Free Reggie Bush

Krishan Tarsadia
Sep 7, 2018 · 3 min read

Local boy out of San Diego, Reggie Bush, the 5-star 2nd highest rated running back to ever come out of high school commits to USC on July 9th, 2003. Reggie was the first marquee signing of the Pete Carroll era.

Not only did he exceed his expectations, he brought in almost singlehandedly two Rose Bowl Championships (later taken by the NCAA), 76 touchdowns in three years, the 2005 Heisman Trophy (later *voluntarily* given back to the NCAA), and the attention of the nation generating a constant revenue for USC athletics. So what went wrong? Why did the USC athletics nosedive for the next five years? Well, big brother (the NCAA), decided the whole recruitment process for Reggie Bush went a little too well, so they decided to take a closer look. They uncovered that Lloyd Lake, an ex-convict with large aspirations of becoming a sports agent, had figured out his *friend*, Reggie Bush’s stepfather Lamar Griffin, had a son who had the attention of the entire sports world. Lloyd struck a deal with Lamar offering to pay for the struggling Bush family to move to a new house and in return when Reggie is drafted to the NFL, that he will be committed to signing with Lloyd’s new sports agency. Which obviously is against the rules of the NCAA, there can be no payment from any affiliate of USC OR any sports agency seeking representation. If there is, sanctions will be enforced on USC or legal action upon the player/agency. However, in this scenario, for the NCAA to sanction the USC athletics program, they would need evidence that ANY USC employee knew of the “improper benefits received by Reggie Bush”. That employee, at least who they thought, was Todd McNair the USC running back coach. Through an extensive court review the findings are summarized and listed here by BleacherReport:

  • USC did not pay Reggie Bush to play football.
  • USC did not give Bush’s family a home in exchange for their son playing football for the Trojans.
  • USC did not buy booster or patron ever gave Bush or his family any money or other financial benefits
  • No USC booster or patron ever gave Bush or his family any money or other financial benefits.
  • Lloyd Lake, the person who provided a home for the BUsh’s and a used car for Reggie Bush, was not a booster or even a fan of USC.
  • Lake provided a home….signing with Lake’s fledgling sports agency when he decided to play in the NFL.

A full list of the allegations against USC by the NCAA can be found: here.

Yet, somehow the NCAA ruled USC was in violation with NCAA code and placed extreme sanctions on the USC football program, oh and also effectively ruining the reputation and career of innocent Todd McNair who later sued the NCAA for those reasons. The full ruling resulted in a two-year postseason bowl ban, along with the loss of 30 scholarships over three seasons. As most people know USC is a powerhouse football university, not only does this affect the program (unfairly) but also unintentionally affects the student's college experience. Furthermore, losing 30 scholarships is essentially a complete program rebuild.

Unable to attract top talent, guaranteed losing seasons, and most importantly, a decline in football revenue for the university. At the end of the day scandals like this almost happen once a year, and most always can be fixed by one thing: compensating college-athletes. Pay the athletes their fair share. Oh, and the NCAA came back a year later and took Reggie’s Heisman Trophy from him, because all of this has to do with on-field performance…but its fine, everything’s fine.

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