Its obvious that the schools who cover up scandal benefit far more than the schools that police themselves and admit when mistakes happen. USC should forfeit every game Reggie Bush played in and he should be forced to repay his scholarship.

Far too harsh. When Oklahoma learned of the violations they reported them and suspended the players. It seems highly unfair that because 2 idiots broke the rules the penalty is this severe.

I agree with Kirk about USC. The media love affair with Bush and USC has got to change. I am not saying they are getting away with murder, but it sure seems that everyone just looks the other way. What would happen if instead of USC (which is a national power year in and year out) someone like Texas and VY were involved? Mack Brown and his staff would be hung up at the 40 acres by the fans much less the NCAA governing bodies. Of course Vince Young would never do something so shameful...wait we thought the same thing about Leniart and Bush didn't we???

Looks like the "darlings" of college football in USC got away with not even a slap on the wrist. Meanwhile, Oklahoma and head coach
Bob Stoops who showed major class, admitted their own mistakes and kicked off a starting quarterback on a national championship team. Pete Carroll should take notice and realize some things are more important than victories.

The NCAA continues to practice selective prosecution. Let's admit this organization is a farce. It will just keep big programs from reporting this behavior and encourage mid-major programs to practice this behavior to make it to an elite level. The schools are encouraged to take part in the transgressions so that no one discovers it. Why leave it up to kids who don't know how to keep things under the radar.

The were 40 some other kids on the field in those games playing for OU too. Why punish them?

Very shortsighted of the NCAA. They are encouraging schools to go the USC route and not self-regulate, as if schools go the OU route they will simply punish themselves in addition to whatever the NCAA will do. If the NCAA was truly interested in stopping there sorts of violations, they might want to be a little more proactive in encouraging OU-type actions.

The message sent by the NCAA today was clear... Keep your mouth shut and you can do whatever you want. Reggie's family took hundreds of thousands and the three kids from Oklahoma took $17K combined.

I am a sooners fan and if this is going to be the penalty, then fine....But the same standard has to be applied to every school (USC and Ohio State, anyone??). If you are not going to punish all schools with the same judgement as others, what kind of message are you trying to send? Get it right, Myles Brand, or get out of the NCAA.

When OU found out that players broke the rules, they took care of the problem. When CU self reported walk-ons getting discounted meals they self reported and were punished in a similar way as OU. This will only teach schools that self reporting the problem is not worth it. Eventually this will lead to bigger violations being covered up rather than appropriately addressed. The NCAA is a broken institution.

The penalty on OU is absurd. Failure to uncover the violation in x months rather than y months? As the Bush/USC case demonstrates, the NCAA is totally dependent on self-reporting by schools. OU has a clean program, and it self-imposed harsh penalties, the severity of which was heavily criticized, including a lead column in the New Yorker. Shame on the cowardly NCAA!

Looks like the consensus is TOO HARSH!! I want to hear a USC fan comment...oh,wait, they are just going to sit there and deny everything! I can't blame them, that is what the NCAA is teaching! I am trying to hate on USC, but c'mon, really!!!

And let's not forget the Jarrett/Leinart rent paying incident as well.

While all of the national championship contenters will have gripes, the program with the most legitimate complaint is the California Golden Bears.

Jeff Tedford engineered one of the greatest program turnaound, yet Cal's success and recruiting in the conference has suffered because of the blatant rules-bending by the USC program.

KUDOS TO YOU, MANDEL, hopefully your voice can spur the NCAA to do the right thing.

Just wondering how many players has Tennessee dismissed within the last two or three years because of criminal conduct of players, or brawls on the field (Miami)and handguns and then of course USC I think there has been more than enough already mentioned by everyone except from the NCAA, and its not like the two players from OU don't have to pay the money back I mean what the ****?

