As Noah already pointed out in the comments, ESPN came out with a report today showing O.J. Mayo received cash and gifts while he was at USC, which is obviously against NCAA rules about amateurism.
Louis Johnson, who was a part of Mayo’s inner circle until recently, said Mayo accepted around $30,000 in cash and gifts during the past four years from Rodney Guillory, a 43-year-old Los Angeles event promoter. In addition to cash, the gifts included a flat-screen television for Mayo’s dorm room, cell phone service, a hotel room, clothes, meals and airline tickets for Mayo’s friends and a relative, according to Johnson, others with knowledge of the gifts and store receipts.
And what could be the most important part of the story:
Johnson provided “Outside the Lines” with receipts and invoices for many of the purchases, including the cell phone service.
They have proof. USC either knowingly or unknowingly broke the rules by playing someone who wasn’t an amateur.
With USC having two star players in recent years receive cash and gifts while they were at USC (O.J. Mayo and Reggie Bush), isn’t that by definition a lack of institutional control? One of the following has to be true:
1) USC was involved and knew their players were receiving all of the cash and breaking NCAA rules, or
2) USC wasn’t active enough to have any idea what was going on with their players, and didn’t learn from the Reggie Bush scandal.
Both are very bad, and as ESPN’s Pat Forde points out, should be grounds for the death penalty-type penalty that SMU famously received (ellipsis mine):
In a just world, USC basketball would have something in common with SMU football in the near future.
The death penalty.
…
You can plead ignorance once — and even that was almost impossible to believe, in the case of Bush. Plead it twice? Um, no. USC should be crushed by the NCAA, the Pacific-10 and its own administration.
Forde has it right. It probably won’t happen, but USC deserves major punishment for not having control of its program while players are breaking major NCAA rules.
The Mayo and Bush scandals aren’t even the only times USC has broken the rules in recent years — East Coast Bias has more, and Bruins Nation has had a long list somewhere I can’t seem to find. And even not including the money O.J. Mayo got, WILLisms.com figured out that the money Reggie Bush got was worse than what the SMU players got, even when adjusted for inflation.
It looks more and more like the problem at USC is truly a lack of institutional control.
Women’s water polo: UCLA is playing in the NCAA championship game today against USC. The UCLA women’s water polo team famously won the school’s 100th NCAA Championship a year ago and is looking for a four-peat, having won every title since 2005.
The Bruins are 32-0 this year, but even though they’re undefeated, a win today won’t come easy. They beat USC three times during the season by scores of 8-4, 8-7 and 8-7, two of those games coming down to the wire. Saturday, UCLA won their semifinal 11-4 over UC Davis, but the game was much closer than that — it was only a 3-2 lead at halftime. By beating Stanford 10-6, USC improves to 21-7.
Today’s game is televised live at 6 p.m. on CBS College Sports (formerly known as CSTV). There’s also an audio broadcast at uclabruins.com.
Women’s tennis: The Bruins won their NCAA second-round match on Saturday 4-0 over Denver. UCLA, the No. 7 seed nationally, advances to the Sweet 16 to face No. 10 USC on Thursday at Tulsa, Okla.
Women’s golf: The Bruins won the NCAA Central Regional on Saturday, advancing to the NCAA Championships (starting May 20). They are ranked #3 in the nation, and have to be among the favorites to win it all.
Softball: UCLA finished the regular season on Saturday with a 5-1 win over Oregon State. Selection Sunday is today (7 p.m. ESPNU, 7:30 p.m. ESPNEWS) and the NCAA Tournament begins either Thursday or Friday. The Bruins are #3 in the country and finished one game behind Arizona State in the Pac-10.
Baseball: UCLA beat Oregon State 11-4 on Saturday, evening a huge series for the Bruins’ postseason chances. I’m sure ryebreadraz at Bruins Nation will have a recap of this game very soon. The rubber game is today.
To say I’m shocked is an understatement. The Marlins’ payroll this year is only $21 million, and their highest-paid player is Kevin Gregg ($2.5 million)
Then again, the Marlins are in first place right now. Maybe they’re actually serious about winning. If nothing else, it’s another reason for Billy the Marlin to get pumped up:
Going to MLB.com, I was greeted with a graphic that showed the following stats:
MLB leader in RBI: Josh Hamilton
MLB leader in strikeouts: Edinson Volquez
Anyone see that happening? It’s been a crazy season so far, and almost 1/4 of the way through the season now, we may have to start taking some of these surprises seriously.
In first place right now: Minnesota, Oakland, Florida and St. Louis. Let’s hope this lasts all year (except for Oakland). As we saw in last year’s NL, playoff races involving most of the league are extremely fun to watch.
I’ve been busy lately and haven’t blogged that much here lately, but will try to again soon. I have been keeping up my blogging at Bugs & Cranks, check out my latest post. And I know this video is a few days old now, but as a blogger who likes mascots way too much, I have to post this here:
Women’s water polo: they’re in the NCAA Championships this weekend, beating Pomona-Pitzer 19-6 on Friday. They advance to the NCAA Semifinals today (4 p.m.) to face UC Davis. UCLA is now 31-0.
