USC To Face NCAA Punishment

According to an ESPN source the NCAA is likely going to slap the USC Trojans athletic department with a number of sanctions following an investigation of possible violations by the football and men’s basketball teams. The investigation came after a number of allegations were put forward citing recruiting violations for superstar players like Heisman winner Reggie Bush and basketball phenom O.J. Mayo, all of which turned out to be true. If the Trojans are found culpable it has been reported that football team will face 2-year ban from bowl games, a reduction in scholarships (a number that could be 20 or more) and will likely have to forfeit wins starting from at least the 2004 season. In the last decade under now former Head Coach Pete Carroll the Trojans won 7 Pac-10 titles and a pair of National Championships. It is possible that all of USC’s success over that time could be completely erased from the books like we saw with the University of Michigan’s men’s basketball program of the early 90s during the Fab 5 years.

A lot of people were surprised when Pete Carroll left USC for the Seattle Seahawks this winter but it’s looking more and more like he made the right decision to get out when he did. Carroll had been revered as a college coaching God with all of his success during the past 10 years but now he reputation amongst the coaching ranks will be tarnished. The NCAA has not banned a football team from postseason play in the last 7 years but an Infractions Committee spokesman was quoted as saying they wanted to make an example of USC, I can’t really disagree with that thinking.

These sanctions will have a serious impact on college football in California and the Pac-10 in general, in fact it will probably have an effect on college recruiting throughout the country. Under Pete Carroll the Trojans brought in the best High School athletes year after year and maintained a talent pool that drew the ire of every other team in the Pac-10. In addition to dominating the state of California, USC was also notorious for pilfering some of the best players from the North-East and other regions where there aren’t many prestigious football programs. The bowl ban and scholarship reduction is going to cripple USC’s football program for years to come but may go a long way to restoring the former glory of many other teams in the Pac-10 like Cal and UCLA who have fallen into mediocrity as USC rose to astronomical levels since 2000. The NCAA is essence is going to break up the Trojans’ recruiting monopoly so you can expect to see a lot more talent on teams that have competed with USC for recruits in the coming years. Head Coach Lane Kiffin will have a tough task ahead of him and may be regretting taking his dream job after spending only one year as the coach of the Tennessee Volunteers before jumping ship. Then again he has the opportunity to prove that he really is a great coach if he can steer USC through the next two years and re-establish one of the Nation’s most glorified programs in the coming years.

As an endnote it will interesting to see how the rest of Pete Carroll’s career pans out. He was a failure in his first attempt at NFL head coaching with the New York Jets and New England Patriots before coming to USC. I never thought Carroll was a particularly good game-planner or play-caller, he was simply a terrific recruiter who won games with talent alone. Now it appears he brought that talent in thanks to illicit means and if he cannot succeed at the helm of the Seahawks I feel many college programs will be very skeptical of hiring him where only a few months ago they would drooling at the opportunity. In an off season filled with college football shakeups, USC’s punishment will have far-reaching implications.