This is an absolutely horrible precedent to set. You only get in trouble if you take it upon yourselves to discipline your own personel??? Where else in this world does this happen? Everyone's right, this is only going to lead to worse and worse activities getting brushed under the rug.
And yes, if the NCAA finds out that Bush took money, ANY money, then all of USC's 2003-2005 games need to get wiped clean. That's the penalty, and they shouldn't get such special treatment as we've already observed. Another unanswered Q - what about the dirty recruiting (using former players like Bush in contacting recruits) USC is guilty of?

Me personally, I have had it with the NCAA, and the way they have continued to ruin the sport I love. Now we have the power of the internet. Now we can email the NCAA PR dept. (which I just did pmr@ncaa.org) and voice our opinions. Now we can email our state representatives, and let them know how we feel. Enough crying and moaning (including myself). Let's take back the game we all love. The game we all love enough to blog about in the off season. The NCAA governs our sport. Our passion. Who governs them?

WTF... Sc continues to get away with absolute NCAA infraction and yet gets to recruit without any care in the world.

So Sooner Fans are supposed to pretend that the 2005 Victories didn't happen. Not unlike USC and the NCAA pretending that Reggie Bush's cheating didn't happen.

First of all, I wouldnt start off by saying that Oklahoma's reporting of the sanctions was a "class move" by Stoops and Co. They pretty much only reported it, because it was already circulating in the media. With that said, I think the punishment is pretty light, and fits the crime, the "students" are gone, and this won't really affect the sooners. I also agree, that the hundreds of thousands of dollars that are involved with the USC scandal, make this about a zillion times more aggregious of an offense. USC should probably face the death penalty (they wont), or at least major sanctions, otherwise the ncaa is truly a joke.

I lived in Austin, TX for 6 years and read police newspaper reports all the time about Longhorn football players being caught with guns & drugs in back seats of cars, or stealing, etc. and being let off scot free, no NCAA investigations even. It made me proud that OU actually caught its own players and performed its own discipline. Seeing this NCAA ruling makes me sick because of the ridiculous oversights on their part, coupled with ridiculous penalties for programs that actually have some integrity. It seems NCAA is incompetent, and thus I hope that OU starts following other schools leads by "handling" issues "internally" (i.e. letting players off the hook) and not involving the unscrupulous mental weaklings in the NCAA.

If your school is recruiting blue chip recruits like Bush, Bomar, etc. - then it is also in major danger of wrong doing. This stuff happens every year and most of it is not reportable because it is kept silent from the school. What do you expect SC to do, follow every potential violator’s discussions with everly athlete’s parents... please. Bush's family took advantage of his talent, not Bush's affiliation with USC. There is a big difference between that and Bomar getting special treatment because he is a Sooner football player, which is easier to monitor. Stoops must have known about the booster and the potential for violations with that dealership. That is a direct benefit to the Sooners. The Bush scandal had no positive impact on USC as an institution – It would have happened regardless of what school Bush was attending. Everyone is so upset about this because Trojans split with LSU and killed OK. We all know that SECers and Big 12ers are the whiniest bloggers in the world. I’m just sick of it. Get a life, enjoy your team, and stop whining about SC.

OU got nothing more than a slap on the wrist and that's pathetic. This athletic department has no control over what's going on, look at the basketball and gymnastics programs. That's 3 programs that have had NCAA investigations in the past year. Doesn't that sound fishy to anyone else? Something else to think about, OU has had 7 MAJOR NCAA INFRACTIONS over the years and after every MNC, they've been put on probation within the next year. Looks like the "Sooner" name really comes through and that it pays to cheat.

OU and Colorado have shown beyond doubt that it is a bad idea to self-report.

I'm an oklahoma fan and I think the punishment is about right IF they do it across the board. USC is going to get off and when their quarterback was found cheating, they suspended him for one game and No NCAA. Get real. NCAA is toothless.

Wow. I love it that everyone is trying to lump USC into OU's fiasco. For starters, OU's transgressions dealt with a well known BOOSTER employing players; a situation that the compliance department should have easily monitored.

USC had nothing to do with Bush's PARENTS getting fat off of two unknown wannabe agents looking to lasoo Reggie once he turns pro. Bush's parents weren't on scholarship...

