Cheating an "open-secret" at U$C?

by Nestor on May 22, 2006 6:55 PM PDT in Football Comment 0 comments

Back to alleged cheaters across town. The Bush investigation is plodding along while he is too busy being a selfish jerk turning off his new coworkers. Meanwhile the mess Bush has left behind in South Central has not gone away. Yes we are not only one any more asking tough questions about lack of institutional control at ole U$C. Few days ago BlueGraySky's Dylan unloaded a double barrell shotgun blast Cheaty Peaty's corrupt program:

As a Notre Dame grad (particularly one in southern California), you expect a fair amount of eye-rolling when you try to explain to Trojan fans that cheating is an open secret at USC and has been at least since my father was an undergrad. Before the cries of "everbody does it, including Notre Dame" rain down, I'll point out SC and ND are different in one critical regard when it comes to their respective programs' cleanliness (or lack thereof). SC's campus, like Miami's and Texas' and Oklahoma's, is located in the geographic heart of their alumni base. SC's biggest boosters, contributors, and myriad sugar daddies are literally five minutes away in the high rises of downtown L.A., well within easy palm-greasing reach. What you get is a cadre of pony-tailed power-lunchers, divorce attorneys, and breast augmenters filling the role of Luther Campbell circa 1989. In some cases, the comparison is beyond apt. It's a lot like L.A. Confidential. They're crooked, everyone knows it, but everyone's on the take, so no one cares.

Dylan was commenting on Simer's column from the LA Times, which disclosed how Pom Pom injected himsel into Bush's selection of his NFL agent:

SO HOW does Michael Ornstein go from a guy standing before a judge pleading guilty to his part in defrauding the NFL of $350,000 to orchestrating Reggie Bush's future?

And how does Joel Segal go from being an agent suspended for one year by the NFL Players Assn. for using an assumed name and giving money to a Florida State player to representing Bush?

How did Ornstein work himself into position to spend so much time with Bush -- including hiring him as a paid intern -- without objections from Pete Carroll?

More importantly, what was Carroll thinking when he helped Ornstein select Segal? If he was trying to help Bush, then why didn't he do his homework? What was the point of trying to help Bush -- if he wasn't going to do his homework?

Initially, Ornstein interviewed seven agents, whittled that group to three and then those familiar with the process said Carroll interrupted, wanting a role in determining who would be Bush's agent. The interviewing began anew with Ornstein, Carroll and the Bush family meeting agents, and Segal emerging on top.

Carroll was working in the NFL as an assistant coach at the same time Segal and Ornstein were working in the league, and given his NFL connections, a few phone calls to check up on Segal and Ornstein might have been educational -- if he wasn't already aware of their backgrounds.

So if Chetey Petey and the Trojan administration were casting a blind eye to what was going on with Reggie Bush, should the Trojans pay a price for their (alleged) cheating? CFN's Richard Cirminiello says yes:

[Y]ou sort of get the impression that a blind eye from Pete Carroll to the administration as a whole was cast on players like Bush because no one wanted to mess with unbelievable success. If the Heisman goes, that means Bush was ineligible to compete as an amateur in 2005. And if the Trojans, knowingly or otherwise, played a season with an ineligible kid, the wins have to be forfeited as well. No one is na?ve enough to believe you can police everything that happens within a program, but these were the actions of an arrogant athlete that couldn?t wait for the fame and fortune that was just around the corner. Anything other than a stiff penalty is bad for the sport.

When you mess with the bull, you?re gonna get the horns (see The Breakfast Club). Playing the role of the bull is the NCAA, and they ought to be seeing red if the allegations involving Bush and the Trojan program wind up being accurate.

Of course Carroll is not going to give any one any kind of straight answers right now concerning what is going at Scandal Central. He has never given any answers providing any kind of accountablity for the pattern of transgressions at SC. Always eluding questions after questions that have come up concerning his lawless program during his three years. It is quite possible Pom Pom using the full force of U$C PR machine and freinds at the right places just may be able to sweep all the mess under that ketsup and mustard color rug at Heritage Hall once again. But the damage is done. SC already had a dirty reputation even before his arrival. But now after these last few years of Pom Pom it will forever be an asterisk in college football as Miami of the West.

GO BRUINS.