NCAA turns down Williams' reinstatement bid

Mike Williams paid back his agent an estimated $100,000 in expenses in an attempt to come back to USC. Peter Read Miller/SI SI.com's Stewart Mandel Mike Williams' denial by the NCAA wasn't exactly unexpected, so it's not like USC will be caught off guard. The Trojans had been practicing without him the past two weeks and weren't planning on him playing Saturday against Virginia Tech even if he had been reinstated at the last minute. That doesn't change the fact, however, that for a consensus preseason No. 1 team, receiver is a pretty major question mark for USC. The Trojans, who also lost promising sophomore Whitney Lewis for the season to academics, will be counting almost entirely on three players -- sophomores Steve Smith and Chris McCoy and true freshman Dwayne Jarrett -- with little to no experience. Smith has been pegged as a future star from the time he arrived on campus, and Jarrett, at 6-foot-5 and ultra-talented, bears a strong resemblance to Williams. Still, it's asking a lot of three mostly unproven players, as well as true freshman Fred Davis, to be responsible for nearly all the big plays in the passing game (the Trojans do also have speedy pass-catching running back Reggie Bush). Last year, in his first year as the starter, quarterback Matt Leinart had the luxury of two rocks in Williams and Keary Colbert. Without the aid of their playmaking abilities (remember Colbert's one-handed touchdown catch in the Rose Bowl?), will Leinart really be capable of another Heisman-type season? Will the Trojans rely more on their deep running back stable and dominant defense? We'll find out Saturday.

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Mike Williams is a terrific wide receiver -- an All-American at Southern California last season who will probably be a star in the NFL someday.

Right now, he's a man without a team.

Three months after the courts kept him out of the NFL draft, Williams' request to rejoin the top-ranked Trojans was denied by the NCAA.

Thursday's ruling and its timing angered USC officials. The decision was announced shortly before the Trojans boarded a flight. They open defense of their national championship Saturday night against Virginia Tech at FedEx Field in Landover, Md.

"It's very cold and insensitive for (the NCAA) to deny him this opportunity," Trojans coach Pete Carroll said.

"I fear that the NCAA may have put Mike and USC through this process to make the NCAA appear fair and thorough in their deliberations," USC vice president and legal counsel Todd Dickey said. "It appears that they may have decided long ago that Mike would not play college football again."

The NCAA issued a statement calling such allegations unfair.

"Due to the uniqueness of the case and the complexity of issues, follow up was required in order to provide Mike Williams with a fair and thoughtful analysis," the statement said. "For the institution to suggest that there was a preconceived notion of outcome is patently unfair.

"There were two obstacles facing Mike for eligibility; one related to academics and one related to amateurism, and sports agents in particular. Either one was sufficient to prohibit participation in competition. In this case, neither obstacle could be cleared."

Although it wasn't the outcome he was looking for, Williams reacted calmly and started looking ahead.

"I'm glad it's over. Now the team can move forward and I can move forward," he said in a telephone interview. "I'm disappointed. I did everything asked of me. I don't know yet what I'm going to do. I'll just relax for the weekend and watch the game and root for my team."

Dickey said while the ruling could be appealed, the matter was closed.

"At this point, we don't believe it would be useful to go through those processes," he said. "We think the NCAA has firmly made up its mind."

Williams agreed, saying: "I'm kind of done with it right now."

USC had applied for a progress-toward-degree waiver and reinstatement of Williams' eligibility.

"I'm not surprised by it, but I'm disappointed for Mike and his family," Carroll said. "You'll have to go and ask the NCAA for answers, how they can turn someone down who is otherwise academically eligible.

"The process has been uphill throughout. It's been difficult, anxious, frustrating, all those things. ... The NCAA denied Mike's request both on an academic and amateur level. It was a very quick decision. There's a supposed tone of student friendliness now, but that's not the case here. I'm talking about the NCAA at its highest levels."

The 20-year-old Williams caught 95 passes for 1,314 yards and a school-record 16 touchdowns as a sophomore last season to help the Trojans (12-1) win the national championship. He finished eighth in the Heisman Trophy balloting.

After a court ruled last winter that Ohio State's Maurice Clarett was eligible to play in the NFL, Williams left USC, hired an agent and said he was turning pro. That made him ineligible to play for the Trojans.

The 6-foot-5, 230-pounder was projected as a high first-round draft pick, but on May 24, an appeals court overturned the earlier ruling and upheld the NFL's right to bar players who had been out of high school less than three years.

The three-year-rule ban applies to both Williams and Clarett, who was suspended last season after starring at Ohio State as a freshman.

Williams will be eligible for next year's NFL draft.

After the appeals court ruling, Williams severed ties with his agent and began the process of applying to the NCAA for reinstatement.

He returned to USC and took summer classes, seeking to have his academic eligibility also restored.

It was all for naught.

"Mike's OK, he could sense it, too," Carroll said. "It's been difficult for him. He felt it was an uphill battle from the start. I feel sick for him. The team will be OK, we've prepared without him."

Williams finishes his USC career as the fourth-leading receiver in school history, despite playing only two years. He was the favorite target of Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Carson Palmer as a freshman in 2002, catching 81 passes for 1,265 yards and 14 TDs.