Tuesday, October 9, 2007

The Fall of Troy?

Tough week for the Trojans. Their 35 game home winning streak came to an end against lowly Stanford. Then they get news that Heisman-hopeful quarterback John David Booty broke a finger on his throwing hand. He could miss their next game against Arizona and maybe more.

But all of that is small potatoes to the biggest news of the week. After months of nothing, it looks like there might finally be a crack in the Reggie Bush case. Yes, that toothless, gutless, paper-tiger of an organization, the NCAA, might finally have someone willing to testify against Bush. The LA Times is reporting that Loyd Lake has agreed to meet with NCAA investigators and provide documentation of financial transactions between himself and Bush. Lake is a sports marketer who was supposed to represent Bush when he turned pro.

Until now the case was stuck in limbo because nobody would testify against Reggie. The NCAA is so inept they couldn't take any action without somebody going on record. This despite the fact that Yahoo! dug up a mountain of evidence on the former Trojan running back. The PAC-10 also has its own investigation but I haven't seen anything stating that Lake would meet with them as well. I'm pretty sure they could use his testimony with the NCAA in their investigation and levy their own penalties.

If either investigation finds that Bush received improper benefits while playing for the Trojans then USC could be forced to forfeit some games. The program could also face sanctions if investigators determine that coaches knew or should have known about the illegal benefits.

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