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

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jwinslow;812970; said:
Is there any recourse for the NCAA? Do they have any legal grounds to force them to talk? Or did Bush just potentially give Michaels hush money?
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The NCAA should be able to draw all negative inferences from this IMO in punishing USC. If programs want to avoid penalties, then the NCAA should make them play ball in terms of the investigation and telling the truth, rather than allowing them to deny everything and hide behind confidentiality clauses. If they did nothing wrong, then everyone wins, as the program and the player will be vindicated and the public won't believe that the wool is being pulled over its eyes. If they did something wrong, then they will rightly be punished, and cheating will be less likely to happen in the future. Otherwise, the NCAA runs the risk of this hypothetical scenario happening in the future: (1) Big-time college athlete receives all kinds of illegal benefits while in school; (2) said athlete hopes his transgressions will never come to light; (3) they do come to light; (4) said athlete enters into a settlement agreement with a confidentiality clause; (5) said athlete's school doesn't get in trouble and said athlete remains a national hero b/c the NCAA can draw no negative inferences from the confidentiality agreement.
 
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Dennis Dodd gushes over the wealth of talent at USC.

I don't believe I read the words 'NCAA investigation' anywhere in there.

sportsline

LOS ANGELES -- The sun is shining. The birds are chirping. The coeds are, um, parading.
Just another day in Southern California paradise which, of course, begs the question: Why would any quarterback or tailback in his right mind come here?
Except, of course, for the parade.

Cont'd ...
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This article mentions both the Reggie Bush case and some of the the just-rescinded O'Brien era violations at tOSU as examples of difficulties for NCAA enforcement.

At the end of the article, NCAA VP for enforcement David Price implies that some headway is being made in the Bush case.

usatoday

NCAA enforcement power in state of flux

By Steve Wieberg, USA TODAY

In California, the Reggie Bush case remains a witness-stonewalling frustration to the NCAA.

At Ohio State, another high-profile case recently was undermined ? three findings of rules violations thrown out on appeal because of a procedural concern.

It has been a perplexing month for the NCAA's 55-year-old enforcement program, which even in the best of times struggles to satisfy member schools and conferences and fend off critics. The slow-moving investigation of the Bush family's dealings with a would-be marketing agent underscores the limitations imposed by a lack of subpoena power. Most of the principals, including the former Southern California football star, aren't talking.

The decision in the Ohio State case stemmed from a disagreement within the NCAA on a deadline for filing the disputed charges.

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For heavens sake don't let ORD see this part ..
"At all junctures, it's a very fragile process … all the way from getting anyone to come out and talk in the first place to successfully prosecuting the case," says John Gerdy, a former NCAA and Southeastern Conference official who's now a visiting professor of sports administration at Ohio University and an author on sports reform.
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jwinslow;812970; said:
He seemed to gloss over this tidbit:

According to two sources, Michaels' settlement includes a confidentiality clause which will keep Michaels from talking with the NCAA.

Is there any recourse for the NCAA? Do they have any legal grounds to force them to talk? Or did Bush just potentially give Michaels hush money?
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Short answer is, No, there is really nothing the NCAA can do to force any outside witness (anyone who is not employed by a member school or not a student seeking to remain eligible to compete) to talk with them. The confidentiality agreement probably includes some enforcement provision which will encourage Michaels from talking to anyone. For example, the agreement may provide for Michaels to be paid over time and eliminating the payments if he breaches the agreement (like if he talks!).

What's really needed is an agressive state attorney (UCLA grad, maybe?) to start a criminal investigation of the matter. They would have subpoena power, which the NCAA lacks, to force witnesses to talk.
 
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The latest update from SI.com.

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First, the promising news: Pac-10 associate commissioner Ron Barker, a former NCAA investigator who now has a similar role with the conference, said Thursday he believes the truth about the improper and benefits allegedly received by Bush and members of his family will be uncovered.

"This case is a long, long way from being over," Barker said. "There is a lot of information being gathered that I can't speak about. We've had some interesting things happen in the last two weeks that have put some new life into this."

Barker has been involved with plenty of investigations, but even he is stunned at what has transpired in this case.

"This is the first time I've encountered anything like this, where all parties -- even those who've turned against each other -- have not cooperated with an investigation," Barker said. "I've never had a problem getting the information in the past."

cont'd***
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That's an interesting comparison that SI's Silver makes between Goodell's recent actions and what the NCAA could resort to in an attempt to compel those being investigated to be more forthcoming.

I don't see the NCAA going that far, but I'll continue to be interested in how this situation develops.
 
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BB73;837849; said:
That's an interesting comparison that SI's Silver makes between Goodell's recent actions and what the NCAA could resort to in an attempt to compel those being investigated to be more forthcoming.

I don't see the NCAA going that far, but I'll continue to be interested in how this situation develops.
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Silver ought to make his case directly with the Commissioner. The argument for the Commssioner's involve,ent is that Bush allegedly paid off a key witness in order to impede an ongoing investigation cenetered around whether he and his family received impermissible compensation for Bush's football services at USC.
 
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I think the only problem here is that really no laws were violated (outside of NCAA laws).

I do think it's improper (if he's found to have done what's alleged) that Pete Carroll is still allowed to parade Reggie Bush out for all his recruits to see.
 
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I hope they don't drag this out for years. The importance lessens with time.
So If he did improper things we need to know soon and if not then we will know that too.
It sounds like Mr. Silver is confident in his assertions and his ability to ferret out the truth.
 
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Stewart Mandel weighs in on the topic.

si.com

No more beating around Bush
Answering questions about the ex-USC star and more

...
It's been more than a year since Yahoo! Sports published the first of its stunning and scrupulously reported investigative pieces about the numerous extra benefits 2005 Heisman winner Reggie Bush and his family allegedly received from prospective sports marketers while Bush was still a student at USC. In terms of bombshells, they don't get much bigger than one of the most visible college stars in recent memory allegedly breaking rules that, if true, would subject two-time national champion USC to NCAA sanctions.

Yet, aside from a couple of brief statements confirming it is conducting an ongoing investigation, the NCAA, as is its policy, has remained exasperatingly silent on the matter. (An NCAA spokesman confirmed to me last week there was "nothing to add at this time.") Gauging from my inbox, this is leading to much frustration among fans from around the country who believe the NCAA is letting Bush and the Trojans off the hook.

You've been sending questions about this thing for months; let's try to answer them.

Stewart, I was reading an article on the Reggie Bush investigation and was wondering about your thoughts on the subject. Do you think he is guilty, and if he is, what would you do to him?
--Mike, Jeju City, South Korea

There should not be any doubt at this point that Bush and his family broke NCAA rules. Even if you completely disregard the stuff about the house in San Diego -- which, while the most explosive of the allegations, may be the hardest to prove -- there was still no shortage of damning, documented evidence in those reports. Yahoo! backed up many of its allegations with hotel and credit-card receipts, reported the existence of audio tapes involving the guilty parties and even caught Bush's marketing agent, Mike Ornstein, implicating himself by saying the gifts to Bush and his family constituted "loans" (and claiming he had "no idea" whether or not the loans constituted an NCAA violation -- umm, they sure do).

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