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NCAA punishes USC - Reggie Bush, OJ Mayo, Dwayne Jarrett, Joe McKnight investigation

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ttk;1928422; said:
Well, the punishment definitely doesn't fit the crime. We just got hit hard by Hurricane Dee and co.

South Park pretty well covered the matter on their episode last night. The NCAA is insanely corrupt and hypocritical. It's just sad that they've decided that their best course of action is to punish kids that were in elementary or junior high when all this went down.
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Not disagreeing with how much the NCAA sucks, however, correct me if I'm wrong, but the kids being "punished" had an opportunity to leave USC without the usual "sit out a year" rule, correct? And it's not like new players are being forced to go to your program while there is a bowl ban in place.

It seems to me that if there is any blame for the innocent players being "punished", it would be on Kiffin/Orgeron and company who I have no doubt lied out their ass to players about how there was no way the penalties were going to stick.
 
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Buckeye86;1928433; said:
Not disagreeing with how much the NCAA sucks, however, correct me if I'm wrong, but the kids being "punished" had an opportunity to leave USC without the usual "sit out a year" rule, correct? And it's not like new players are being forced to go to your program while there is a bowl ban in place.

It seems to me that if there is any blame for the innocent players being "punished", it would be on Kiffin/Orgeron and company who I have no doubt lied out their ass to players about how there was no way the penalties were going to stick.
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The free agency rule only applies to the seniors, if I recall correctly.

But for the other kids -- many of them grew up wanting to go to USC, or USC offered them the best possibility to play where they wanted, etc. For the seniors to transfer, that means they're losing friends on the team, in order to play in a bowl they're being forced to switch to a different program with different plays, different schemes, different personnel. There's no guarantee that they'll be able to start at most of the programs where they already have their starters set. It's not as simple as, "well just pack up and go somewhere else!" There are sacrifices they'd have to make that don't make sense.

The fact of the matter is that there isn't a single player on the team that was anywhere near the program when these things happened. And then consider the fact that the NCAA just said the bowl game was a "special opportunity" in order to allow teams like Ohio State to still play in their bowl game despite an opportunity to punish the very students who actually broke the rules. I know many around here rightly did not agree with that exception, and I applaud that. But suddenly the bowl games aren't a special opportunity for USC players today that had nothing to do with the problem?

Anyway, it smacks of the blatant hypocrisy that has come to define the NCAA. I wasn't expecting them to completely remove the sanctions. But I do think that USC getting punished harder than other programs who did far worse doesn't make much sense. And if you ask me, the sanctions should have been more about punishing the school financially as opposed to punishing innocent players.
 
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ttk;1928447; said:
But I do think that USC getting punished harder than other programs who did far worse doesn't make much sense. And if you ask me, the sanctions should have been more about punishing the school financially as opposed to punishing innocent players.
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Just curious what evidence you have in support of the first sentence above. Besides blind homerism, that is. I wonder how you felt when that clown former AD of yours was thumbing his nose at the NCAA, what you thought of old Petey always playing the willful blindness game, and the many, many allegations of huge benefits to Bush, Mayo, etc. Do you really believe the NCAA is just picking on USC? Because that is laughable.
 
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ttk said:
The free agency rule only applies to the seniors, if I recall correctly.

But for the other kids -- many of them grew up wanting to go to USC, or USC offered them the best possibility to play where they wanted, etc. For the seniors to transfer, that means they're losing friends on the team, in order to play in a bowl they're being forced to switch to a different program with different plays, different schemes, different personnel. There's no guarantee that they'll be able to start at most of the programs where they already have their starters set. It's not as simple as, "well just pack up and go somewhere else!" There are sacrifices they'd have to make that don't make sense.

The fact of the matter is that there isn't a single player on the team that was anywhere near the program when these things happened. And then consider the fact that the NCAA just said the bowl game was a "special opportunity" in order to allow teams like Ohio State to still play in their bowl game despite an opportunity to punish the very students who actually broke the rules. I know many around here rightly did not agree with that exception, and I applaud that. But suddenly the bowl games aren't a special opportunity for USC players today that had nothing to do with the problem?

Anyway, it smacks of the blatant hypocrisy that has come to define the NCAA. I wasn't expecting them to completely remove the sanctions. But I do think that USC getting punished harder than other programs who did far worse doesn't make much sense. And if you ask me, the sanctions should have been more about punishing the school financially as opposed to punishing innocent players.
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I don't know how you can punish the program without punishing the kids, unfortunately. A financial penalty means nothing to any major program.....some booster covers that without thinking twice. Imagine how much of a fine would have to be laid on Oregon for it to actually be a punishment.