Lastly, OU's issues deal with a BOOSTER. The Bush situation deals with two random individuals with no ties to SC who wish to become AGENTS with Bush as their first client. Sorry people, but it's apples and oranges....

From the issues with Jeremy Bloom's ski career (while players come back from professional baseball contracts and millions all the time...can the kid not get some free skis?) to the so called policing of programs bending the rules, the NCAA has once again proved its obsurdity. Not only has USC had issues with agents but several reports of Bush assisting in illegal recruiting while in New Orleans. That is ongoing and deserves a look. I agree there should be a punishment for OU as they did have issues with monitoring but they handled the issue (kicking contributors off of a national title contender...imagine the season now in retrospect) and losing scholarships and probation is enough. Removing wins from the record book is not only obsurd but meaningless...no fan of the team is going to think any differently of Coach Stoops or the program.

Once again the NCAA has proved it has way to much power. It's selective vision is unfair. If they do this to OU, then USC should receive the Death Penalty and have to forfit it's National Championships since Busch played on both teams.

Once again, the NCAA is looking at the small picture. Maybe they should pow-wow with the tribes they've attempted to protect.... then remember that Oklahoma means Land of the Red Man.

Vacating the wins but keeping the losses on the record seems like a fair punishment that fits the crime? If any of the games are vacated they should all be. The players involved were involved in the losses as well as the wins.

As a USC Alumni & fan, I'm encouraged by the mostly fair and level-headed comments about the whole NCAA infraction scenario across college football in general, and USC/OU/Miami specifically. Obviously, NCAA rules should be enforced evenly and fairly across all school programs, no matter their size, history, record, or strength. It will be a very sad day for many, but if it can be proven, and not just rumored, that USC and it's athletes violated NCAA rules, we should pay the same price as Oklahoma.

I noticed one commenter was wondering what SC fans think about all of this, so I thought I'd give my own thoughts (but obviously I don't speak for everyone).

First off, I think OU got screwed, and without question the lesson to be learned from this whole ordeal (as well as the CU punishment and also with respect to a whole host of idiotic NCAA punishments, like what they did to the Utah BBall program a few years back) is DON'T COOPERATE WITH THE NCAA. A lot of people, like Mandel and Michael Silver, have complained about the NCAA not having enough investigatory power, but when you see how the NCAA uses the power it has, I think it's hard to say it'd be a good thing if they had more power. However, Mandel did say that punishment and investigations are in different houses within the NCAA, so perhaps one workable solution would be for schools to provide the NCAA with more investigatory power if the NCAA in turn gives up a lot (all) of its punishment power, which it clearly has no clue how to use anyway. I have no idea how feasible that would be, but it'd seem to be a good way to fix two birds with one stone.

Second, I find it an odd reaction from Mandel that he decides to write a column bashing Bush after this instead of one bashing the NCAA. If its true that the investigatory and punishment areas of the NCAA are separate from one another, then the Bush story and this story are apples to oranges because each involves a different, separate, problem within the NCAA. To the extent that they are linked, it's in that the NCAA is a disfunctional mess, and deserves to have a date with a dull axe. As such, that should have been the article. Moreover, I think to the extent people should be pissed about this, I would think their anger would be directed at the institution that's responsible for the idiocy (the NCAA), not a person/program that turned out to make the right decision in not dealing with the NCAA, and that the Mandel article serves to cloud where people's anger should go.
EDIT: I notice another SC fan has pointed out this is apples to oranges as well.

