They should all have to play by the same rules. Just because he goes to USC or is the electryifying Mr Bush shouldnt exclude him from the rules. But as you aptly pointed out there is nothign they can do to him that matters.

I wish if it turns out ot be true they could make him wear the name CHEATER on the back of his jersey all year in New Orleans. Ah I guess just playing for New Orleans will have to be punishment enough.

USC with the help of the LA Times absolutely skewered the UW at the time. Payback is a bitch and I’d hope to see USC get stuck with the same punishment.

Anyone that wants to strip Reggie Bush of the Heisman because of this needs to tell me why Bush can’t stay an official Heisman winner, while a certain other USC running back who helped them win a national championship can. I’m talking about OJ Simpson. Even if these allegations about Bush are true, nothing he did even comes close to murder (oops, I forgot, the gloves didn’t fit, so he didn’t do it).

As for stripping USC’s 2004 title, who gets it then? Do we give it to the Oklahoma team they beat in the Orange Bowl, or the Auburn team that went undefeated? Either way, at least we’ll be sure that the 2004 National Champion will be one that has exercised much better institutional control than USC…oh, wait, we’re talking about the same Oklahoma school that just kicked it’s starting QB off the team for taking thousands of dollars that he didn’t earn, and the Auburn team whose players took classes that required almost no effort for high grades?

My point is, schools do try to stop the most serious violations, but with any big program there are going to be players that break the rules. Taking the title away from USC would be unfair because lots of players from National Championship teams have committed similar violations, and even in the cases where the NCAA found out that a player had broken the rules, they never took anyone’s title away. If the rules don’t apply to the other National Champions, why should they all of a sudden apply to USC?

People say that a playoff would end the debate on who the National Champion is, but from the looks of it, people will still find something to bitch about.

Well, true, but they CAN still hurt USC, and they probably will, if history is any indicator (see: Michigan basketball).

Normally, I could care less about USC getting hurt by the NCAA; I might even say, “Good, heap it on.” But I do take exception because it simply makes no sense for the NCAA to come down hard on a program in penalizing players who may be clean and had nothing to do with Bush’s actions. Sure, the university “lacked institutional control,” but show me one university that has a clean handle on absolutely everything in their athletics’ programs. I guarantee you, that university doesn’t exist.

The NCAA needs to be more specific about who to penalize and why. It is true that they shouldn’t be a college athletics “court,” analyzing situations on a case-by-case basis, but again, that’s the fact of college athletics. Hell, hire a judicial panel consisting of retired judges or something. You can’t tell me that they don’t have money to do that.

everyone who has gone to college
knows the athletes are getting “benefits”
i didnt have to follow them around
you can see with your own 2 eyes whats up
dont be so naive to think reggie bush is the only
dude at usc who got anything from anybody

the ncaa is in the business of prevention
but nothing is being prevented
because their system is so screwed
its okay for them to make millions and millions
and then they pull the “well we gave them a scholarship” card

its time to have an NCAA-PA (just dont have gene upshaw as the head)
otherwise lets start stripping everybody’s tite
and heismans, cuz ultimately thats what will happen