USC juniors and seniors can transfer and play right away

[Lefty]

The UofA has two scholarships they can give for this year and I hope Stoops goes after Malcolm Smith. I also would like to see Tennessee take some players.
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5275644

 

[Mathew81]

The Pac 10 isn't waiving the one-year sit out clause for transfers within conference.

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5275644

 

[Southpaw]

I don't get this. With a program that was so full of infractions, I wonder how many of the Jr. & Srs. were benefiting from comps? Hard to believe that Bush and Mayo were the only ones getting benefits. Don't mean to be harsh against the innocents, but it seems like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

 

[Russ Smith]

I don't get this. With a program that was so full of infractions, I wonder how many of the Jr. & Srs. were benefiting from comps? Hard to believe that Bush and Mayo were the only ones getting benefits. Don't mean to be harsh against the innocents, but it seems like rats abandoning a sinking ship.

So far the only kid to transfer is Jordan Cameron, who is also the only kid to have been part of both programs since he walked on the basketball team at one point too.

The whole thing irritates me. The constant but it's not fair these kids were in junior high when Bush was at USC, don't punish them for his deeds stuff.

These kids also committed to USC knowing full well about the investigation. They were essentially promised by Pete Carroll that nothing would come of it.
They took the risk, there isn't a player in that football program now that committed not knowing about the allegations.

The one kid I feel sorry for is Aaron Corps the backup QB last year who transferred and is sitting out. Had he stayed, he'd be free to transfer and play this year.

 

[Southpaw]

So far the only kid to transfer is Jordan Cameron, who is also the only kid to have been part of both programs since he walked on the basketball team at one point too.

The whole thing irritates me. The constant but it's not fair these kids were in junior high when Bush was at USC, don't punish them for his deeds stuff.

These kids also committed to USC knowing full well about the investigation. They were essentially promised by Pete Carroll that nothing would come of it.
They took the risk, there isn't a player in that football program now that committed not knowing about the allegations.

The one kid I feel sorry for is Aaron Corps the backup QB last year who transferred and is sitting out. Had he stayed, he'd be free to transfer and play this year.

My sentiments exactly. These players don't live in a vacuum. Check out Pete Carrol's latest rant.

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5290160

RENTON, Wash. -- Days after the NCAA trampled his former Southern California Trojans, coach Pete Carroll's mindset remains the same from afar.

Fight on!

Carroll says the NCAA had no basis for unfair and "really, really harsh" sanctions on USC.

"There's nothing there," he said Tuesday of the investigation into his program's knowledge of former Trojans running back Reggie Bush's improper benefits and relationship with an agent.

“

Carroll Now the word's out. You can do this. One person can do this, go after a university and a kid. And nothing has to be true. Nothing has to be true. They just have to make claims, and then the investigations and all that are under way.
” -- Former USC coach Pete Carroll on the NCAA sanctions

"Now the word's out. You can do this," he said. "One person can do this, go after a university and a kid. And nothing has to be true. Nothing has to be true. They just have to make claims, and then the investigations and all that are under way.

"I just hate the thought that that can take place and we can do nothing about it."

Carroll says he didn't leave USC six months ago to escape imminent NCAA penalties.

"Why wouldn't I have left some other time [during the NCAA's five-year probe]?" the Seahawks' powerful new coach asked.

Carroll was facing questions for the first time since the governing body for college sports on Thursday banned USC from bowls for two years and took away 30 scholarships over three years, mainly for what Bush received during Carroll's tenure.

"I thought I would never leave USC, but this is just too good an opportunity to pass up," he said, reiterating what he said in January.

He says his notoriously open program at USC had nothing to do with an agent reaching Bush, that "99 percent" of those who came to practices were community-conscious people -- such as youth and church groups and friends of the Trojans -- and that USC cleared their access. He said the atmosphere made USC unique and fun and was part of its rampant success.

Carroll also railed against the NCAA ruling that current Trojans are now free to leave the national power, calling it a potentially devastating "fire sale" akin to NFL free agency.

USC's pending appeal of the sanctions will drag through his first season in Seattle, his first in the NFL since 1999. Yet Carroll says it will not distract him because he won't be that involved in it.

"I've already told them everything I can tell them," he said of the NCAA. "It will just be rooting from the sidelines.

"There isn't any precedent in this exact situation, so they are going to try and reconstruct the reasoning. I think you will see transcripts that come out eventually, so you will see all the questions that were asked. ... And you'll understand that from the start of the investigation years ago -- I've said this all along -- there is no information that backs the claims."

Carroll was 97-19 and won seven consecutive Pac-10 titles plus two national championships at USC from 2000 to 2009.

He said that as head coach he was responsible for all that happened there but that there was no way for him to know Bush was being wooed by an off-campus agent.

"We couldn't do anything about it -- because we didn't know," he said.

