LA Times Finally Discusses USC Investigation

When a Yahoo! Sports investigation uncovered the allegations that former USC running back Reggie Bush and his family reportedly received hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper benefits, many wondered when the hammer would drop on Pete Carroll‘s Trojan football dynasty. Yet the NCAA investigation has dragged on, with no word on any progress from anyone inside USC or the NCAA.With Yahoo! again breaking news that another Trojans team, this time Tim Floyd‘s basketball program, reportedly supplied payments and gifts to attract guard O.J. Mayo to the program, the spotlight was once again shining on an athletics department at the top of college athletics’ food chain.Oddly enough, the Los Angeles Times, the premiere newspaper on the West Coast, has been conspiciously absent from the entire investigation. The Times finally contributed a Special Report on the NCAA investigation Sunday, and while there is little new news uncovered in their reporting, as The Times writes, the silence out of USC is deafening.“There’s no real word from the coaches, Pete Carroll and Tim Floyd, whose teams now sit squarely in the NCAA’s cross hairs over well-publicized accusations of payments and favors to athletes who made a real difference in every game they played. More important, more serious, there’s also nothing coming from the men who hired the coaches. Steven Sample, USC’s president? Silence. Mike Garrett, USC’s athletic director? The same. Last week, when I submitted a request to interview Garrett, Floyd, Carroll and Sample, the university’s media relations department essentially said, Sorry, but on the advice of school lawyers, there won’t be any talking from anybody while an NCAA investigation is underway.With all the nyets the media is getting, it’s as if USC has suddenly morphed into the Soviet Politburo, circa 1972.”The fact that the Los Angeles Times (Or Yahoo! or any publication for that matter) has decided that USC broke NCAA rules doesn’t make USC guilty of anything. All that being said, it will be interesting and remarkably sad if USC’s dynamic run in college football wasn’t cut down by the rising of a traditional football rival, but by the temptations that come with success.USC’s general counsel Carol Mauch Amir states, “We continue to operate under the fundamental American right that the accused is innocent until proven guilty, so we are working diligently to ensure that we have all the facts before reaching any conclusions. Our decision not to respond piblicly to the allegations made in the media against USC, our coaches and our student-athletes simply reflects our responsibility to protect the integrityof the investigative process and to comply with all NCAA regulations."While USC still deserves the presumption of innocence, the clock is certainly ticking. And if everything we read turns out to be true, the Trojans might finally face an opponent they can’t defeat.