NCAA hits USC with two-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/pac10/2010-06-10-ncaa-sanctions-southern-cal_N.htm

NCAA hits USC with two-year bowl ban, scholarship cuts
6-10-10
Southern California is ineligible to play in the postseason for the next two football seasons after the NCAA ruled Reggie Bush received extra benefits while playing for the Trojans.

FINDINGS AND PENALTIES

Highlights of the findings and sanctions the NCAA issued Thursday against Southern California:

Found violations that included a lack of institutional control, impermissible inducements, extra benefits, exceeding coach staff limits and unethical conduct by an assistant football coach.

Placed the athletic program on four years' probation.

Banned the football team from the postseason for 2010 and '11.

Vacated 14 wins in football from the Dec. 4, 2004, UCLA game through the entire 2005 season.

Cut 10 football scholarships each for 2011-12, '12-13 and '13-14. The team can give no more than 15 new scholarships each of those years and has 75 players total on scholarship in each of those years.

Ordered USC to have no association with the players at the heart of the football and men's basketball violations, Reggie Bush and O.J. Mayo. The athletic department cannot accept money or recruiting help from them, nor can they be accorded special benefits.

Ordered USC to ban all non-school personnel, including boosters, from team charters, practices, locker rooms and sidelines. The ban extends to camps for football and men's basketball.

The above are in addition to sanctions the school self-imposed in January on men's basketball:

Postseason ban in 2010.

Vacating 21 wins for the 2007-08 season.

Trimming one scholarship each for the 2009-10 and '10-11 academic years. This leaves the team with 12 scholarships each year.

Returning $206,200 the school got for its participation in the 2008 NCAA tournament.

Cutting 20 days (from 130 to 110) the staff is allowed to spend recruiting in 2010-11.

Jack Carey, USA TODAY

The NCAA Committee on Infractions' long delay in announcing its decision in the investigation of the Southern California football and men's basketball programs did not signal a case of cold feet on the part of the committee members.
The NCAA revealed its findings Thursday after a four-year probe, and the Trojans' football program had a virtual hammer dropped on it, receiving a two-year bowl ban and a reduction in scholarships of 10 a year over the next three years, potentially crippling a team that had a run of dominance in the last decade rarely matched in college football.

USC also received four years' probation, was cited for a lack of institutional control and must vacate the victories it accrued with Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush starting in December 2004. The school also stands to have its 2004 Bowl Championship Series title vacated.

The school announced in a statement that it would accept some of the penalties imposed by the committee but planned to appeal those it thought were excessive. It did not specify which sanctions it planned to appeal.

"We acknowledge that violations occurred, and we take full responsibility for them. However, we sharply disagree with many of the findings in the NCAA Committee on Infractions Report. Further, we feel the penalties imposed are too severe for the violations identified in the report," Todd Dickey, USC's senior vice president for administration, said in the statement.

The NCAA took no further action against the men's basketball team. The school banned it from postseason play last season and vacated its wins from 2007-08 because of violations involving O.J. Mayo, who played only that season for the Trojans.

The women's tennis team also was cited in the report for unauthorized phone calls made by a former player, but the NCAA accepted USC's earlier vacation of its wins between November 2006 and May 2009.

Allegations surfaced in 2006

But the storm clouds surrounding the football program since reports in 2006 alleged that Bush and his family received hundreds of thousands of dollars in illicit benefits from sports marketers Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels resulted in sanctions that greet coach Lane Kiffin and his staff.

Kiffin, an assistant coach at USC when Bush played there, was hired as head coach after last season, when Pete Carroll left to coach the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.

Neither Carroll nor former Trojans basketball coach Tim Floyd was sanctioned by the NCAA. However, the report rebuked "an assistant football coach," known to be running backs coach Todd McNair, handing him a one-year show-cause penalty and prohibiting him from recruiting.

The NCAA did not find credible McNair's professed ignorance of Bush's dealings with Lake and Michaels. The pair sued Bush in bids to recover almost $300,000 in cash and gifts they said Bush and his family accepted during his USC career. They were attempting to sign Bush as their marketing company's first client.

Carroll, in a video posted on YouTube, said he supported the school's appeal and maintained, "In all aspects of the program, we were vigilant.