The NCAA found that in itself an inexcusable lack of institutional oversight.

"Unfortunately, I was probably more surprised than most people, and I was at the hearings," Carroll said of the penalties. "I felt the tenor of the hearings. Never would have thought that they would have come to as harsh sanctions and conclusions as this."

He hears skeptics who scoff at hearing that he didn't know about Bush's improprieties.

"It looks like, 'Why would you not know?' Well, Reggie Bush became Reggie Bush in a matter of a few months, weeks," Carroll said, mentioning that Bush wasn't a starter until his junior season. "LenDale White scored 54 touchdowns in the same time that Reggie was there. ... And Matt Leinart was the quarterback -- and he was the Heisman Trophy winner. So there was a lot of stuff going on, a lot of acclaim.

"We were in the midst of an undefeated year. ... When you look back in hindsight, it's a much different view than when you are in the middle of trying to win games."

Carroll also offered this rebuttal, without being asked: "The question comes up why I left and all. My coming to Seattle was for one reason: This was an extraordinary opportunity. It's an NFL dream opportunity for me, and it had nothing to do with anything that was going on at that time. The ongoing investigation was five years in the making, anyway."

He says he hasn't talked to Bush recently. But he has talked often to current Trojans coach Lane Kiffin.

"These are very tough times for him," Carroll said of one of his former USC assistants. "The hardest thing about it is schools can come after his players; they can take juniors and seniors right now. It's like free agency, it became like the NFL. There's a fire sale on his players right now."

He called on the NCAA to join universities and even high schools to have a national promotional campaign to stop outsiders from influencing college athletes.

"Unfortunately, it's about awareness," Carroll said. "This issue in particular is not like any of the other cases that's come along. It is about one person in a community where a kid came from who decided to take advantage of his potential good fortune. And he found a way in to make that happen -- outside of any of the university issues and setting and all that.

"They didn't want anyone else to know. And we didn't know."


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

 

[Russ Smith]

USC's argument really is 2 things, we didn't know, and these guys were working against USC to get players to leave early, not for USC to get players to go there and stay there. I think Carroll believed that alone was enough, he was wrong.

If you read the report and how much money they spent on Bush' car and fixing it up and how it replaced a beatup pickup, it's hard to believe nobody noticed the huge upgrade.

I also personally believe there's an element here of the NCAA essentially saying for every violation we found there were a bunch more we couldn't prove. The report even says a large part of the "delay" was having to investigate so many reports of violations by USC, it delayed them. I think in the end they said look we know there are other violations here we can't prove, we've proved enough to get them, and Institutional Control will cover some of the other stuff.

One of the interesting parts for me is the stuff about Guillory offering 2 players to Floyd, Mayo and the #3 player in the country. When I read all that I assume they are talking about Beasley, mentions Mayo calling Floyd and handing the phone to the player, mentions the player essentially asking for money, and a conversation between the mom and Floyd etc. All of that is somewhat consistent with stuff that came out about Beasley and USC trying to steal him from K State when Huggins left.

But Seth Davis of SI said in 09 the other player was Bill Walker, and apparently many believe it was. Some of the dates don't seem to work for me, some of this allegedly happened after Walker enrolled at K State, remember he enrolled the year before Mayo but blew his ACL out and got a medical redshirt. Either I'm confusing the dates or it almost seems like the NCAA is talking about 2 players, early on Walker, later Beasley. That's why I'm amazed Floyd didn't get sanctioned, it's so clear he was dealing with all sorts of different people trying to get recruits and yet he admits he was asked for money and didn't report it to his compliance officers. To me that's
the problem, if he tells them about all that, they probably don't let him take Mayo(like they did later with Sidney).

 

[Southpaw]

Then there was Joe McKnight. Everyone in Louisiana knew. Whatever he got, he was over paid. LSU pays, yet McKnight ended up at USC last minute.

 

[Russ Smith]

Then there was Joe McKnight. Everyone in Louisiana knew. Whatever he got, he was over paid. LSU pays, yet McKnight ended up at USC last minute.

And of course McKnight admitted on live radio he talked to Bush who assured him nothing to worry about sanction wise. Then later Carroll explains that didn't happen and McKnight recants, because it was a recruiting violation.

And of course the marketing rep guy who had a daughter McKnight was dating(with a child) and Joe just happened to be driving the guys car, the guy registered domain names for Joe(and for Mayo) and that wasn't in the report either no doubt because it was discovered too recently.

USC is definitely not the only program that cheated but unfortunately for them 2 of the cheaters got very publicly outed.

 

[Southpaw]

Now Reggie Bush pipes in. He even blames god in his rant. Really pathetic IMHO. Check out the Ornstein connection. How does that happen?