As to the Bush story, I do think that there are quite a few reasonable doubts as to the veracity of the Yahoo! reports. Before I get into these, I want to make clear I'm not saying that these doubts lead me to think Bush is innocent in all of this (I learned in 7th grade not to put too much faith in an SC running back, think OJ), but they do lead me to think that there are still some kinks in the whole Bush story that need to be worked out before I'd feel comfortable going after Bush (e.g. taking away his Heisman) for any NCAA infractions.
The problem with the Yahoo! allegations against Reggie Bush are that they suffer from a lack of corroboration on two critical levels, which undermines the reports credibility.
First, only one, relatively minor, sports news organization has made these assertions. Until someone, whether it be ESPN, SI, or the NCAA corroborate the Yahoo! reports with their own leg work (instead of just pointing to it to try to make their case, as Mandel did here), the veracity of the story should be treated with caution.
Second, the Yahoo! reports have heavily relied on evidence provided to them from parties that had an extremely strong financial incentive to tarnish Reggie Bush’s image, truth be damned. The documentary evidence provided in the reports is thin and does nothing to further the allegations with respect to the grossest alleged violations. Moreover, it appears the sources for that evidence are those same biased parties that Yahoo! has relied so heavily on throughout this whole as of yet still unproven scandal.
As to the charge Bush bought these sources off, I think it's a weak argument in that the settlement wasn't anywhere near what a jury award would have been if the charges had merit, and in fact was probably less than what Bush would have had to pay in attorney's fees even if he'd win the ultimate case. Also, it’s important to note that the people who Yahoo! relied on for their reports had a financial axe to grind with Reggie Bush when they got involved in this story, and after they were able to grind that axe, they were more than happy to get out of the story. Thus, whatever you think the settlement says about Reggie Bush, it’s hard to say it doesn’t reflect just as poorly on the people who accepted that settlement.

All I can say (many others have said it before) is that I applaud and appreciate Mandel for bringing his perspective. Additionally, I think it is nice (and refreshing) to see someone in the media calling for USC to be held accountable. While I agree that they may not have given Bush money (OU didnt give Bomar or Quinn anything), they not only failed to monitor...they facilitated the whole fiasco by letting agents on the field and in the locker rooms.
It is indeed a shame that other media members have not questioned the motives and tactics of the NCAA. Further...nobody has even questioned the integrity of the Mr. Reggie "i am escaping public criticism" for buying the silence of anyone and everyone who could potentially implicate him or his family. I hate that it is true, but with the PAC-10 and USC heading their own 'investigations,' it is going to take a miracle for something to happen.

This punishment is WAY too harsh. OU caught the Bomar and Quinn, despite the players' best efforts to cheat the system. Despite what other people in this blog have said, OU was the first to report this and it was NOT circulating in the media prior to their report. Bomar getting kicked off the team was a major shock. These rogue players were consciously skirting the rules, just like Reggie Bush and his family. The biggest issue here is the arbitrary and capricious enforcement of rules by the NCAA. Troy Smith took money from a booster, OSU didn't forfeit any games. There is no question RB and his family took benefits. They haven't forfeited anything. Unless the NCAA comes down on USC equally as hard, they are setting a very dangerous precedent and one that will effectively neuter themselves.

One of the NCAA's dirty little secrets is the investigative "prowess" it has (or doesn't have). A vast majority of NCAA violations are self-reported by the offending institutions, which means the NCAA very rarely lifts a finger to "uncover" improper student-athlete behavior.

And it begs the question: with such a huge majority of the member institutions policing themselves so effectively, what do we need the NCAA for?

That's another win for the Ducks! Go Ducks!!!

Yeah! Oregon legitimately goes 0 for 3 against OU, but because of dirty officials and now the crazy NCAA, Oregon gets to claim 2 wins. Wow! Now that's something to be proud of.

BRIAN AT 4:36PM you nailed it on the head


there were 40 others playing for USC, why should they be punished for Reggie Bush's actions?

It's clear that Colorado and OU screwed up by self-reporting their violations. Honorable yes, but it is evident since the NCAA has no real power to investigate on it's own that schools that don't do it will not have anything happen.
Shame on Colorado and OU for doing the right thing.
USC and the Bush/Jarret scandal and there is nothing from the NCAA and there won't be.
Auburn and the academic scandal where Jason Campbell, Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams all get free grades and nothing from the NCAA.
Tennessee and the academic scandal where players receive credit for classes that they don't attend and instead of Tennessee getting punished the NCAA makes a deal and instead goes after Alabama instead.

