie's stepdad are most to blame. I might add Reggie to that list except I don't know whether he got involved voluntarily or whether his stepdad put him in such a hole that he just decided to go along with it. Certainly he could have done some more things to protect the university from the mess that he and his family created.
The Hollywood atmosphere is and always has been a red herring. Agents weren't running around the locker room and sidelines. People were. Lloyd Lake was one of them, but most of them were fans, kids, HS coaches and players, and middle school coaches and players.
SC's practices and facilities could've been sealed up by secret service and it wouldn't have changed how things went down. Lloyd Lake met Reggie Bush while Reggie Bush was in the 9th grade down in San Diego. Lake didn't get to Reggie through the locker room. Lake got to the locker room through Reggie.
Bush&co didn't decide to take money because of USC being "hollywood." They started taking money because Lamar Griffin was in credit card debt. Ironically, it was the absence of booster money that ultimately blew up in SC's face. If Lamar Griffin put his hand out to a guy looking out for SC's interest, then SC would have been more involved but less convicted.
But Lamar put his hand out to a guy looking out for his own skin. And those people talk when they aren't reimbursed. And they aren't reimbursed by beating ucla.
I blame the NCAA committee, too. They decided they wanted to send a message and didn't care what case was put before them. They used testimony from interviews SC was never permitted to attend.
Lake's testimony is squarely refuted by the evidence at least two times, and that is even though SC was never allowed to question Lake (explicitly in contradiction to the NCAA's website and arguably contrary to California law).
NCAA COI website said:
The institution and involved individuals are advised of all witnesses and information upon which the staff intends to rely and has the right to interview those witnesses.
The NCAA knew that Lake would never agree to sit down with USC, but they needed his testimony so they went ahead anyway. And they needed his testimony to connect McNair, so his clear fabrications were ignored where a more careful arbiter would've trusted Lake only so far as the supporting evidence could allow (which would still be substantial as far as proving Reggie took benefits but likely not far enough to prove SC had any institutional knowledge).
Lake invented a phone conversation that records prove never existed (he did so unintentionally as the NCAA investigators made an error in a question they asked him). He also made up an in-person conversation that phone records prove could not have taken place.
Some of Lake's allegations were impossible, and the committee rightly declined to sustain a finding for those. But when an allegation was plausible, the NCAA didn't hold Lake's impossible allegations against him. They simply believed him.
They had that power, but I don't think they abided by the established standard of proof. Sucks for us, I guess.
PC? Mike Garrett? Their mistakes were much farther down the ladder of culpability (although Garrett is completely at fault for the Mayo stuff). I don't blame PC, although I think it is best that he has gone because he lost interest in the college game and wasn't giving it his full effort.
21-22 players (15 + early enrollees counting towards 2010)