If UCLA wins today, they will play the winner of USC-Stanford in the championship game at 6 p.m. (televised on CBS College Sports, the channel formerly known as CSTV.) A championship would be #101 for the school, the first since the women’s water polo team won #100 last year. Bruins Nation has a pretty good preview of the tournament. Also, you can get a free live audio broadcast of today’s semifinal here.
I’m not just saying this as a UCLA fan, but it’s a shame college athletes aren’t allowed to transfer to another school more easily. They’re not getting paid by their schools (at major schools, the scholarship isn’t fair compensation for the millions of dollars generated by college sports), so why not give them more rights in choosing where to play.
Women’s tennis: The UCLA women’s tennis team won its first-round NCAA Tournament game on Friday, beating Buffalo 4-0. The Bruins (the No. 7 seed nationally) will host Denver in today’s second round (3 p.m.) with the winner going to the Sweet 16 in Tulsa next week.
Men’s tennis: UCLA plays its first-round NCAA tournament game today at noon against Eastern Washington. If the Bruins win, they play the winner of Washington and Wisconsin on Sunday. The Daily Bruin has a preview here.
Women’s golf: UCLA has completed two of three rounds at the NCAA Central Regional, with the top eight teams advancing to the NCAA Championships. The Bruins are in first place right now, six strokes ahead of second place and 26 ahead of ninth place. Their chances of advancing look very good. (You can follow the tournament live at golfstat.com)
Softball: #3 UCLA finishes its regular season today at Oregon State. The NCAA Selection show is on Sunday (7 p.m., ESPNU or 7:30 p.m., ESPNEWS). Not that it matters overly a lot, but the Bruins are one game behind Arizona State for first place in the Pac-10 heading into today, and need a win and an ASU loss to share a Pac-10 title.
This case just got more interesting. As Yahoo! Sports is reporting, a judge denied a request by Reggie Bush’s attorney for a gag order in the lawsuit against him filed by Lloyd Lake.
Why is this important?
As Bruins Nation pointed out, this means the NCAA will have access to this case’s testimony and evidence for their investigation into Reggie Bush allegedly receiving cash and other goods from Lake while Bush was still playing at USC. Which, if true (and if you look at the evidence that’s been reported by Yahoo! and in the book Tarnished Heisman, it’s hard to believe it isn’t), then Bush broke the rules. The only issue is how much USC knew or was involved, and what the penalties would be from the NCAA.
Another newsworthy item that came out was the possibility of Pete Carroll having to testify.
(Lake’s attorney Brian Watkins) said he expects to call 20 witnesses if the trial goes forward, and he said that USC head coach Pete Carroll and assistant coach Todd McNair would be among those subpoenaed as witnesses.
Also, the trial date was set for March 13 — yes, of next year. It will be a long wait.
I’m only the 5,000th blogger to mention this, but Deadspin’s Will Leitch was on Costas Now last night, where Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights) absolutely went nuts and on a tirade against Leitch and the Internet.
Leitch could’ve done a better job of defending himself, but it’s good that he didn’t lower himself to the level that Bissinger did. I actually enjoyed Buzz’s book, but I think a whole lot less of him now after watching this. Bissinger seems to think the Internet is the root of all evil here.
I, like many others thought for sure he was gone. Either Collison wasn’t sure he was going to be taken in the first round or he really likes playing at UCLA (can you blame him?). Regardless of why, I’m sure glad Collison’s back and I’m thrilled I was wrong for thinking he was gone. As Ben Howland said Collison’s return means UCLA starts the season with an All-American point guard.
Even if Kevin Love, Josh Shipp, Luc Richard Mbah a Moute and Alfred Aboya all end up leaving early, I’m confident UCLA basketball will still be really good next year with Collison’s return and the incoming freshmen coming in next year.
I’m not the only one excited. Bruins Nation, Gutty Little Bruins and Bruin Basketball Report all beat me to posts about this. Collison’s already been on three Final Four teams. While it’s unreasonable to expect that to happen a fourth time, you never know. It will certainly be a fun senior season to watch.
The Dodgers scored 10 runs in the first inning in Saturday night’s game, all off of Rockies’ starter Mark Redman, who actually stayed in the game and pitched five scoreless innings after that. What a game. Nine of the runs that inning came with two outs, the last four coming on a grand slam by Matt Kemp. I wonder how many fans showed up late to Dodger Stadium and missed the extremely-rare 10-run inning.
The scary incident came in the fourth inning, when plate umpire Kerwin Danley was hit by a 96-mph fastball in the jaw, right below the mask. David Chalk of Bugs & Cranks uploaded a video of it here. According to the Los Angeles Times, Danley was expected to be released from the hospital sometime last night. We all hope Danley is OK and he is in our thoughts and prayers.
Gilbert
Ben