The NCAA is a joke upon itself were certain schools are off limits.

All college football is corrupt. I have been to may campuses and you tell me which students have the nicest cars, apartments, electronics, etc etc?? The football athletes. All football athletes are recieving some kind of benefit, believe me.

Let's start with the premise that the NCAA enforcement committee is a joke. This ruling against OU is ridiculous.

But let's compare the two situations and look at why OU was punished. OU situation - First, the violation was clear and admitted by all involved (university, players, booster). Second, OU had already been warned by the NCAA previously. Third, the OU situation involved a booster that was very close to the program. Fourth, NCAA focused on lack of oversight regarding the employment of its players.

USC situation - (1) Facts still very much in dispute. (2) No previous NCAA dealings (at least not recently unless I don't know about them). (3) Situation involved an agent that wasn't even an agent at the time (hoping Bush would be his first client). (4) No evidence of lack of oversight on USC's part.

Please try to make sense and stay focused on future posts. (a) Rent deal with Dwayne Jarrett was different issue, if you want to discuss that, we can, but totally unrelated to Bush. (b) If anything happened at all, it happened during Bush's junior year, thus calls for USC to forfeit all games played with Bush from 03-05 are insanely ignorant. (c) Also, if you are going to discuss how USC "should have known" that Bush was taking money, please describe how. One person said that the agent was on the sidelines during practice, and thus USC should have known that (1) he was an agent (even though he wasn't an agent at the time - Bush was supposedly to be first client) and (2) that he was giving Bush money. This makes zero sense to me. You're saying that USC should know the identity of everyone at its practices and the finances of each of its players. That's practical. Might be worth mentioning that USC is the most open book of any football program and allows open access to most practices. Totally different than OU's responsibility to monitor its boosters and work of its students, especially one with the negative background that this guy had previously.

Is it even possible that USC is NOT guilty?
Has anyone offered conclusive proof?
If they have, why hasn't the NCAA noticed?
You don't think all of this is their biggest black eye ever?

Ask yourselves this: who profits from the NCAA turning a blind eye to USC malfeasance? Not the NCAA - if they can't prosecute - as many have pointed out, they lose credibility.

What about USC? You don't think every other coach going for a USC recruit doesn't hammer the kid with the idea that USC will be on probation when they're found out? Wouldn't it be much easier if USC could make this spectacle hanging over downtown LA like a smoggy gray October sky go away?

I wasn't there, so I can't say what happened. Were you? Can you? If it was conclusive, and there were proof available, do you all really think that nothing would be done?

I'm a football fan first, and it seems like all of this is fairly rote. A team has some success, and everyone jumps on the bandwagon saying they cheated.

Can anyone name a program that's been successful that hasn't had to deal with these allegations? Isn't this now just the price of winning?

Wish I had more answers - but I hope I'm at least asking the right questions...

I think this is an absurdly light punishment for OU, the cheatingest program in the history of college football. Does everyone honestly believe that only three guys (one a walkon, another a scrub lineman) were getting paid for not working at Big Red. Seriously? And let us not forget Adrian Peterson's six month test driver Lexus with the same dealership. And again, the enforcement committee recommends Lack of Institutional Control, and the the Infractions committee reduces it to Failure to monitor, despite finding in their report that OU LIED to them about the self discovery of the players. To me, this punishment doesn't even constitute a slap on the wrist, more like getting off scot-free.

I don't think vacating wins means the teams who lost to OU in 2005 get to remove their losses or claim wins themselves. As such, the biggest change if USC were to suffer similar fates over Bush would be Auburn becoming the 2004 national champion (which at this point would probably seem a little hollow to them).

However, the media does love USC, being the main football event in LA, hub of all things glamorous. If LA had an NFL team, the love would not be nearly the same. On the flip side, had the University of Miami been the culprit of either the Bomar or Bush scandals, I'm fairly sure the NCAA would be firebombing Coral Gables and the Orange Bowl, with all the media telling us how this was entirely deserved by Thug U. Sad how much perception has warped what is supposed to be an amateur sport.

