As the team prepares for Notre Dame this week Dillon Baxter waits for word on his eligibility.
I would not be surprised if this drags on a bit just to send a message.
USC freshman tailback Dillon Baxter remained in limbo Monday, but the school cleared other Trojans football players after photographs surfaced of them attending a party thrown by the agency involved in the Baxter case.
As I indicated last night, if the compliance department met with Teague Egan and asked (told?) him not to give rides to any USC players then it is logical that compliance also met with the players to tell them to stay away from this guy.
In this new era of attention detail I'm pretty sure they covered the bases on this so I would be very surprised if that did not happen.
Yet Baxter still took the ride. Egan also went ahead and did exactly what USC did not want him to do and because he is an agent this is where the problems lie. If Egan was so willingly brazen to go against the wishes of the school when he was directly warned then it should surprise no one why there was so much concern over the parties he threw when he wasn't an agent.
Intent means a lot...after what the school has been through don't think USC doesn't know that.
I am not interested in lambasting USC, they have a lot on their plates and no one ever expected an issue like this to EVER show up on the grid, but the statement last night looks a little thin to me...
The defense of "the party was open to all students" falls a little short in my eyes, agents or "prospective" agents could simply throw parties for all students just to get to prospects.
Again, intent matters.
The Baxter issue is tricky simply because based on published reports and logic we can assume the following: 1) That the players were told to stay away from Egan. 2) Egan is an agent. 3) A ride was offered by Egan and then taken by Baxter, hence the alleged extra benefit. So I wouldn't be surprised if the NCAA is taking their sweet time on this.
Of course that is crap.
USC is in a tough spot as it is. Are they supposed to sequester all of their athletes so there is no contact with other students? If USC has a hard time keeping members of their own camp from affecting the eligibility of their players then how do we expect them to checkmate the vultures outside the main gates? The NCAA really put themselves in a box here with their draconian ruling.
I don't know Egan, he may be a great kid who has lofty ambitions. That's fine, there is nothing wrong with that but with the bunker mentality that USC is rightfully showing Egan and Baxter needed to their heads for something more than a hat rack.
This team has enough to worry about without these added distractions...