Bush

While in the Bahamas, I was having a debate with Mike DeVries about Reggie Bush and how he was on the take so to speak at USC. I was asked where the evidence was and as Dan Wetzel points out, it is piling up against Bush.

The case against USC, like all similar cases involving players and agents, will revolve around two basic lines of questioning, according to three athletic directors and one former NCAA investigator with whom Yahoo! Sports discussed the generalities.

1. Did Bush receive extra benefits that would make him ineligible for competition? And if so, when did they begin?

2. Did or should have USC officials and coaches known about the extra benefits.

We’ll start with the first one, where a mountain of evidence, both in direct accounts, paper documents and even admissions from Bush make it seemingly implausible that this is all a lie.

Where previously all the NCAA had were third-party accounts and the direct testimony of memorabilia dealer Bob DeMartino claiming Ornstein asked him for cash to make a payment to Bush’s relatives (another vein of this investigation), this lawsuit opens up many problems for USC.

Once Lake meets with investigators, his testimony coupled with the paper trail involved, makes it almost unfathomable for the NCAA not to determine Bush received extra benefits starting in his sophomore year.

2. It is not so much a matter of if USC knew, but if it should have?

The NCAAs key phrase is “institutional control” which demands schools do everything possible to protect and monitor the actions of its student-athletes. Carroll used to run a loose ship in Los Angeles, a place where agents regularly attended open practices and had been spotted inside the football facility.

In the case of New Era, while they operated out of San Diego, their ties to USC are possibly significant.

Yahoo! Sports previously reported Lake and Michaels didn’t just attend USC games, but after two games even went into the Trojan locker room. That’s a place most schools severely limit access to and would investigate the background of any non-relative who gains such access.

“Two guys don’t just walk into your postgame locker room,” said one athletic director. “You confront them immediately and find out. That’s basic stuff.”

Yahoo! Sports also previously reported that sources claim USC assistant Todd McNair knew of Bush’s relationship with both Michaels and Lake. Moreover he spent a night out in San Diego with Bush, Michaels and Lake and knew Bush was staying the night in a $500-a-night suite at the city’s Manchester Hyatt.

Yahoo! Sports obtained a receipt for the stay that was paid for by Michaels’ credit card. USC refused to allow Yahoo! Sports to interview McNair.

Those bits alone, especially if Lake provides details, could prove to be damning blows for the Trojan program.

The potential for greater trouble looms in what USC hasn’t released publicly.

That includes phone records, emails and internal correspondence of all USC athletic department staffers from athletic director Mike Garrett on down. It would also include all compliance department files on Bush plus the Trojans complimentary ticket lists, gate passes and locker room/sideline access lists. USC refused to turn over those items to Yahoo! Sports on a Freedom of Information Act request citing its status of a private school.

But as a member of the NCAA, USC must (and may already have) provided all of that information and anything else the NCAA thinks up. Again, it isn’t just what USC was suspicious of, but what the NCAA believes it should have been suspicious of.

“The NCAA defines due diligence,” said one AD.

Where it goes from here, how deep it winds up, remains to be seen.

But for USC, Tuesday’s lawsuit was a terrible development, the kind that can blow open the doors on Heritage Hall, imperil both the past and future and send Carroll scurrying back to the NFL.

I think it is becoming easier and easier to see USC forfeiting it’s NCAA title and Pete Carrol making a comeback with Miami (Ohio) in the near future.

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