It's a travesty of justice that one school who self reported is punished (and rightfully so) while another school gets away with far worse allegations because of lack of cooperation and cover ups.

I guess it's better to lie and hide and get away with it than it is to admit your mistakes and move on. That's the message the NCAA is sending to the rest of the country.

It's criminal negligence.

And as far as the above poster mentioning Apples and Oranges between a Booster and an Agent, I find that point rather defective.

Is a University now required to hire private investigators to monitor all boosters for illegal contributions, while it's ok for Agents to do as they will as long as they can get away with it? An illegal contribution to a player is an illegal contribution no matter who it comes from and all Universities should be subject to the same standards.

Look at all the USC haters crawling out of the woodwork...not surprising.

Too bad you're crawling out without any facts and jumping on a story that has nothgint to do with what happened at USC.

First of all let me state up front that I'm a USC alum and that I don't think Reggie is innocent in all this. I think he knew what his parents were doing and either out of fear or out of just self-preservation decided to see if he could get through his last year without getting caught. I mean the guy was favored to win another NC and a Heisman - so I'm not surprised that he didn't step forward to collect his slap on the wrist. Few of you here would have. I don't know whether he had anything to do with the actual deal made or whether he just found out after his parents made the deal without his knowledge. None of us know the actual facts.

Secondly, this situation is not at all similar to the USC situation. The OU players were employed and paid by a OU booster - someone with a vested interest in the success of the OU football program and someone who wanted the players while at OU to be comfortable. Hoping that that comfort would lead to good things for the OU program

The USC situation involved agents. People with no interest whatsoever in the success of the USc football prgoram and with an eye only on Reggie's net worth once he left USC and entered the NFL.

Two completely different scenarios. How USC can be held responsible for a house Reggie's parents owned 50+ miles away is beyond me. USC goes out of their way to warn athletes about the dangers of accepting favors and does their due diligence. Unless the NCAA can prove that USC knew about the dealings and did nothing about it I don't see how hard they could be on the program - especially now that USC is no longer under the control of the NCAA and doesn't have to testify to anything. The NCAA can't subpoena anyone not in their control.

I'm really disappointed that Stewart made the connection between teh two programs because there really is no connection in reality.

I also think the NCAA was unfairly harsh on OU especially since they did suspend the kids involved and seemed to do their best once the found out. But hte NCAA isn't really known for being rational.

The NCAA, once again showing its ignorance, has missed the boat. The simple fact is this.....universities and coaching staffs throughout the country now realize that "self-policing" and honest disclosure does nothing in the eyes of the NCAA. Instead of applauding the actions of Bob Stoops and the University of Oklahoma, the NCAA has chosen to ignore the actions taken and pass an unfair penalty. It'll be a free for all from now on.....any infractions discovered by any university will be "swept under the carpet", and this reaction by the NCAA has done nothing but condone this type of conduct

Myself, I find the timing interesting. Why did the NCAA choose the slowest sports day of the year to release their decision? It's almost like they wanted it to get a lot of attention.

Too Bad for OU, Hooray for USC, the NCAA needs an investigative branch that can montior and investigate these issues. the only reason OU self reported was directly related to a media report of improprieties. The base fact of the matter is the atheletes should be receiving a salary from the college to play the sport. Universities gain far too much money from the athelete for so little in return a free ducation and room / board is not very much compared to the millions of dollars these collges make for the athletes efforts. Stop the Farce!

Go Pac-10

The penalty is too harsh since OU came forward and dismissed the players. I also think Bomar, Quinn and Hardison should be ban from NCAA football period. They are the REAL problem. OU should sue the crapp out of them all. I also believe USC should pay the piper, but I don't look for the NCAA to be 'Man enough' to do that.

I think USC should have to give up the ONE National Champ. they won while Bush played there.

