I am pretty ambivalent at this point with the whole sorid tale but I did find this development interesting.
Scott Reid from the OCR does his best Jason Cole impersonation...
NCAA officials as recently as last week requested that attorneys for San Diego sports marketer Lloyd Lake provide them with transcripts from Bush and Michael Michaels' depositions in Lake's civil lawsuit against Bush, said Brian Watkins, an attorney for Lake.
[...]
NCAA investigators are particularly interested in Michaels' deposition, Watkins said.
NCAA officials so far have been unable to interview Michaels because of a confidentiality agreement that was part of his out-of-court settlement with Bush. Michaels reportedly received between $200,000 and $300,000 in the settlement.
A ruling by San Diego Superior County Judge Steven R. Denton on Tuesday, however, cleared the way for Michaels to give a deposition in the Lake-Bush suit. Michaels will be deposed on Wednesday. Denton also ordered Bush to provide a deposition next Friday. The deposition will be the first time Bush has answered questions under oath about Lake and Michaels' allegations. Lake first met with NCAA investigators in November 2007. Bush, after declining NCAA interview requests for three years, met with NCAA officials in 2009.
I am not surprised that the NCAA wants a copy.
This tells me a couple of things...
1) They will use it as a fact checker in reviewing Reggie Bush's meeting with the NCAA in August or September of 2009. Getting Michaels' deposition will fill in a lot holes because no one has been able to interview Michaels because of the non-disclosure agreement he sign when he settle with Reggie Bush a couple of years ago.
2) I think it also shows that still don't have enough to slam-dunk this case.
We all know that the NCAA combined the cases to try and make a Lack of Institutional Control charge stick. It meant to many of us that the NCAA didn't have enough on the merits of the individual situations. USC made it easier for the NCAA when they self-imposed sanctions on the basketball program but they have stood their ground on the football program.
I am not sure this changes anything.
SC will get some sort of punishment but I have a hard time believing it will be anything major.
The precedence just isn't there. As many have said numerous times, this did not involve anyone from USC this was a deal done away from USC by the parents of Reggie Bush.
I could care less if the NCAA vacates wins. They can't take the BCS title away because they have no jurisdiction and I could really care less if Reggie loses his Heisman. The reasons for that are numerous...lets just say that the Heisman has lost a bit of its luster over the years.
Heck, many still wonder if Bush should have even won it...
More important, in order for Bush or Michaels to be deposed Lloyd Lake has to go first. He has stalled before so until he actually takes the oath and sits down to be deposed I am not going to get all worked up over it.
Lake knows that if he tells the truth in his deposition it could be used against him later. He did break a California state law in regards to tampering with amateur athletes.
If the NCAA is waiting on the Bush deposition to issue their final ruling I find that to be interesting as well. Maybe they don't have as much as some think.
I can't wait for all of this to be over...