methomps, I agree with your comments about selective retention. I also think you make a salient point with a private university being able to ignore FOIA requests; I've made that same point about USC and Miami myself in the past.
While I don't believe that USC is being given a free pass, I also think that the media are not pursuing them as aggressively as they did tOSU, but I think there are reasons for that.
Deety made a good point about the amount of media coverage being affected by the fact that Clarett was directly slinging allegations around, while Reggie Bush prefers not to talk about what happened, while stating that USC did no wrong.
I also think it's possible that ESPN may have learned to not attack programs as vociferously as they attacked tOSU, due to some private conversations that probably occurred among ESPN, tOSU and the Big Ten. That's just speculation on my part.
And I dislike the "Where there's smoke, there's fire" comments. tOSU fans heard that exact quote repeatedly from many media members (most visibly from multiple ESPN employees) when going through the intense scrutiny a couple of years ago. I didn't think it was valid when directed at tOSU, and I don't think it's valid when directed at another program. I would prefer "Where there's smoke, let's investigate to clear the air".
But I stand by my opinion that if the phone contact between Bush and McKnight occurred, and was facilitated by the USC staff, then the NCAA should force him to attend another school. I think that punishment to USC would fit that specific (alleged) violation, that the University broke a rule in order to help induce a recruit to attend USC. Any other penalties besides that should be decided after all investigations have been completed. If the phone call(s) occurred, I don't blame McKnight, but making him go somewhere else wouldn't be a unduly harsh penalty for him. Several schools would undoubtedly find a scholarship for him rather quickly.
I understand the difference between Bush getting paid from an agent without the knowledge of USC. If the agent isn't considered a booster of USC, that makes the situation different from the Ed Martin/Chris Webber/Fab5 thing that eventually resulted in TSUN removing their Final 4 banners.
This is purely conjecture on my part, but I don't think USC is close to getting hit with 'lack of institutional control'. However, I think they may be in danger of being hit with a 'failure to monitor' situation, depending on the results of the investigation(s). For those who don't recall, 'failure to monitor' was the finding that tOSU's football and basketball programs were hit with after the NCAA investigations were completed.
