Another SCandal

As if Reggiegate wasn't bad enough, now one-and-done Trojan basketball star O.J. Mayo is accused of taking cash and gifts while at USC.

Ugh.

P.S. Pat Forde asks: "So you take the Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of 'lack of institutional control'?" He goes on:

If all the allegations stand up, USC athletic director Mike Garrett and the Inspector Clouseaus who comprise his compliance staff must lose their jobs over these serial embarrassments, or the school has no credibility whatsoever. When USC's two highest-profile sports both have star players allegedly on the brazen take from agents, somebody needs to answer for it. A lot of somebodies.

I would tend to agree with that. Fire Mike Brey Garrett?

Comments

[USC 2L]

Fire the NCAA? This allegedly started four years ago. The NCAA investigated Mayo in depth. They held an eligibility hearing in West Virginia. But I guess its USC's fault.

[Scientizzle]

Great. Rodney Guillory appears to be the name of the guy that's the problem...and it's not the first time he's been an issue for USC basketball...

If there is truly a problem on the level of institutional control, USC deserves NCAA sanctions.

[JD]

OJ commuted from West Virginia to Kentucky (or is it Ohio?) so he could play varsity ball in seventh grade?!?

IMO, some state HS athletic associations have some 'splaining to do.

[lex icon]

If the problems are four years ancient, and the NCAA couldn't dig it up even though they looked, and they have been investigatory tools at their disposal, maybe the NCAA should get the death penalty.

[yea]

usc already has huge edges in geography and financial resources over most other programs. i dont understand why they feel the need to engage in this shadiness all the time.

[BK]

[stifling urge to say something]

[teresa]

Did you watch the segment on ESPN? It sounds like he only picked USC because Guillory lived in LA. He latched onto Mayo when he was a high school underclassman. Can we expect kids at 15 to fully understand when they are being used? If this relationship was fully investigated by USC and the NCAA before he started school, how can they punish them now?

Also, yea - how does USC have a huge edge in geography? UCLA is in the same city.

[Angrier and Angrier]

Seems to me USC should have said, "hold the Mayo."

[Couldn't hold it in any longer]

OJ STRIKES AGAIN!!!

[Sandy Underpants]

USC has been not guilty on every count. How is that punishable? Furthermore, USC football has single-handidly run CFB this decade and as a result College Football has never been more popular than under the leadership of Pete Carroll and the USC elite team of the decade.

I'm so sick of jealous haters, like Forde and that pencil neck geek from Yahoo Sports, trying to come down on USC, how about shutting up and letting the people who actually have power do the deciding.

[Andrew]

Guillory and BDA were pretty slick. As soon as OJ Mayo enrolled, BDA stopped paying Guillory so that he was no longer "representing" the agency. He then used a scam non-profit account to subsidize Mayo once he got to LA. It's damn near impossible for USC or the NCAA to keep tabs on this kind of chicanery (heck, the NCAA couldn't uncover the connection even though it was a more straightforward relationship when Mayo was still in high school). Not to mention, who doesn't think this happens with almost every other NBA-worthy high schooler? Dan Wetzel doesn't build a very strong case for condemning USC in this, but he raises a lot of other good points.

[Patrick]

I liked Tony Kornheiser's assessment on his radio show this morning. He discussed how USC has basically received a free pass for Bushgate by claiming, "We didn't know" (and that includes Pete Carroll), but it's absolutely inexcusable to have failed to exercise sufficient institutional control to prevent such a violation from repeating itself. "We didn't know" does not work twice. It's pathetic, willful blindness, and a terrible embarrassment for USC.

Frankly, I think USC's athletic department, basketball program, and all other parties in and around Trojan basketball didn't WANT to know what was going on. OJ Mayo clearly came in with a lot of suspicious baggage, yet his hype and the possibility of raising the program's profile were unfortunately made the priority. Similarly, I have a very hard time believing that the football program, and Pete Carroll specifically, had no clue that the Reggie Bush and his family were receiving extreme financial benefits. I mean, c'mon, when your future Heisman running back shows up at practice sporting uber-expensive bling, do red flags not go off? Kornheiser put it best this morning when he called for the firing of everyone involved in the Mayo fiasco, including Garrett and Floyd. Then he continued by saying that if he were the President of USC, he'd call Pete Carroll in and say "see those guys going out the door? That will be you if there's another Bush-like incident with your football team".

It's about time someone's saying this ...

[Brendan]

Pending further facts that contract my current understanding of the situation, I think Garrett should be the first to go, and it should happen sooner rather than later. Frankly, I've never been all that impressed with him anyway. He let Paul Hackett and Henry Bibby each stay a year too long, he stumbled on Pete Carroll by pure dumb luck (his third choice after a bungled search), and... well... I'll give him credit for Floyd as a good hire, at least in a basketball sense, but this business is clearly a blight on that, and it's an even bigger blight on Garrett. You can't blame either the football staff or the basketball staff for both Reggiegate and Mayogate, but you can certainly blame the A.D. for both, and particularly for not keeping a very, very close eye on things after Reggiegate. I don't think USC is deliberately flouting the rules, because it really wouldn't make any sense to do that -- as someone said earlier, USC does not need to cheat in order to succeed, and by cheating, they would be taking a terrible risk that all of their success will come crashing down. What's the upside? I don't see it. But I think there's an inexcusable laxity in preventing these things from happening, as if they don't realize they're under a microscope and they need to keep their God-damn asses CLEAN. I don't understand what they don't understand, but it's an embarrassment. I think Garrett should be gone, and both Carroll and Floyd and should be given ultimatums. There needs to be some accountability at some point, both to preserve the program's reputation and to prevent more dire consequences down the road.

