2010-06-11 00:13:00 PDT Los Angeles, , United States — (06-11) 00:13 PDT LOS ANGELES (AP) --
Southern California was no ordinary football program over the past decade, winning seven straight Pac-10 titles and two national championships while annually fielding a gleaming array of NFL prospects.
That's just one reason the Trojans received no ordinary penalties when the NCAA finally announced on Thursday the results of its four-year investigation.
The NCAA threw the book at storied USC, imposing a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation and signficant scholarship losses that likely will damage the program's foundations. The Trojans also must vacate 12 wins from the 2005 season, all stemming from improper benefits given to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush by fledgling sports marketers dating back to the 2004 national championship.
The NCAA ripped USC for a lack of institutional control, condemning the star treatment afforded to Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo, who spent just one year with the Trojans before bolting to the NBA and leaving the men's program in shambles.
"The real issue here is if you have high-profile players that your enforcement staff has to monitor ... it is extremely likely that the people who are receiving these interactions outside the institution are going to receive a bigger reward," said Paul Dee, chairman of the NCAA's committee on infractions. "So higher-profile players require higher-profile monitoring."
With pointed language, the NCAA said in its report that USC's oversight of its top athletes ran contrary to the fundamental principles of amateur sports. In a particular slap to the Hollywood-friendly Trojans football team, the NCAA banned most non-essential people from attending practice or standing on the sidelines during games, a favorite pastime of actor Will Ferrell and other wealthy alumni.
"Elite athletes in high profile sports with obvious great future earnings potential may see themselves as something apart from other student-athletes and the general student population," the NCAA report said. "Institutions need to assure that their treatment on campus does not feed into such a perception."
The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds — football's Pete Carroll and basketball's Tim Floyd — left USC in the past year.
USC reacted with uniform outrage to the harshness of the sanctions, promising an appeal.
"I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed in the findings of the NCAA," Carroll said in a video statement produced by the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, who hired him in January. "I never thought it would come to this."
The penalties include the loss of 30 football scholarships over three years and vacating 14 victories in which Bush played from December 2004 through the 2005 season. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.
Bill Hancock, the executive director of the BCS, said a committee will meet to consider vacating USC's 2004 championship. While no action would go into effect until USC's appeals are heard by the NCAA, Hancock said there would be no 2004 champion if USC's victory is vacated.
"I take the same stance as our university," new football coach Lane Kiffin said. "There is some guilt, but the punishment is too severe. That's why the appeal process is taking place."
The rulings are a sharp repudiation of the Trojans' decade of stunning football success under Carroll.
The NCAA says Bush received lavish gifts from two fledgling sports marketers hoping to sign him. The men paid for everything from hotel stays and a rent-free home where Bush's family apparently lived to a limousine and a new suit when he accepted his Heisman Trophy in New York in December 2005.
The NCAA found that Bush, identified as a "former football student-athlete," was ineligible beginning at least by December 2004, a ruling that could open discussion of the revocation of the New Orleans Saints star's Heisman. Members of the Heisman Trust have said they might review Bush's award if he were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
"I have a great love for the University of Southern California, and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC, but for the fans and players," Bush said in a statement.
USC, which plans to appeal some of the football-related penalties, released details later Thursday of its defense arguments. The school believes the NCAA discovered only two flimsy connections between USC and the extra benefits provided by outside parties, resulting in the damaging finding of a lack of institutional control, which led to harsh sanctions.
