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O.J. Mayo (Official Thread)

Buckeye Nut;1160748; said:
This is the exact reason I didn't want this kid at Ohio State. I remember hearing about O.J. when he was in 8th grade, you knew something was bound to come up about some sort of improper benefits. -I blame everybody around him who put him up on a pedistal since he was in junior high.

LBJ turned out ok.
 
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TRON;1160761; said:
LBJ turned out ok.
You didn't even come close to getting my point then. LBJ never went to college. I never said the kid turned out to be a bad person because of the people around him, just that those people felt it was okay to give him things because he's a good basketball player. I just knew the chances were very good that these sort of accusations were going to come up at some point and I didn't want to have to see Ohio State's name drug through the mud in the process just like it was during the Clarett saga. I'd bet we'd be seeing the same thing happening to the college that LBJ attended had he gone to college.
 
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Doctor Turbin, er, uh, I mean "Doctorb Tibor" once posted in a thread that one is "Innocent until presumed guilty." Although it was the most moronic statement in the history of the internet, I'm gonna go with it on this one. :slappy:
 
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I had to go back and find my one other post in this thread - from July of '07:

Mayo, as much as any player in recent memory, appears to be the very sort who would invite this kind of attention. His very interest in USC is said to be based on its locatin in a media market where he can begin to cultivate endorsement deals. Mayo has no ties to USC that might make him stop and think about the consequences of his actions on the program after he is gone and anything he does that violates NCAA rules would likely not become an issue until after his one year is over.

It was clear before the NCAA rule change that he intended to go straight to the NBA and it is not unreasonable to conjecture that he is consciously looking for ways to exploit the NCAA to his advantage.

And this is a case where I would have trouble trashing the kid if he does break the rules. It is not like he has gone begging for the attention he is getting and his motivation is certainly not a mystery. The huge amounts of money changing hands is the dark side of NCAA sports and I might even get a chuckle out of watching a kid like this turn that to his own advantage.

There is no 'student' in this student-athlete. He wants dollars and there are zero consequences to him for any action he might take while at USC. Zero incentive to follow the rules other than not getting caught before his year is over so he can continue to use the major networks to showcase his talent.

Further, agents know this and will do anything they can to win the Mayo lottery.

IMO this would be a very risky pickup for the Trojans and they would have no one to blame but themselves if he takes them down. Did they learn nothing from Reggie Bush? What does Mayo have to lose? What do the agents have to lose? Only USC can lose from this one.

I ain't all that bright. If I could see it this clearly how could they miss it?
 
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Happy Mother(F***er)'s Day

HailToMichigan;1160723; said:
So we should hear something about it round about 2011 at this pace?

Forde says USC deserves the death penalty but ultimately won't get it because of the "smoking crater" it left at SMU. What people forget is that SMU was never a particularly noteworthy program until they started cheating with both hands....they became a national power upon doing so, and then the death penalty smacked them back down where they belonged. At some point the NCAA will have to use the death penalty again - they can't keep worrying about the impact on a program. At what point do you stop saying we don't want to punish too heavily a program that wipes their ass with the rulebook?

Your program is a lot closer to deserving the chopping block than ours is.
 
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methomps;1160885; said:
Happy Mother(F***er)'s Day



Your program is a lot closer to deserving the chopping block than ours is.
How so? We had our problems with Eddie Martin and we took our medicine. We then hired two coaches who were charged first and foremost with keeping the program clean (they didn't seem to consider winning basketball games all that high on the priority list anyway) and they succeeded in keeping the program clean.
 
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HailToMichigan;1160893; said:
How so? We had our problems with Eddie Martin and we took our medicine. We then hired two coaches who were charged first and foremost with keeping the program clean (they didn't seem to consider winning basketball games all that high on the priority list anyway) and they succeeded in keeping the program clean.

Oh you "took your medicine" for one of the most egregious and rampant series of violations in NCAA history, but you talk about the NCAA dusting off the death penalty when something comes up surrounding USC? You guys never took your medicine for Charles Woodson.
 
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Sorry Methomps. Not this time. Not during such a slow period with college sports news. Not when ESPN is the banner carrier for the story.

Institutional control for a player like Mayo means two full time private eyes following him around - not magic TVs popping up in his dorm room undetected. Not when the coaches interact with the money man. Not after Bush and Jarrett. Not when you were warned. At some point it is NCAA credibility that is on the line - and this is that point.

ostrich.jpg
 
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Oh8ch;1160902; said:
Not when ESPN is the banner carrier for the story.

I don't understand. I thought USC was ESPN's darling and that ESPN always looks the other way with any dirt about USC? :biggrin: This casts a whole different light on some of the conversations in the Bush/DJ thread.
 
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methomps;1160904; said:
I don't understand. I thought USC was ESPN's darling and that ESPN always looks the other way with any dirt about USC? :biggrin: This casts a whole different light on some of the conversations in the Bush/DJ thread.

I have mixed feelings on this issue:

On the one hand, if Mayo had been free to go to the NBA out of HS this wouldn't even be an issue. People are going to have to deal with this, the fact is, most schools will do anything for a chance to hang that banner, to get that spotlight, and this "one year" rule only fuels this.

So, who do you blame? Do you blame the NBA? Do you blame the school? do you blame the kid? It's a tough issue, and there's not going to be a lot you can do about it. One year, the kids just have to get along grade wise, and they don't even have to make a full year.

On the other hand... Methomps, just stop. Ok, so this somehow makes Bush innocent? This somehow makes all the speculation towards your football program forgiven? No, this just means that ESPN actually got their own lead and went with it instead of going with the word of someone who they had no contact with. You can't use one mistake to justify another, just like we couldn't do the same thing. Whether you want to accept it or not, there's something dirty going on in your sports program... do I think Pete Carroll has master minded this? No, but I do think your school needs to look at how much contact your boosters have with the athletes, I think your AD needs to start paying more attention to all aspects of your program. I think you need to stop living in denial and accept there may be some issues.
 
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