Lack Of Institutional Control

Lack of Institutional control, as prepared by the NCAA committee on infractions:

In determining whether there has been a lack of institutional control when a violation of NCAA rules has been found it is necessary to ascertain what formal institutional policies and procedures were in place at the time the violation of NCAA rules occurred and whether those policies and procedures, if adequate, were being monitored and enforced. It is important that policies and procedures be established so as to deter violations and not merely to discover their existence after they have taken place. In a case where proper procedures exist and are appropriately enforced, especially when they result in the prompt detection, investigation and reporting of the violations in question, there may be no lack of institutional control although the individual or individuals directly involved may be held responsible.

OK, so we all have heard the news about O.J. Mayo taking illegal benefits during his time at USC. What's sad is that nobody, probably not even Trojan fans, are all that surprised by it. Mayo was a prep phenom that many considered one of the best players in the country. Yet very few programs recruited him coming out of high school. Why? Because those programs knew he had a checkered past and many doubted his eligibility as an amateur athlete. I mean, seriously, the kid brought along a documentary crew to film him visiting the SC campus for the first time. That's trouble with a capital T.

So here we are, again, talking about a super star SC player who took money during his time on campus. We're here, again, looking at receipts and paper trails dug up by an investigative journalist. And, again, the University has no idea that any of this happened. They had no clue that their best player (who wore new clothes , sported a flat screen TV in his room, and flew his friends and family out across country to watch games) was doing anything wrong. Again.

Here's the thing. The Reggie Bush incident was supposed to wake up USC. We have agents in our locker rooms? Hmmm... maybe that's not such a good idea. Yet, guess who was hanging around the Galen center locker rooms? That's right! Sports agents! The guys implicated in the investigation said there were hanging around the program for the last two years. So, in the time after their program was publicly chastised for giving professional agents access to their amateur players, they didn't absolutely zero to prevent it from happening again. In fact, according to transcripts from the investigation, these guys (well, their emissaries anyways) were an integral part of the USC basketball staff!!

From Pat Forde's piece about the whole thing:

The swag allegedly was financed by a man named Rodney Guillory, who previously had gotten former USC guard Jeff Trepagnier in trouble for accepting agent kickbacks. Not only did that fail to get Guillory banned from campus, he also wound up a fixture within the program. Of course, who wouldn't want a 43-year-old scammer hanging around a college freshman?

According to transcripts from OTL's interviews with Johnson, Guillory was sitting in the USC basketball offices when Mayo's signed letter-of-intent rolled off the fax machine. Johnson also said coach Tim Floyd talked frequently with Guillory about Mayo whenever "issues" arose.

I think this incident will hurt USC more than they can imagine. And not just in basketball. The NCAA is still investigating the Reggie Bush case. One thing they'll look at is a lack of institutional control (as defined above). Does SC have institutional control? I think you have to say NO. They're letting the same problems, and the same problem characters, continue to run their programs afoul. They aren't preventing these things from happening in the first place and that is one of the criteria for finding them at fault.

Will the NCAA finally come down on these guys? I think the public pressure is mounting. When guys like Pat Forde are calling for the death penalty, it's hard to imagine a scenario where they only get away with only a slap on the wrist.