BigAubbie

I meant to say - Reggie is no longer under the control of the NCAA in my previous post and not USC. Though some of you certainly seem to think that USC is operating outside the NCAA's laws. Bitter much?

OU self-reported all of their problems so I think the vacated wins is way too much for this infraction. The continuation of loss of scholarships is what really challenges a program and this is part of their penalty so that's solid.

As far as USC goes, I honestly don't expect any dramatic events (as your say) to occur, thus opening the case wide open. So I don't expect anything to happen there. However, there does seem to be evidence of mischief involving Bush and money.

I am an SC alum, so i know what I say is biased

For starters I am sorry for OU and I feel they are getting screwed

However, as someone posted earlier this is comparing apples to oranges when it comes to USC. OU's situation dealt with BOOSTERS - very different

We should remember that the allegations against Bush are just that - allegations. No one has been able to PROVE anything at this point. Unless Reggie admits to something, which is highly unlikely

To fairly punish SC, you'd have to prove that Carroll or other coaches KNEW or should have known what was going on. many schools, SC included, allow agents and others access to the players but Carroll can't possibly know the dealings of all his players 24 hours a day (or their family for that matter)

If Reggie did violate rules and the Coaches were aware, then they should be punished. But if you cannot prove those 2 things then you can't punish a school just because you feel they must be guilty

I also feel that much of this anger toward SC is based in jealously for what they have accomplished on the field. Posters mention the situation with Leinart-Jarrett as further "evidence" that USC gets away scot free - however SC reported that to the NCAA and was penalized for that. As for Bush helping to recruit McKnight away from LSU - again no proof exists that this occurred.

It's far too harsh. Oklahoma discovered the problem and reported it and immediately dismissed the 2 players from the team even though that left them without a starting quarterback. They made the proper moves and without anyone telling them to. Then there is USC and so far no punishment on the Reggie Bush mess. Why does there seem to be descrimination against Oklahoma. Other schools commit violations and there are no consequences. There seem to be 2 sets of standards.

ONE MORE THING!!: C'mon Mandel!! Don't throw stink on the wall to see what sticks...But I guess you were successful in one aspect: Inciting OU fans still smarting over the 55-19 butt whipping and wanting SC to pay for giving OU Post-Traumatic Orange Bowl Disorder that still haunts them to this day.

What Stevepdx is saying is that if you are going to cheat do what USC does and make it difficult to prove.

Cheat On!

Unbelievable. Oklahoma only "reported" the violations because a newspaper had the story. Hot on the heels of the Adrian Peterson got a free car from the same dealership story which Oklahoma dismissed based on a claim that the dealership would do the same for any other student. LOL. Oklahoma BOOSTERS (who also happen to supply free cars to the Oklahoma coaching staff) is VASTLY MORE EGREGIOUS than a would-be marketing agent who is not affiliated with USC and who is trying to take the player AWAY FROM USC and TO THE NFL paying Reggie Bush and/or his parents.

USC the institution did nothing wrong. One could say the same about Oklahoma, though a university can reasonably be held iable for the acts of its boosters, and can't reasonably be held liable for the acts of third-party sports agents. At least the boosters are acting in the interests of the school and giving it a competitive advantage. The agents are giving the schools a competitive disadvantage by encouraging the players to leave.

To Kirk the idiot - USC has not covered up anything. On the contrary, USC has cooperated fully with the NCAA in its investigation. Reggie Bush may not have done so, but Reggie Bush is not USC and is no longer a student there.

Without question there is much bias in the NCAA. I understand that this is a "monetary" ruling.

But what if Troy State or Marshall had committed the same violations?

Apples and oranges? The Oklahoma Basketball team is on probation, both gymnastics teams are on probation, and their baseball team is being looked at. If you want to call it a slap on the wrist, that is what it is. However, I think that the term "lack of institutional control" should have been utilized.

USC and Sooners everywhere are breathing a sigh of relief.