"I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed at the findings of the NCAA. I never, ever thought it would come to this. … I never thought there (were) any facts that supported these significant sanctions. … The university didn't know … We were not aware of any of these findings.

"The agenda of the NCAA infractions committee took them beyond the facts. The facts don't match these sanctions. This is a clear-cut case of external elements outside the university setting entering in and disrupting the process. It's time for the NCAA and the universities to come together to elevate the awareness and the understanding of the vulnerability of college athletes and their families."

Bush disagrees with findings

Vacating the victories means the Trojans no longer are recognized as the winners of the 2005 Orange Bowl, in which they dominated Oklahoma for the Bowl Championship Series title. They also vacate every win during the 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the Rose Bowl with another BCS title on the line.

However, the BCS has not yet vacated the national championship won in that Orange Bowl game.

"As a procedural matter, the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee (POC) must meet to formally consider vacating USC's championship title and the game records," BCS executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement. "If the POC takes such action, there would be no BCS champion for the 2004-05 season. The POC will meet shortly to discuss this matter.

"No action will go into effect until the appeal is heard and decided by the NCAA."

Absent a successful appeal, the BCS presidents will vacate the title, a person close to the BCS process, who did not want to be identified because the issue is not closed, told USA TODAY.

The Trojans, however, will retain their 2004 Associated Press title, awarded separately from the BCS crown in a poll after the bowls.

"The 2004 poll stands," AP sports editor Terry Taylor said in an e-mail to USA TODAY. "The poll is intended to measure on-field performance. If teams are allowed to play, they're allowed to be ranked."

Bush could lose his 2005 Heisman. "(We) will issue a statement at the appropriate time," said Tim Henning, Heisman coordinator.

Bush, now a running back with the Super Bowl champion New Orleans Saints, said in a statement: "I have a great love for the University of Southern California, and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC but for the fans and players. I am disappointed by (Thursday's) decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings."

It is left to Kiffin and the current players to pick up the pieces. Kiffin said Thursday that he was not concerned about losing recruits.

"I don't think it's going to have an impact on our recruiting," he said. "We've talked to a lot of people from our team, to our signees, to recruits, and we have not felt an impact at all, because USC is still USC. We're still going to play an extremely high level of football. You can still get a great education if you come to USC.

"We think we have a great class coming in, it's been referred to as No. 1 in the country. … We're excited to add those guys to our team and stay with the goal we always talk to our players about, and that's to win every game that we play."

Linebacker Kevin Greene, a sophomore in the fall, called the developments "a shock."

"We weren't here," he continued. "We don't know what went on the years before we were here. Whatever happened before I signed my scholarship happened. I don't know what, I don't know who. All I can do is go by what I hear."

Quarterback Matt Barkley, a sophomore to be, said it would be his responsibility to lead the team.

"We know there's a possibility we won't play in a bowl game, but at the same time I came here for a degree from one of the best universities in the country and to win football games," he said. "If we play 13 instead of 14, we'll try to win all 13 of them."

In the last 15 years, Miami (Fla.) and Alabama received similar sanctions. Both programs rebounded to win national championships.

Infractions committee chairman Paul Dee said schools must carefully watch their marquee players. They're the ones who attract attention from agents and their runners.

"Your staff needs to monitor those players at a higher level," said Dee, a lecturer of law and education at Miami (Fla.), and formerly athletics director there. "High-profile players require high-profile (compliance)."

Under Carroll, USC was known for a lenient admission policy at practices. But the NCAA ruling prohibits all non-university personnel, except news media and a few others, from attending practices and camps and from standing on the sideline during games.

Floyd resigned after the allegations against Mayo surfaced and now coaches at Texas-El Paso. Mayo plays for the Memphis Grizzlies.

"We are pleased at the outcome but certainly not surprised," Floyd's lawyer, Jim Darnell, said of Floyd's exoneration. "The committee did its work and reached the right conclusion."

•Contributing: Robyn Norwood in Los Angeles; wire reports

Utah shows it belongs among the nation's elite

http://www.sportingnews.com/yourturn/viewtopic.php?t=502927

Utah shows it belongs among the nation's elite
January 2, 2009

No matter what you call it or how you see it, there are a whole lot of folks in Salt Lake City begging for a little deductive reasoning.

