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.

Who Knew What

With the release of Tarnished Heisman today, the discussion around Bush-gate, and who knew what, is heating up. There are some interesting interviews with Lyod Lake, the wannabe agent and ex-felon, who is suing Reggie Bush over money owed to him from the former Trojan running back. He believes the USC coaches did know about the whole thing, but just kept it quiet.

In a piece written in the OC register, Lake says that USC's coaches should have noticed that Bush and his family were suddenly living the high-life:

"They knew Reggie was getting money from somewhere. They had to know," said Lloyd Lake. "Your family doesn't go from one extreme to the other, from barely making $1,400 a month in rent to paying a $4,200 (a month) mortgage, without that money coming from someone or somewhere."

A pretty obvious observation:

"If we didn't do it, who did? If we didn't buy this stuff, who did? They didn't win the lottery," Lake said. "They didn't go from never going to an away game to going to every away game, including Hawaii. From Reggie getting a new car to them living in a new house - it's too much of a change in your lifestyle. They didn't get a raise."

In another interview with the Union Tribune, Lake and his attorney mention a very easy way for Reggie to clear his name:

“If Reggie wanted to clear this thing up, all he'd have to do is show one canceled rent check,” Watkins said.

Said Lake: “Then we'd drop the lawsuit, and I'd give him all the book money.”

Lake also talked about an anonymous e-mail that the USC coaches received in 2005 warning them that Bush was taking money. He knew about the e-mail because Bush's parents called him up in a "panic". The only way Bush's parents could have heard about the e-mail is if the coaches asked Reggie about it. That should be something easy for USC to find and provide to the NCAA. If it is true, and trust me I don't believe everything this guy says, but if it is true then that could be a huge smoking gun. If they had any suspicion at all that Reggie might not be eligible and they did nothing to investigate it then that's NCAA sanctions time.

At the very least, the NCAA and PAC-10 have to force USC to forfeit games in 2005. That's an absolute no-brainier. Going back to games played in 2004 might be harder to prove as I have yet to see any receipts or evidence of illegal benefits back that far. Lake mentions in a recorded conversation with LaMar Griffen (Reggie's step father) that he has been giving them over $200K in gifts for a year and a half...

I never talked to him about [paying back $12,000 for a car], I wasn’t even looking for it back. I just wanted him to come to the company. I told him everything we did for you, because right now it’s about 200 grand. He can keep that or give it to you. If we get Reggie, he can keep that $200,000 we spent over the year and a half, whatever, see what I’m saying? He can just say “okay pay that back to my dad,” or he can give it to us, and we’ll give it to you.

... but that's just him making a statement. I don't know if they have any evidence that far back.

At the end of the day, with all the evidence that Tarnished Heisman and Yahoo! have uncovered, only the most die-hard Trojan fan could state that Bush didn't take illegal benefits. It is pretty obvious that he did and Bush could easily clear his name by providing evidence to the contrary. Did the USC coaches know? Maybe they did. Should they have know? I think the evidence is growing that they should have known as well.

Personally, I think at least some of the coaches knew about Bush and they just looked the other way. That's almost impossible to prove, but it is hard to believe they didn't notice that their best player was suddenly driving a new car and his family traveling all over the country to watch him play. It is pretty easy to add 2 and 2 together here. It's not like we're talking about some walk-on kicker either. It was Reggie freakin' Bush. If you can't keep tabs on your super-star athlete then you're doing something wrong.

Will the University get punished? There was a precedent set when Charles Woodson at Michigan took illegal benefits but the University received no punishment. Will that happen in this case? I don't know, but I think the NCAA and PAC-10 are under A LOT of pressure and attention with the Reggie Bush situation. If they do nothing then they'll come across as weak. I think at least some form of punishment (a lost scholarship, probation, no bowl) will have to be applied. The case is just too high profile for them to do nothing.

The Smoking Gun

Read 'em and weep Trojans. Here is the actual documentation used in the Yahoo investigation into the illegal benefits Reggie Bush received while at USC. It includes credit card vouchers for Bush and hotel receipts signed by Reggie. The deed to the Bush family house in his agent's name. Copies of e-mails between his step father and the New Era agents about promoting Reggie once he turned pro. Here is my favorite:

Bush posing in front of a car New Era bought for him

BUSTED!

TarnishedHeisman.com

With the release of the investigative reporting book on Reggie Bush coming out in 6 days, a website is supposedly being setup to reveal documentation of the almost $300,000 he and his family received in illegal benefits. The site, www.tarnishedheisman.com, has yet to go live, but it should be up to coincide with the release of the book on January 15th. I'm sure they'll be getting a lot of traffic on that day.