Oh I forgot......no need to send a pulitzer prize winning investigative journalist to Oregon. We've got a school in Ohio that has self reported everything. Let's go beat that dead horse some more.
 
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buckeyesin07;1928465; said:
Just curious what evidence you have in support of the first sentence above. Besides blind homerism, that is. I wonder how you felt when that clown former AD of yours was thumbing his nose at the NCAA, what you thought of old Petey always playing the willful blindness game, and the many, many allegations of huge benefits to Bush, Mayo, etc. Do you really believe the NCAA is just picking on USC? Because that is laughable.
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It's not homerism to state that USC's punishment far outweighed the crime. It's not exactly a controversial sentiment. Nearly any sportswriter, regardless of where they went, will tell you the same. I would hope that other fans, regardless of how they felt about USC, could look at it objectively and look at other cases and at least understand how sombody could come to such a conclusion.

As far as Mike Garrett, I've always hated him, and I hated how he acted with regards to this. It was very unbefitting of a Trojan. The one point of solace I take with regards to all of this is that it finally allowed us to get rid of him.

As far as Pete goes, there was absolutely nothing to say that he knew about any of it. I think we were punished for his culture of fun and media exposure though. I'm unhappy that he left when he did. not sure what else you want there.

As far as Mayo, that was pretty open and shut and a clear violation. not that agents and basketball players are anything new - but I felt the punishment fit the crime fairly well there. So again, not sure what you're getting at, other than insinuating that nobody at USC could have a valid opinion regarding the matter if they feel the punishments were too much.

I do think that the NCAA chose USC as a target in the sense that by slamming them hard, they could set an example that the big programs aren't above punishment. I think that, generally, that's a good thing. However, I do think that by doing so they also have to follow precedent in some fashion if we want to even try pretending that they're fair about things.
 
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ttk;1928599; said:
It's not homerism to state that USC's punishment far outweighed the crime. It's not exactly a controversial sentiment. Nearly any sportswriter, regardless of where they went, will tell you the same. I would hope that other fans, regardless of how they felt about USC, could look at it objectively and look at other cases and at least understand how sombody could come to such a conclusion.
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So no actual evidence then eh?
 
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Former USC coach files lawsuit against NCAA

McNair_Todd2004.jpg


LOS ANGELES -- Former USC assistant coach Todd McNair has filed a lawsuit against the NCAA, claiming the defendants caused him to lose his job and destroyed his career after finding he was guilty of unethical conduct.

In late April, the NCAA denied McNair's appeal of the original findings and punishment stemming from his involvement in the organization's case against USC for extra benefits provided to star running back Reggie Bush. The NCAA's Committee on Infractions ruled that McNair knew or should have known about benefits provided to Bush and that he provided false and misleading information to investigators.

The infractions committee gave McNair a show-cause penalty last June, prohibiting him from recruiting and forcing schools to "show-cause" as to why they should be allowed to hire him. The committee also placed USC's football program on four years probation, stripped the school of several wins, took away 30 scholarships over three years and banned the Trojans from postseason play for two years. The school's separate appeal was denied in March.

McNair filed his lawsuit on June 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking unspecified damages for libel, slander, tortious interference with prospective economic advantage, tortious interference with contractual relations, breach of contract, negligence and declaratory relief. The lawsuit names only the NCAA and does not include the names of individuals involved in the case but they may be added to the suit later.

Following the release of the original report from the Committee on Infractions, the school chose not to renew McNair's contract the following month. McNair could not be immediately contacted for comment.

In his appeal with the NCAA, McNair alleged that the Committee on Infractions committed misconduct and mischaracterized facts in the case and that they used false statements to support the unethical conduct finding against him.

Entire article: http://eye-on-collegefootball.blogs.cbssports.com/mcc/blogs/entry/24156338/29812471
 
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ttk;1928447; said:
But I do think that USC getting punished harder than other programs who did far worse doesn't make much sense.
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Very quickly -- which programs, when and what were their violations? It doesn't need to be an exhaustive list, just two or three examples of where a school was found LOIC in two major sports and sanctioned significantly less severely.

Unsubstantiated sportswriter opinions don't count any more than message board posters do, btw.
 
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The school's separate appeal was denied in March.
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They've since corrected the article to say "in May", but how out of touch was the writer to not realize that a significant event about the story he was writing occurred less than 2 weeks ago, rather than 2 months ago?
 
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MaliBuckeye;1934931; said:
Stripped of the 2004 National Title.

So, the "greatest team ever" didn't win one BCS championship. Wonder how deep into SportsCenter we're going to see this buried.

You've also got to wonder how much of this is posturing by the BCS headed into their meetings with the feds, and also a response to the Fiesta Fiasco.
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I'd find it fascinating for them to ask for the money back even though I know they won't be doing that.
 
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