If A beats B and C beats B worse than A, why isn't C playing for it all?

Or something like that.

"I know where I'm voting us," Utah coach Kyle Whittingham said Friday night to a nationally televised audience after the Utes' 31-17 victory over Alabama in the Sugar Bowl. "I'm voting us No. 1."

Amen, brother.

We've seen three of five BCS games, and it's beginning to look a whole lot like the BCS points series not only whiffed once by not spitting out Rose Bowl champion USC, but may have blown it twice by ignoring unbeaten Utah.

That Florida-Oklahoma national title game is getting more minimized by the moment.

Utah's convincing victory over Alabama -- the same Tide team that spent five weeks at No. 1 in the BCS standings before losing in the final week of the season to Florida -- will have playoff proponents in full force. Let me explain more steps of deductive reasoning:

• Utah beat Oregon State, which beat USC. Deductive reasoning: Utah would beat USC.

• Ole Miss embarrassed Texas Tech -- the same Texas Tech team that Oklahoma uses as its go-to game in its BCS argument. Alabama beat Ole Miss, and we all know Utah dismantled the Tide from the first snap of the Sugar Bowl. Deductive reasoning: Utah would beat Oklahoma.

• And, of course, Utah beat Alabama worse than Florida. Deductive reasoning: Utah would beat Florida.

Before you playoff nuts get all sideways, consider this: The one model that could eventually be agreed upon by the BCS presidents -- a plus-one game after the bowls -- wouldn't settle this debate. The winner of the Florida-Oklahoma game plays who?

USC, Utah, Texas?

Anyone who says Utah doesn't belong in that argument didn't watch the Sugar Bowl. Exactly which team looked like the SEC team -- the team with superior speed and athleticism and desire?

I'm not exactly sure how many third-and-longs Utah made, but it had to be 800. I'm not sure how many times the Utes' quick defensive line beat Alabama's senior-laden tough guys for sacks, but it had to be another 800.

Utah had the two best players on the field (defensive end Paul Kruger and wideout Freddie Brown) and the fire and passion of a championship team. Florida and LSU beat Ohio State in the last two national championship games because the Buckeyes couldn't handle the SEC's speed on the defensive line.

Utah gave the snobby league a taste of the humiliation it has handed out for years -- and hopefully forced pollsters to take a second look at non-BCS teams.

That, or use a little deductive reasoning.

Matt Hayes covers college football for Sporting News and is an analyst on NFL Network's College Football Now. E-mail him at mhayes@sportingnews.com.

'Every big game we end up blowing it'

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/2008-09-14-ohiostate-lockerroom_N.htm

Buckeyes' lament: 'Every big game we end up blowing it'
By Kelly Whiteside, USA TODAY
9-14-8

LOS ANGELES — Ohio State senior left tackle Alex Boone was one of the last players to leave his locker room following his team's 35-3 loss to No. 1 Southern California, but he was still steaming on full boil.

"I can't believe we screwed up so badly," Boone said. "I feel like this is the national championship all over again, stupid penalties, stupid mistakes, roughing the passer, holding, offsides, personal fouls."

The Buckeyes lost the last two national title games to speedier, more athletic Southeastern Conference teams, including last year's mistake-filled loss to LSU. Saturday, the Buckeyes were undone by miscues in the second quarter and scored the fewest points in coach Jim Tressel's eight-year tenure. They also might have fumbled away a chance at their third consecutive Bowl Championship Series title game.

"Every big game we end up blowing it for ourselves, not to say they weren't a great team," Boone said. "I think it must be nervousness. …. Guys come out here and see 100,000 people and they start to get antsy. We can't play that way."

With a remaining schedule which includes only two teams currently ranked, the No. 14 Buckeyes (2-1) will need plenty of help to get back into national title contention by season's end. Next week, they host Troy before beginning their Big Ten schedule Sept. 27 against Minnesota. They face No. 10 Wisconsin in Madison on Oct. 4, host No. 17 Penn State on Oct. 25 and travel to Illinois on Nov. 15.

Last year, in one of the most tumultuous seasons in college football history, the Buckeyes were able to overcome a loss to Illinois in November to climb back to the title game. Even if OSU wins the remainder of its games, it might face longer odds this fall. Since the Buckeyes once again faltered on the biggest of stages, voters might be more reluctant to place Ohio State ahead of a team from the SEC with the same record.

