A veritable truckload of information about the NCAA Infractions Committee and their handling of the case against star University of Southern California running back Reggie Bush has recently been released into the public domain, and it isn’t good reading for the NCAA.
Bush, who received impermissible benefits that have brought the Trojan football program, dominant in the Pac-12 for the best part of a decade, back to the field in recent years, is long gone, now earning his millions in the NFL.
But it’s the plight of former running backs coach, Todd McNair, that is suddenly shining an unfavourable light on the NCAA Infractions Committee, who levelled various penalties at USC, including scholarship restrictions, a two-year Bowl ban and probation.
For those who think the NCAA’s ability to properly and fairly police college sports is crumbling, then this seems to add more fuel to the fire.
McNair was found to have known about Bush’s impermissible benefits, but failed to report it. He lost his job at USC and was slapped with a one-year ‘show cause’ notice from the NCAA, which required any school wanting to hire him during that period to explain why they should be allowed to do so, and await a final judgement from the NCAA.
McNair wasn’t hired during that period. In fact, he hasn’t worked in college football since.
That brings us to a lawsuit McNair filed against the NCAA in 2011. It’s gathering momentum now, after the Los Angeles Times obtained a series of e-mails sent between various members of the NCAA Infractions Committee after the newspaper, along with the New York Times, waged a long battle to get them unsealed.
It doesn’t make good reading for the NCAA, but will doubtless please McNair’s legal team, who are suing for lost earnings after having his name dragged through the mud. He claimed that the investigation was one-sided. Based on the documents that I’ve read, McNair has a pretty good case. It would seem that the NCAA committee were far from being the unbiased organisation they should be.
Here are some of the most interesting comments:
• USC were criticised by the committee for hiring Lane Kiffin to replace Pete Carroll as head coach. They mused about whether they could use the hiring of the controversial Kiffin as another way to demonstrate that the school displayed a lack of institutional control.
• Rodney Uphoff, in an undated memo, declared that USC needed “a wake-up call”.
• Uphoff unbelievably compared the ethical conduct case against McNair to circumstances surrounding the Oklahoma City bombing, claiming that their evidence against the Trojan coach was stronger than that in the case against Terry Nichols, who was convicted as Timothy McVeigh’s accomplice.
• Shep Cooper called McNair “a lying, morally bankrupt criminal, in my view, and a hypocrite of the highest order”.
Interesting reading, isn’t it? Some of it, I’m sure, is approaching legal dynamite, and it makes you wonder how the committee could possibly preside in an unbiased manner – as is their charter – when their thoughts are as detailed above. Cooper’s thoughts about McNair surely come pretty close to being slanderous?
I can only imagine the delight of McNair’s lawyers when this treasure trove of information came out, and the long-held notion by many around the USC program that the NCAA had a pre-conceived result where the Trojans were concerned is as clear as day from these documents. At least we can now understand why the NCAA fought so hard for so long to ensure these documents remained sealed.
McNair will barely need to turn up to court daily with this stuff out on the table. The NCAA, aside from any allegations of being corrupt or unbiased in dealing with USC, are certainly guilty of being stupid. I mean, they’ve left a traceable e-mail trail for the world to now view, and have just about made McNair’s case as a result. And these are the people running college football? Not very encouraging, is it?
The very fact that the NCAA committee seem to be taking it upon themselves to teach the Trojans a lesson is worrying. The entire NCAA organisation is supposed to be unbiased. They are to examine the facts as they are presented, and make rulings based on those facts, not on the personal thoughts and feelings of the committee.
I liken this to a judge ruling a person guilty of murder because he didn’t like the look of the man, rather than based on the evidence. I understand McNair and Bush were guilty, and I accept that USC needed to be punished, but I can’t help but wonder if, say, this were Oregon State or Maryland or Florida Atlantic, whether the punishment would have been as severe?
When I think about USC’s sanctions as compared to those handed to schools like Miami-FL and Ohio State, I shake my head. The infractions committed by Buckeyes and Hurricanes players were far more widespread. At USC, it was just Reggie Bush (okay, and basketball star OJ Mayo, too) doing the wrong thing. At Ohio State, a group of players were busted for selling memorabilia illegally, and at Miami-FL, there’s a trail of infractions over a long period of time.
Even Penn State’s sanctions for the Sandusky sexual abuse nightmare were lessened almost immediately by a surprisingly-forgiving NCAA. There was no such let-off for the Trojans, who, in my mind, copped a punishment that far outweighed their crime. It seems to ring true, when you compare it to the examples I stated above. Yet, somehow, the Trojans copped the worst of it.
The way the NCAA – based on these documents – appear to have handled the case is a worry. It’s as though they thought themselves to be judge, jury and executioner. Read the documents and see for yourself: they demonstrate a fairly clear case of malice towards USC. In terms of this being a catalyst for change in the future, I suppose it’s a good thing that this is out in the open. You can count on there being far more scrutiny on the NCAA in the future.
Unfortunately, it’s a little late for USC.
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