As Bush spoke, his former marketing agent, Mike Ornstein, stood nearby, listening intently. Ornstein, who is now a Saints consultant, said afterward he had "absolutely no comment about any of this.

Updated: June 16, 2010, 4:54 PM ET
Bush vows to support USC's appeal



Associated Press

METAIRIE, La. -- Though Reggie Bush admitted no wrongdoing, he did express regret Wednesday about his involvement in an NCAA probe that resulted in major sanctions for USC Trojans 's football program.

"This thing, regarding USC and the NCAA, is the closest thing to death without dying because I have such a great love and respect for the university," Bush said. "This has been one the toughest things I've had to deal with in my life."

“

Bush Obviously, with the current penalty, it sucks because the kids there now have to deal with that and you never want to be in the position where you've affected a kid's career or the future of a high school player who has a dream to go to USC.
” -- Reggie Bush

Speaking publicly about the NCAA report for the first time since its release last week, Bush would not address the specific allegations of wrongdoing. Rather, he pledged to support USC however he could in an appeal of the sanctions.

"I believe that there's a lot of untold truth to this matter, there's a lot of fabricated lies to this matter, but it is what it is and I can't sit here and cry about it. I can't sit here and make up excuses," Bush said. "Ultimately, it's a responsibility that's placed on USC and my shoulders. It's because of me. So all I can do is continue to try to help them and move forward with the situation.

"God works in mysterious ways and at the end of the day I think this, too, shall pass and hopefully we can grow stronger from this."

The NCAA report, released June 10, concluded that Bush and his family accepted improper benefits from marketing agents while he was playing for USC. The NCAA ruled that USC would have to vacate victories from late 2004 through the 2005 season, a period that included the Trojans' national title win over Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl in January 2005.

USC also was penalized with a two-year bowl ban and a loss of 30 scholarships during a three-year period.

It is not yet clear whether Bush will lose his 2005 Heisman Trophy. Bush said he's not worried about what further punishment or embarrassment may await him, but he is concerned about current USC players who may be deprived of scholarships or miss out on postseason play.

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"Obviously, with the current penalty, it sucks because the kids there now have to deal with that and you never want to be in the position where you've affected a kid's career or the future of a high school player who has a dream to go to USC," Bush said. "That's not a good feeling. Obviously, like I said earlier, we're going to do everything we can with the appeal and we feel strongly about winning the appeal."

The report has no bearing on the 25-year-old Bush's pro career with the Super Bowl champion Saints.

As Bush spoke, his former marketing agent, Mike Ornstein, stood nearby, listening intently. Ornstein, who is now a Saints consultant, said afterward he had "absolutely no comment about any of this."

Although the probe resulted in large part from a lawsuit filed by would-be marketing agents who were upset that they never wound up representing Bush, Ornstein -- who did succeed in landing Bush as a client during the football star's first couple of pro seasons -- also had been accused of providing improper benefits to Bush while he was still at USC.

Bush said he regretted "that this situation has occurred and was brought on USC because of me . . . and my name is dragged through this, their name is dragged through this, my family's name is dragged through this and it's really unfortunate."

Bush said Saints teammates have been supportive, as have his old USC teammates, even though the record may no longer show that the Trojans were national champions at the end of the 2004 season.

"My teammates have been none other than extremely supportive of me and even my teammates when I was there at USC, sending me text messages and just supporting me and having my back in this matter and that means a lot," Bush said. "That goes a long way, because once you go through those things that we went through together, once we built the relationships and the foundation that we built together, those are things you can never take away. That's what I look forward to the most, is just having that relationship forever with my USC family and with my current Saints family."

When the NCAA findings were released, Bush said he had feelings similar to bringing shame on one's father or family. Bush said he always wanted to represent his school with pride and hopes to strengthen his relationship with his former school whether the punishment stands or not.

"I'm going to do everything I can to make this right, some way, somehow, some shape or form, if it's the last thing I do," he said.


Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press

 

[Russ Smith]

The best part of that quote is they edited it. Bush actually said he had respect for the university "of California",not Southern CAl, so they edited it to just the university.

He also tapdances around denying anything saying whether it's all true or all not true I have to deal with it.

 

[overseascardfan]

Reggie Bush is an f'in idiot. He should just keep his mouth shut or stop lying. All this crap about he wants to help USC, the same USC who refused to let him stand on the sidelines during their first bowl game without him after the story broke about him taking money in order to save face. He didn't care when he received those benefits and would do it again if he was still at USC. I chuckled after reading an interview conducted with Mark Sanchez on SI.com where Sanchez practically said Reggie was on the take. He tried to make Reggie out to be a great guy but stated "we were kids, its hard to have stuff offered to you when your kids and not take them." , Sanchez was a freshman at USC at the time. USC should have got an Alabama type sanction, to think Kiffin is going to run a clean program is to be completely clueless and in denial.