The NCAA threw the book at storied USC, imposing a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation and signficant scholarship losses that likely will damage the program's foundations. "So higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring."With pointed language, the NCAA said in its report that USC's oversight of its top athletes ran contrary to the fundamental principles of amateur sports. The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds — football's Pete Carroll and basketball's Tim Floyd — left USC in the past year.
USC reacted with uniform outrage to the harshness of the sanctions, promising an appeal. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.
While no action would go into effect until USC's appeals are heard by the NCAA, Hancock said there would be no 2004 champion if USC's victory is vacated.
The NCAA says Bush received lavish gifts from two fledgling sports marketers hoping to sign him. Members of the Heisman Trust have said they might review Bush's award if he were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
USC, which plans to appeal some of the football-related penalties, released details later Thursday of its defense arguments. The NCAA cited a 2 1/2-minute phone call in January 2006 between fledgling marketer Lloyd Lake, who allegedly provided many of Bush's illegal benefits and USC assistant coach Todd McNair, who said he couldn't remember the call. The NCAA took no further action against the men's basketball team, which had already banned itself from postseason play last spring and vacated its wins from Mayo's season. We're still going to play an extremely high level of football. USC is the first Football Bowl Subdivision school to be banned from postseason play since Alabama served a two-year ban ending in 2003. The NCAA condemned McNair's professed ignorance of Bush's dealings with sports marketers Lake and Michael Michaels.
