The situation at the taverna is a secondary violation if its anything.  USC is allowed to buy recruits a meal, the question is how much money can they reasonably spend on that meal.  Also John P. is not allowed to speak to recruits, and it seems like he did when he discussed his past experiences being a Trojan Football player.  

I'm not sure what all he said, but the only thing he is allowed to do is introduce himself, and say hello, otherwise he is a booster.

 Im not sure what type of punishment USC would receive for this, but it should be light.

I know the rule is there for a reason, and if the restaurant was a tad more upscale I'd have a bigger problem-I'd hate to see all those Torjan players getting free meals at whatever five-star restaraunts Carroll likes to frequent. But this is small potatos. Even if true, and a violation did occur, it's not that big a deal. What amazes me though is the fact that this investigation is still ongoing. Over 18 months investigating a penny-ante issue of comping kids at a family diner, and still no finding? Pathetic-these guys must be working for a federal special counsel.

I'm pretty sure the rule in question here is the same one that would have been broken if McKnight had spoken with Bush over the phone.  And it looks like this is only being investigated by the USC compliance office.

I suppose it makes sense that it would take some time, since they are so busy investigating all those other problems (OK, lighten up you Trojan fans who now want to flame me for a little joke) with the program. But 18 months? Take a few statements, write a friggin' report, submit it to the NCAA, and get a slap on the wrist for a minor infraction. Not a big deal, and no obvious reason to drag out the investigation.

Every year there are some 60-70 secondary violations that USC compliance officials report themselves to the NCAA.  The main issues revolving around Papadakis Taverna is the fact that John Papadakis was acting as a booster, and should not be addressing a recruit improperly.  

All Coach Carroll wanted to do was to continue a tradition, by taking players to a former players restaurant for a meal, and a bellydance or 2.
I'm sure no harm was meant, but the rules are clear, and it seems that a violation occurred.

The NCAA tends to throw down harsher punishment to more sinister violations, like what happened to Oklahoma, and what could happen with Reggie Bush.  I don't see anything big coming from the Papadakis complaint, but who knows?

I remember reading about this Papadakis thing in the LA times superbruin.  I don't think its front page news that an investigation that is 18 months old, is still ongoing.

After looking over the rules, and what they did, it seems like an honest mistake to me.  The violations with the undercharged meals came to about 62000 dollars.  The violations were self reported, and the NCAA put them on probation.

The violations may not be "murder" but what it amounts to is $62K of university funds going walk-ons over a 5 year span.  Walk-ons can receive training table meals, but only if they pay for a meal at the dining hall prior to getting the training table meal.  The walk-ons at Colorado paid that fee, but the training table meals were twice as expensive as the dining card meals so thats where the violation occurred.

The NCAA bylaws are 476 pages long.  Thats why schools have compliance departments.  They are supposed to be familiar with the whole rule book so they can stop this stuff before it happens.

Although I don't see a lot of parallels between Colorado's violations and USC's.  Colorado gave their walk-ons 62,000 dollars, USC has John Papadakis improperly address potential recruits. Maybe Colorado got dealt with too harshly.  Time will tell with USC.

According to ESPN they will have to give up all of their wins from 2005.