[Brendan]

P.S. I'll add that, when I worked for the athletic department's tutoring office, there were VERY strict rules with regard to NCAA regulations -- no winking and nodding, no looking the other way, none of that. They were VERY serious about following the rules. I don't know if that attitude has changed, or if it doesn't extend to other areas of compliance and enforcement (outside of the tutoring realm). But regardless, that's the attitude they need to have. It's not worth sacrificing the program's future, and its already-suffering reputation, for the sake of one good player, one good coach, whatever.

Oh, and by the way, if these allegations are true, f*** you, O.J. Mayo. I want a shirt that says, "I sold my basketball program's soul, and all I got was this lousy t-shirt and a first-round loss to Kansas State."

[Brendan]

P.P.S. I forgot: Garrett let the old women's basketball coach stay a year or two too long as well. He has consistently been slow to recognize that big-sport coaches weren't pulling their weight. (I can't speak for the lower-profile sports, as I don't follow them as closely.) That has nothing directly to do with this scandal, obviously, but it's just my way of saying that I don't think there's some compelling reason for Trojans to want him to stick around. He's not that good of an A.D. anyway, and he's leading us down this rabbit hole to boot. So, to hell with him.

[BK]

A first round loss to KSU that you weren't deserving of anyway, mind you. :)

[Andrew]

Alright, now this is just getting ridiculous. First Brendan, I'm going to chide you on your leaping to judgment here when the facts aren't even in yet. If the Bush investigation reveals that Garrett, Carroll, and/or anyone else at the university or on the coaching staff had any idea that Bush's stepdad was setting up shady deals with an agent, then you have a case. Similarly, if these new allegations prove to be true and Tim Floyd or someone in the program or the compliance office knew something, again, let 'er rip. But for someone who is so adamant about the importance of "process", here you are jumping to conclusions and asserting a verdict based only on media accounts!

Second, your notion of the possible must've been concocted on Mars. You say,

But I think there's an inexcusable laxity in preventing these things from happening, as if they don't realize they're under a microscope and they need to keep their God-damn asses CLEAN.

But if any of the Bush or Mayo allegations are true, how in the hell can the university possibly track and prevent that? Really, I've just appointed you USC's VP of compliance. What are you going to do to find these things out and keep these kinds of things from happening, because HEADS MUST ROLL AND THIS MUST NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN! [cue Joe Loy]

Ever heard the saying that the only laws that count are the ones that are enforced (or enforceable)? Maybe you ought to give some thought to what is actually and truly enforceable when it comes to universities controlling runners' and agents' access to student-athletes.

Finally, your criticisms of Mike Garrett are absolutely absurd. Let's go point-by-point:

He let Paul Hackett and Henry Bibby each stay a year too long,

Paul Hackett was coach for three years. Firing a coach after two years into a five-year contract is almost never heard of, especially at the college ranks. Plus, when Carson Palmer went down injured in the 1999 season and USC did not have a legitimate starting QB and most of those losses were very close, we beat fUCLA (finally breaking the eight-game losing streak, if you recall) and barely lost 25-24 at Notre Lame (we choked away a 24-3 halftime lead). There's no way Hackett could've been fired after that season.

As for Bibby, you can argue that he should've been fired earlier, but he took USC to the NCAA tournament in 2002, and after we lost Clancy and Bluthenthal, 2003 results were no surprise. But are you really shocked that it took USC too long to fire a black coach? What do we look like -- Notre Dame?!?

he stumbled on Pete Carroll by pure dumb luck (his third choice after a bungled search)

I do not dispute that Garrett "stumbled" upon PC, who was actually the fourth choice (Mike Bellotti, Dennis Erickson, and Mike Riley were all wooed before PC). But "botched" is a strong word. Really, who the hell would've wanted to coach at USC after the Hackett debacle? And at the end of the day, you have to give credit where credit is due: PC was on nobody's radar, so the fact that PH went with him as opposed to, say, Hue Jackson (ugh) speaks to some degree in his favor.

and... well... I'll give him credit for Floyd as a good hire, at least in a basketball sense,

Floyd has been almost universally hailed as a brilliant hire, and the fact that he was able to recover after the Rick Majerus debacle and still get such a great coach speaks to his favor as well.

You can't blame either the football staff or the basketball staff for both Reggiegate and Mayogate, but you can certainly blame the A.D. for both, and particularly for not keeping a very, very close eye on things after Reggiegate.

This is just ridiculous. PC gets a pass, Tim Floyd gets a pass, but someone one chain up the ladder who has even less direct control and oversight of the goings on than either coach, should be fired? What the hell kind of logic is that? That's like saying Chertoff should have kept his job after the Katrina fiasco, but we should impeach Bush.

At the end of the day, how do you judge a big-school athletic director? By football and basketball results? Garrett has delivered on that, so, check. By minority hiring? Check. By finding good coaches in the other, smaller sports (see: women's soccer, tennis, swimming, track & field)? Check. By athletic revenue growth? Check. And you want to marginalize all of those facts to focus on two cases of possible malfeasance over which Garrett had virtually no ability to prevent? Dude, get real. The only difference between USC and virtually every other big-time athletic department is that USC is in a major media market, while most other major universities are in podunk towns with much less intense media scrutiny. Garrett hasn't proven to be the most accomplished AD imaginable, but he's done a very good job overall, and your criticisms of him are about as nearsighted and overzealous as it gets.

[Andrew]

PC was on nobody's radar, so the fact that PH went with him as opposed to, say, Hue Jackson (ugh) speaks to some degree in his favor.

I meant Garrett, not PH. Blech.