College football is here, and one of the sport’s traditional powerhouses, the University of Southern California, is among the national title favorites. In fact, it was ranked the preseason No. 1 team in the nation over defending national champion Alabama. Normally this contender status wouldn’t come as a surprise, but USC was issued severe sanctions just two years ago—including a two-year postseason ban and a loss of 30 scholarships over three years—for illegal benefits given by sports marketers to its former Heisman-trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush.
The Trojans won a National Championship with Bush in their backfield, but the title and Bush’s Heisman have both been taken away since the NCAA’s findings. The NCAA determined these sanctions fit the crime, and on the surface they appeared to be fair punishment. After all, the NCAA found similar violations at Alabama in the late 1990s and early 2000s and gave the program a two-year bowl ban and loss of 21 scholarships over three years.
In retrospect it’s difficult to say whether USC was penalized enough.
On one hand, the magnitude of the Trojans’ cheating was unprecedented; the NCAA had to make an example of a team that had so much success with a player who was receiving improper benefits. The NCAA had to make sure other programs wouldn’t consider breaking the rules out of fear they would suffer the same program destruction as USC.
The thought-to-be harsh penalties were given with the presumption that USC would be a down program for a number of years—you know, the type of “down” that means the Trojans would play in non-BCS bowl games for a few years before returning to national prominence.
On the other hand, it’s USC’s first bowl-eligible season since the sanctions were given. Its top recruits stayed at school, it continued to grab the top high school prospects during its bowl-ineligible years and voilà: the program has skipped over the Alamo Bowl, through the Rose Bowl and right into the National Championship conversation.
It’s as though the Trojans rolled the dice, landed on a hotel-loaded Boardwalk and two turns later were right back in the game. This season they will be favored in every game on their regular season schedule with the only real test being a home date against defending Pac-12 and Rose Bowl champion Oregon.
USC isn’t the only program to recently have received NCAA sanctions. Ohio State is banned from postseason play this year because some of its players received free tattoos.
Timeout: Just think about that. USC’s players get to live in Los Angeles and they get free housing. Ohio State dishes out ink to its players, who live just 45 minutes from Cleveland. Ohio State is the worst.
No, I take that back. What’s even worse is that OSU’s recruiting classes haven’t taken a hit, its new coach Urban Meyer will be better than Jim Tressell and it’s going to be a favorite to win the Big Ten—in addition to being in the national title conversation—next season.
After seeing what happened at USC and what’s likely going to happen at Ohio State, I’m not sure what’s actually stopping these top-tier programs from running the risk of giving improper treatment to their stars.
Look, I understand the NCAA has some crazy-stupid (love) rules. This is the association that, until recently, said schools giving a student-athlete a bagel was an acceptable practice, but giving him or her that same bagel with a slab of cream cheese was means for a rules violation.
If you’re the head coach at a program where anything short of a national championship is a failure, you have to at least consider risking sanctions to ensure a top recruit plays for you. Keep in mind that people in these positions had to do a lot to get where they are. Falling from the top of the mountain is simply not an option.
I remember being completely content when the punishments were doled out to USC and OSU, and a board of people a hell of a lot smarter than me felt the same way. But the Trojans and Buckeyes have proven it will take more than a two-year bowl ban to truly lay the hammer down on top-tier programs.
Does it bother you that USC is back on top so soon? Do you think the NCAA should give more severe penalties to schools that give student-athletes illegal benefits? Email Vince at vhuth@wisc.edu.