"The only difference between this one and that one (to LSU) is we have a season ahead of us," said linebacker Marcus Freeman. "We have to turn it around and still try to win the Big Ten championship."

In the second quarter, trailing 14-3, a holding penalty on OSU guard Ben Person nullified quarterback Todd Boeckman's 21-yard touchdown pass to Brian Robiskie. On their next offensive possession, Boeckman's pass was cut off by USC linebacker Rey Maualuga, who returned the interception for a 48-yard score.

"We just shot ourselves in foot with penalties and turnovers," Boeckman said. By halftime, it was 21-3, and the locker room was as quiet as study hall.

"At halftime nobody was saying anything," Boone said. "I mean what the hell? We're Ohio State. We should be screaming and swearing everything you can think of, and guys were hanging their heads. You don't know what to say to them. You start screaming, and they just put their heads down even more."

The play of freshman quarterback Terrelle Pryor was one of the Buckeyes' few bright spots. Pryor, who alternated snaps with Boeckman through most of the game, competed seven of nine passes for 52 yards and rushed 11 times for another 40. USC was forced to respect Pryor's running ability, containing him better in the second half. "They started putting everyone outside the box so I couldn't get it outside," Pryor said.

Boeckman (14-for-21 for 84 yards) was intercepted twice and sacked four times. When asked if he would consider changing his starting quarterback, Tressel didn't seem inclined to replace his fifth-year senior with a freshman. "There's always competition for playing time," Tressel said. "I don't know about the starting spot or any of that business, but obviously we'll go back and evaluate everything."

"I thought Terrelle did a good job from a composure standpoint," Tressel said. "Being thrown in a stage like this, he probably played more than the first two weeks combined. Overall, he did a lot of good things. Obviously he's got a lot of talent, not just running. He can throw the ball in there hard."

The Buckeyes were without star running back Chris "Beanie" Wells who has an injured right foot. Redshirt freshman Dan Herron started in Wells' place and had 51 yards on 11 carries. Afterward the Buckeyes refused make excuses, but USC coach Pete Carroll said that without Wells the Buckeyes were forced to run more laterally than powering down the field.

As they headed to the bus, Ohio State seemed more resolved than defeated. "This team is (as upset) as we'll ever be," Boone said. "We're going back to work tomorrow. I won't be surprised if guys go home straight to watch film for four hours."

Added Pryor: "We'll pick it up and be fine … From now on, we won't get stopped. We won't. We're going to work hard, study more in the film room, because I don't want to feel like this again and I'm sure nobody else wants to."

Robalini's College Bowl Plan

Robalini's College Bowl Plan
Robert Sterling

If the 2007 college football didn't settle that the current NCAA Bowl Championship Series is a joke, it's because it pretty much had already been settled long ago. Until now, the most egregious foul occurred in 2003, when USC, the best team in football, was left out of the championship game due to a dubious computer ranking of #3. (Did Diebold make the computers?) But this season, the general conceit of the BCS championship, that at the end of the year two teams would clearly set themselves apart from the rest of the pack, has been proven a fraud. Indeed, the only team to even indicate it could theoretically be unbeatable was Hawaii, and they still were snubbed from the championship due to the inferior conference they play in.

The biggest change in recent years was to increase the BCS to five games rather than four, giving viewers the four traditional major Bowl games (the Rose, Fiesta, Orange & Sugar) near New Years and a championship game a week later. Though it certainly increased college football television revenues (at least in the short term) by adding the game, rather than improving the system, it made it worse, making the big four bowl games nothing more than glorified exhibitions.

Out of this chaos comes my modest proposal, which is (among millions of others) a plan to create a true playoff system for an NCAA college football championship. Like every other one out there, it has one decided virtue: it is better than the system currently in place.

With this plan, I had a few goals:

1. Respect the traditions of the big four bowl games as much as possible, even more so than the current system does;
2. Make sure that the big four bowls actually were a central part of crowning the championship;
3. Allow bowl games with notable histories of their own to be included in the mix; and, perhaps most important:
4. Create a playoff system that produces an actual season championship.

Taken this together, here are the basics of the plans...