The domain is registered to a company run by the book's author, Don Yaeger. Yaeger is an investigative reporter and associate editor for Sports Illustrated. The initial reaction from the LA Time Trojan blog: "it doesn't look good".

That's just music to my ears.

Bush Tapes Played

Well, well, well. If you haven't stayed up on the latest news from the Reggie Bush saga, here is what you need to know. Lloyd Lake, the wanna-be marketer and agent, has claimed for a long time that he had audio tapes that he secretly recorded of himself and Reggie Bush. These tapes, he claimed, showed that they had a financial relationship while he was still at USC. Trojan fans everywhere denied that such tapes existed. Fast forward to this week, and low and behold, Lake produced the tapes for the NCAA. In a six hour meeting, he played portions of the tapes for investigators. Finally, some tangible results from this investigation! It looks like it might be just a matter of time now before USC gets hit with sanctions, including having to forfeit games and possibly a national title. Good. It couldn't have happened to a more deserving program!

Look Who's Talking

Today Llyod Lake is scheduled to talk to NCAA investigators about the Reggie Bush case. According to his attorney, Lake gave $291,600 in payments, lodging and other accommodations to Bush and his family from November 2004 to January 2006. If the NCAA finds all of Lake's evidence credible then they could rule Bush ineligible during that time frame. That would force USC to forfeit those games. This might be just what Karl Dorrell needs! He could get two more ticks in the win column for his time in Westwood against the hated Trojans. Maybe Karl should send Lake a gift basket.

The real question is will the investigators find any wrong doing by the University? There doesn't seem to be any direct links between Lake and Michaels (Bush's supposed agents) and the Trojan coaching staff. Even the attorneys involved say there was likely no contact or knowledge by Carroll and company. However, if the NCAA finds that Southern Cal should have know about these transgressions then they can still be held accountable. Not very likely, but the possibility still exists. We'll keep an eye on this and see what happens.

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.

Will Bushgate Ever End?

The short answer is no.

At least that's the impression I got from reading Michael Silver's latest article on Sports Illustrated. Silver offers up a hypothetical change in policy that the NCAA can use to force Bush into testifying on the case. While an interesting proposition, there is no chance it will be adopted. What I found more interesting were some comments he received from one of the investigators.

Silver interviewed Pac-10 associate commissioner Ron Barker for his article. What few people remember is that there are actually two investigations underway. Besides the NCAA, the conference is also investigating the Bush family antics, and Barker is leading that investigation. When asked about the status of things, Barker had this to say:

"This case is a long, long way from being over. There is a lot of information being gathered that I can't speak about. We've had some interesting things happen in the last two weeks that have put some new life into this."

It has been over 7 months since the release of the original Yahoo Article that started the entire controversy. If Baker is saying that they are still a long, long way from finishing their investigation then what time frame are we walking about? One year? Two years? More!?! Yahoo took 8 months to collect a mountain of evidence. If even half of that evidence holds up then that should be more than enough to find that Bush and family violated NCAA rules concearning illegal benefits. I'm not sure what evidence the Pac-10 has collected to date, but if that isn't enough to come to a conclusion then I wonder what will.

The second part of Baker's comments seem to shed some hope that the investigation is still moving forward. That's what I thought the first time I read them, but when I read them again, it made me even more skeptical that the investigation will end anytime soon. I'm not sure what events have sparked new life into the investigation, but two weeks ago the Pac-10 investigation was all but dead. I'm sure two weeks from now it will be dead again. Maybe that is because of a lack of cooperation from the parties but I also think it comes from a lack of will. I don't think the conference or the NCAA is really pursuing this case with much vigor.

When asked what is delaying the investigation, Baker said it was because he couldn't get anyone to speak to him.

"This is the first time I've encountered anything like this, where all parties -- even those who've turned against each other -- have not cooperated with an investigation," Barker said. "I've never had a problem getting the information in the past."

Even if the parties won't talk to Barker directly, there are these alleged audio tapes that Bush's wannabe agent Michaels said he recorded. Who knows if those tapes even exist or if they will surface sometime in the future but they might be enough to convince the investigators of foul play. But with Michaels settling his lawsuit with Bush and part of that settlement being a non-disclosure clause, I think that is pretty much a dead-end. Ultimately, Bush has bought Michaels' silence and there isn't anything the NCAA can do about it.

At the end of the day, there doesn't seem to be much hope that anything will come from this investigation. Since nobody is talking and the conference and the NCAA don't seem highly motivated to push it forward, I think we'll never see a satisfying resolution. It is sad too, because Bush is basically making a mockery of the NCAA. What we've learned from this is that a player can receive illegal benefits and as long as nobody finds out about it until after he leaves school then he can get away with it.