How hard should it be to prove agents were on the sideline or in the locker room? Can't be that hard, someone had to allow them to be there, I know I can't just walk onto the sideline at a PSU game. At the very least, someone seen them, people aren't invisible. Shrug, guess it must be hard to prove though, USC's still skating, bs, ask Carroll if they were there. If he doesn't cooperate, squash him. He's the coach, he had to know what was happening on his sideline or his locker room, plain and simple.

I didn't expect to see many intelligent arguments against USC, and I haven't been disappointed. The best arguments against USC have been that USC is a "media darling", is only popular because there is no NFL team in LA, is guilaty of dirty recruiting, lots of money is involved, quaterback found cheating (really, when was that?). Good ones guys. Glad we could have an intelligent debate.

Really all you need to say is that you are a fan of LSU, Cal, Oklahoma, Texas or any of the Big 12 schools or SEC schools who just can't handle the fact that USC has been dominating for the last 5 years. They must have been cheating right?

Yes, USC should lose its National Championship, Bush's records from that season erased (and he should lose his Heisman too) and lose more than the 2 scholarships OU lost. That's the fair deal.

Ah someone called TigerMan suggesting that USC give up their (emphasis on "one") championship won while Bush was playing...looks like Les Miles has some jealous company in Baton Rouge.

Tiger fans are pathetic. You have a national championship. Get over it already. At least Auburn has a right to be bitter - they were undefeated and had nothign to show for it.

Records this decade:

USC 70-19

LSU 68-20
-while playing in a tougher conf and having to play conf champ games.

No wonder Colin Cowerd of ESPN Radio said that LSU gets the nod over USC and others as the dominant team of the decade.

USC should lose it's championship, Bush's records should be erased (and he should return his Heisman) and USC should lose more than the 2 scholarships OU lost. That's the fair deal.

Allen,

You wrote "How hard should it be to prove agents were on the sideline or in the locker room? Can't be that hard, someone had to allow them to be there, I know I can't just walk onto the sideline at a PSU game. At the very least, someone seen them, people aren't invisible."

A few things here. USC's practices are generally open to the public. Might be a little different than at PSU. You may have noticed that Pete Carroll is a little different than Joe Paterno in several respects. Also, even if this guy did attend practices among the masses (you may or may not remember that USC had a pretty substantial following, media and otherwise in 2005), he was hoping for Reggie Bush to be his FIRST CLIENT. HE WASN'T EVEN AN AGENT YET. Are you saying that USC should spot potential agents as well?

I'm sorry, Stewart, but this is shoddy journalism at best.

First, the caption under the Bush photo -- "Reggie Bush reportedly received over $300,000 from a pair of agents while he was still playing for USC" -- is just plain false. The allegation is that Bush's family took nmearly $300K from wanna-be agents that were trying to broker a business arrangement with Reggie's stepfather. The amount of money that was alleged to have gone to Bush was a small fraction of that, largely reflecting a used car that Reggie's stepdad had purchased with the proceeds of the money he got.

Second, as previously mentioned, the victimhood of Oklahoma that was supposedly "punished" for self-reporting is just a misreprensation of the facts. The story was broken by local newspaper. Oklahoma responded by kicking the two players off the team and self-reporting. I sympathize with OU fans, but OU was not some victim punished for its candor and transparency.

C'mon guys, there's enough evidence to punish USC and Bush. It seems you didn't read the Yahoo articles. His poor family moved to LA to a big house. They couldn't afford that, nor all the cars and the luxuries that they had at the time Bush was at USC. There something rotten here and it's not in Denmark.

Oklahoma's compliance department should have paid more attention to the relationship with Big Red but at the core are two individuals that fudged their time sheet.

I guess my frustration as a Sooner fan is more about the expectation that the same standard will not be applied across the board. Troy Smith took money from a booster. He missed a few games but returned in time for the 05 showdown with Texas and went on to win a Heisman.

So Bush got money from an agent and not a booster. Doesn't that still compromise his eligibility and under the same ruling, USC's wins wi