Sixteen teams make the playoffs, consisting of the following:

Automatic bids:

* The top two teams from the ACC, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac-10 and SEC;
* The top team from the Big East;
* Notre Dame if it is in the top 16 of the AP poll;

The other four or five spaces will be filled by the following:

* Any of the other five conference champions who are in the top 25 of the AP poll;
* Any other team that is in the top eight of the AP poll;

The priority of the above will be according to their AP ranking. If this total does not equal sixteen teams, then the rest of the spots will be filled according to AP ranking.

(Granted, the AP has refused to be included in the current system, but in this theoretical example, the AP would agree simply because it would be less controversial.)

With this system in place, there wouldn't have been much controversy over the sixteen teams picked this season. In fact, the only team that would have qualified before this last Saturday that wasn't in the AP top sixteen would be number 21 BYU, who would've replaced number sixteen Clemson. (I think teams should be rewarded for being conference champions.)

Why did I say "before" this last Saturday rather than after? Because many of last weekend's games would be redundant under my plan, as five conference championships would be part of the playoffs.

That's correct: instead of being played the first Saturday in December with the Army-Navy game, The ACC, Big 12 and the SEC championships would instead be played the second Saturday of December, as part of the opening round of playoff bowl games. Under new banners as the Peach Bowl (ACC), the Cotton Bowl (Big 12) and the Liberty Bowl (SEC), these games would be joined by two new conference championship games: the Gator Bowl (Big Ten) and the Holiday Bowl (Pac-10.) A sixth bowl game, the Florida Citrus Bowl, would be hosted by the Big East champion. Two more bowl games, the Independence Bowl and the Sun Bowl, would round out the "Super Saturday" of eight bowl games that would knock off eight teams.

Under this scenario, here's how the matchup would've looked this coming weekend, trying to respect rankings where possible and historical traditions in which team goes to the Independence Bowl and Sun Bowl:

Cotton Bowl (Dallas) Big 12 - Missouri (1) - Oklahoma (9)
Florida Citrus Bowl (Orlando) Big East Host - West Virginia (2) - Brigham Young (21)
Gator Bowl (Jacksonville) Big Ten - Ohio State (3) - Illinois (15)
Holiday Bowl (San Diego) Pac-10 - USC (8) - Arizona State (13)
Independence Bowl (Shreveport) - Georgia (4) - Hawaii (11)
Liberty Bowl (Memphis) SEC - LSU (5) - Tennessee (14)
Peach Bowl (Atlanta) ACC - Virginia Tech (6) - Boston College (12)
Sun Bowl (El Paso) - Kansas (7) - Florida (10)

Let's pretend the only upsets this coming weekend are Oklahoma beating Missouri (which they did last weekend) and Hawaii upsetting Georgia (which may not really be an upset, since Hawaii is undefeated.) That would lead to the four traditional big bowl games on January 1st and 2nd, with the traditional teams tied to them:

Rose Bowl - Ohio State (3, Big Ten Champion) - USC (8, Pac-10 Champion)
Fiesta Bowl Oklahoma (9, Big 12 Champion) - Hawaii (11)
Orange Bowl Virginia Tech (6, ACC Champion) - West Virginia (2, Big East Champion)
Sugar Bowl LSU (5, SEC Champion) - Kansas (7)

On the Thursday and Friday before the NFL divisional playoff weekend (January 8-9 to January 14-15), two semifinal game would be played between the four big bowl champs, with the top seeding facing the bottom on Thursday night and the other two on Friday night.

This would lead to the college football championship game, which would happen a week later on the Saturday before the two NFL conference championships. Imagine what a weekend of football that would be: the college football title game followed by the two matchups leading to the Super Bowl. Be sure to stock up on beer!

The only possible glitch in the system is continued snubbing of the five minor football conference teams. Hawaii and BYU would make it in my system, but it would be good to include a clause that any undefeated team gets an automatic bid so a team like Hawaii this year wouldn't be snubbed.

But otherwise, this system really works well. It strengthens the value of the traditional big four bowls. It strengthens the value of eight traditionally noted bowl games. It ensures the five major conferences have a place on the New Years Day bowl games. And it ultimately creates a playoff system that would likely boost college football television revenues substantially. That's probably the biggest key of all, and why I think my proposed system would be a smashing success.