I think Forde is overstating the culpability for SC in the Bush case, but if all this business with Mayo is true, then you would think that heads would have to roll.

In other words, it’s one thing to fail to connect the dots when a running back with no obvious prior connections to someone with agent aspirations is on the take but doing it away from the flagpole. There’s an element of plausible deniability inasmuch as – while it’s very easy to say after the fact that X and Y dots should have been connected – it might not have been obvious at the time.

But there were dots to be connected from the get-go with Mayo, inasmuch as he had a relationship with someone who had caused previous issues with USC basketball. Either he was beyond clean while he was at SC, or the Compliance Department is so busy filling out paperwork that they left Mr Magoo on the case for keeping an eye on the athletes.

Forde has a legitimate reason to be upset about how this is indicative of a broader corruption in college basketball – a corruption that’s all too likely when a professional league uses college as a developmental league, leading to nominally amateur athletes getting bought off via indirect means.

That said, call off the hanging posse, Mr Forde, and at least have the courtesy to let the university finish shredding paperwork and get their story straight present the facts as they have them, and the NCAA do nothing undertake an investigation, before making USC the new SMU.

Mr Forde’s claim that USC escaped the Bush case is just not correct. USC has been waiting for the hammer to fall ever since the allegations surfaced. It just so happens that the investigation is stalled due to both sides refusing to be deposed. I don’t think that either case is comparable. If USC is guilty of anything with Mayo, it might just be poor judgment. Taking a player like him requires a great amount of trust that he will follow all the rules, while finishing his school work in order for USC to stay in the NCAA’s good graces. So far Mayo has followed through with all his promises.

If the allegations that Mr. Johnson made are true, then USC will probably never take another 1 and done athlete again.  There seems to be a growing number of kids that come to college with little respect for the rules of amateurism.  I would have rather finished 8th place in the Pac 10 than be sanctioned for misconduct by the NCAA.  I just hope that if the allegations are true, that USC is cleared of any wrong doing.

...the secondary irritation is this: if it’s true, it happened because of basketball? I don’t know about you all, but if there’s going to be shenanigans on this scale, I’d rather have it be for a team that’s actually doing well. Better hung for a sheep than a lamb, as they used to say.

Maize and Brew’s Dave had an interesting take on this, having watched the Chris Webber debacle back in the day.

that the people clamoring for the death penalty are also including the Reggie Bush situation in it. They aren’t asking for the death penalty based on just the OJ Mayo allegations. The issue is basketball and football are two different programs so you can’t give basketball the death penalty because football also screwed up.

IMO, USC does need to be punished and the punishment Maize and Brew proposed sounds good. Ban the program from the postseason for a year or two, take away a scholarship and put them on probation. The NCAA can do that and I’ll consider it fair, but what I think the university has to look at is Mike Garrett’s tenure as AD. This is now the two major programs that have had issues and the basketball program suffered from poor academics. After the Reggie Bush situation, what was Guillory doing around the program? He’s known to have agent connections and has gotten a USC player suspended before. Mike Garrett either has to go or be on a very, very hot seat from here on out.

If the allegations against Mayo are true, I wouldn’t argue against sanctioning USC. When the Bush scandal hit, we might have been able to play the “we didn’t know card.” But with Mayo, it really wouldn’t matter if we knew or not. Its just too much for there not to be any punishment.

As far as the bruins are concerned, they can’t really fault us without taking a good long look at John Wooden. All the sports talk guys were bringing up John Wooden and Sam Gilbert today on the radio here in L.A.

Okay, I’ll admit to not really following this situation closely mainly because I am kind of tired of athlete scandals (and you boys seem to be having a few of them lately).

However, one thing in this post caught my eye:

USC is going to have a hard time convincing anyone that they monitored this situation closely at all. There were just too many signs there and they were all missed…

After all the hubbub with Bush, and after all the baggage surrounding his signing, and especially after the whole ticket thing, you would think that both Floyd and Garrett would have been watching OJ2 with an eagle’s eye, putting everything he did and everyone he met under a microscope. At the very least this shows a very lazy attitude from both the hoops program and Heritage Hall. I mean, come on—Mayo came in wearing a giant neon red blinking sign saying “potential trouble” and it should have been a no-brainer to just keep a bit of extra attention on him.

The whole “death penalty” talk - oh, I don’t know. If it’s shown that there was any sort of active cover-up, or even tacit acknowledgment of Bush, Mayo and whatever else the NCAA is investigating, then maybe it’s warranted.

See you chumps later, I’m going to Hawai’i for a week.

Go Bears.