USC receives NCAA report; findings could be announced Thursday
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The NCAA has reported its final findings to USC and could make an announcement regarding sanctions against the school’s athletic program as early as Thursday, multiple sources close to the situation said Wednesday.
The NCAA, the governing body for collegiate sports, investigated USC’s athletic program for four years regarding allegations centered on former football player Reggie Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo.
USC spokesmen declined to comment , saying the university would address the situation when the NCAA makes its report public.
Bowl bans, scholarship reductions, limited recruiting contacts, probation and forfeiture of victories are among the penalties regarded as possibly in play. Sources, who requested anonymity because they are not authorized to speak about the situation publicly, would not detail what, if any, sanctions that USC will suffer.
USC had been anxiously awaiting the NCAA’s ruling since a February meeting of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. A USC contingent that included President Steven Sample, Athletic Director Mike Garrett, former football coach Pete Carroll, running backs coach Todd McNair and school attorneys and compliance officials appeared before the 10-member committee, which worked from a report prepared by NCAA investigators.
The three-day hearing was the longest such NCAA proceeding in at least a decade.
In January, USC self-sanctioned its basketball program for violations that occurred before and during Mayo’s one-season stay with the Trojans in 2007-08, when the Trojans were coached by Tim Floyd, who also appeared at the infractions committee hearing.
Bush, now with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints, and Mayo, who plays for the NBA’s Memphis Grizzlies, have maintained that they did nothing wrong while attending USC.
Carroll left USC in January to become coach of the Seattle Seahawks. Floyd resigned from USC in June 2009, later citing a lack of support from Garrett. He worked as an assistant for the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets before Texas El Paso hired him as head coach in March.
The NCAA investigation began in March 2006, when reports surfaced that Bush’s mother, brother and stepfather had lived in a San Diego area home that was owned by a would-be marketer who planned to be part of a group that represented Bush when he turned pro.
The Mayo inquiry began in May 2008 after a former associate told ESPN that Mayo received cash and other benefits from Rodney Guillory, an event promoter who helped guide Mayo to USC.
-- Gary Klein