Saturday, June 02, 2007

Will Reggie Bush Get Away With It?

Speaking of great black holes in the world of sports, the situation involving Reggie Bush and his alleged, but painfully apparent, flouting of NCAA rules while leading USC back to national prominence in college football surely qualifies as one of the more sordid episodes in recent college athletic history.

Full disclosure: as a graduate and fan of Cal, there is nothing more that I would love to see than USC put on probation for all eternity. However, in this instance the university does not really seem to be at fault, except to the extent that it willfully (or ignorantly) turned a blind eye to some pretty egregious violations of NCAA rules.

Stewart Mandel of Sports Illustrated covered the issue very well in his mailbag this week. Some excerpts are below.

First, some background:

It's been more than a year since Yahoo! Sports published the first of its stunning and scrupulously reported investigative pieces about the numerous extra benefits 2005 Heisman winner Reggie Bush and his family allegedly received from prospective sports marketers while Bush was still a student at USC. In terms of bombshells, they don't get much bigger than one of the most visible college stars in recent memory allegedly breaking rules that, if true, would subject two-time national champion USC to NCAA sanctions.

Yet, aside from a couple of brief statements confirming it is conducting an ongoing investigation, the NCAA, as is its policy, has remained exasperatingly silent on the matter. (An NCAA spokesman confirmed to me last week there was "nothing to add at this time.") Gauging from my inbox, this is leading to much frustration among fans from around the country who believe the NCAA is letting Bush and the Trojans off the hook.

A question for Stewart:

Still waiting on the USC sanctions from the NCAA, or is it too much to ask? Where does the investigation stand? It seems that the NCAA is stalling in an attempt to have us all forget about the situation.--Lee Wiltrout, Abilene, Texas

It's not that the NCAA is stalling -- it's that it's flailing. Through this case, we're seeing first-hand just how limited the organization's enforcement powers really are. If Bush were a current student-athlete, the NCAA could hold him out of competition until the matter was resolved. It could also sanction him if he failed to cooperate with investigators (much like it did Maurice Clarett for lying to investigators). With Bush being a professional football player, however, the NCAA holds no more authority over him than it does over you or I. The same goes for other, non-university parties.

Not only are Bush and his family declining to speak with investigators, but, according to reports, they also recently reached a settlement with Michael Michaels -- the man whose house the Bush clan supposedly lived in rent-free -- that specifically prohibits him from talking to investigators. In other words, they bought him off. And Ornstein, obviously, has no motivation to cooperate -- he's going to do whatever it takes to protect his client's name.

If you look back, nearly every major NCAA infractions case over the past decade -- from the Alabama/Albert Means saga in football to the basketball scandals at Michigan (Ed Martin), Ohio State (Jim O'Brien), Minnesota (an academic advisor writing papers) and Georgia (Jim Harrick/Tony Cole) -- has included the presence of at least one voluntary whistle-blower. More often than not, they've also involved local or federal litigation that produced subpoenaed testimony. The NCAA is almost entirely dependent on others to do its dirty work, and so far, no one has stepped forward to help them on this one.

Another question, with partial answer:

If USC is stripped of its 2004 national championship due to the poor judgment of Reggie Bush's parents, who would the title go to: Oklahoma or Auburn?--Brian Jones, Perry, Ga.

First, I wouldn't pin all the blame on Reggie's parents. You can't tell me he didn't know he was breaking the rules when he allegedly found himself staying at the Venetian free for a weekend. Or receiving $13,000 to buy a car.

If it seems like I'm being a little harsh on the guy, it's because I find the whole thing really disappointing. Because of USC's dominance during his time there, I spent a whole lot of time around that program and, in turn, a whole lot of time interviewing Bush. He always struck me as a great kid, albeit a little cocky at times. And he's drawn raves for his extensive community-service work in San Diego and New Orleans. I'm not naïve, and I realize Bush is far from the only college star to cash in on his exploits, but his smug flaunting of the authorities since then has certainly changed my perception of him.

If nothing else, this story illustrates the total incompetence and impotence of the NCAA in dealing with this type of issue.

And there seems little doubt that Reggie Bush, for all the good he has done in the New Orleans community, is nothing more than the worst sort of fraud. But in this day and age, where killing dogs doesn't even get the attention of many NFL fans, he will probably get away with it.

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