Lets not get too comfortable here..
This is just the beginning. I have never heard of the NCAA accepting ANY self-imposed sanctions without having some official say. They have not done that......yet.
It would also appear that USC knows something is coming...
I said early on that the information that Louis Johnson supplied was fairly cut and dried especially when you consider that USC knew about Rodney Guillory from his prior bad acts. It doesn't matter that the NCAA supposedly cleared Mayo before he was allowed to enroll the fact is it would appear that he took extra benefits either before or during his time at USC.The sanctions follow the university's investigation into allegations Mayo received improper benefits while in school.
The basketball program's self-imposed punishment suggested that USC knew the NCAA was about to take action, said the director of a compliance department at a major university familiar with such investigations.
"If they're doing all that, they know something's coming," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They know they're going to have their day in front of the [NCAA's] committee on infractions, and they're preparing."
The NCAA has a history of giving credit to schools that self-impose sanctions, but the organization nonetheless could hand down further penalties
Of course we are starting hear the cries of those who would say that USC basketball was sacrificed to protect football.
USC, in banning itself from basketball's 2009-10 postseason, is following the game plan established by Ohio State back in the middle of the last decade. A little while after questions arose about former running back Maurice Clarett's academic integrity, then-Buckeyes basketball coach Jim O'Brien told then-A.D. Andy Geiger he had made a payment to assist the family of a former recruit that encountered difficult times because of civil strife in their region of Serbia.
O'Brien immediately was fired -- he later sued and recovered more than $2 million in unpaid contract obligations -- and the athletic department self-imposed a one-year postseason ban on the Buckeyes for the subsequent season.
The football program got a clean conduct report.
He may very well be right, but while DeCourcy wants the USC football team to get hammered for their alleged transgressions there is still very little that ties USC to the Bush mess. Just like Charles Woodson in 1997 what happens away from a program that is well hidden is hard to lay at the feet of a program.
I also think it is a legitimate gripe for some to question why the current team is punished for something that went on over two years ago...
It makes no sense to punish this year's players for violations committed by a different coaching regime. OJ Mayo is long gone. So is Tim Floyd, who lost his job as a result of the accusations he gave Guillory money. Three USC players from last season headed to the pros. Four Trojan recruits jumped ship, with three landing at Arizona and one heading to Clemson.
Only four players remain from that 2007-2008 team - Dwight Lewis, Marcus Simmons, Kasey Cunningham, and Ryan Wetherall. Lewis is the only starter. Kevin O'Neill, the current coach of the Trojans, was coaching conference foe Arizona at the time.
What does all that mean?
The kids paying the punishment for OJ Mayo and Tim Floyd breaking the rules are not Mayo or Floyd.
Unfortunately, like it or not, that is just the way it goes...it isn't right but it is not like they didn't know this was coming so I am a little surprised that there is any shock over all of this.
Mayo and Floyd are gone and to me they are the only people that matter. They will answer to no one. Gibson, DeRozan, and Hackett have moved on and had really nothing to do with it.
I feel bad for these kids but there is nothing we can do.
Welcome to the world of the NCAA.
You had to be blind to not know this was coming and this is just the first salvo...
As for sacrificing the basketball program to save the football program I wouldn't get comfortable there yet either. The NCAA has never acted with any sense of consistency so it is hard to know just how this is going to end.
As of right now I think Mike Garret is getting off easy...He knew about Guillory and let him back in but the final chapter is far from written on all of this.
It is going to be a fun off-season...