Bumped.  Go Bruins.  -Menelaus

From WWL's Pat Forde following the (not so surprising) bomb shell on OJ2 (emphasis added):

In a just world, USC basketball would have something in common with SMU football in the near future.

The death penalty.

It's not going to happen, because NCAA bylaws don't work that way. And besides, they're not likely to ever again disband a program for a year after the smoking crater it left at SMU.

But USC deserves it. The school has so far escaped facing NCAA prosecution for compelling allegations that star tailback Reggie Bush and his family were lavishly compensated by an aspiring agent while playing for the Trojans. Now comes a devastating, thoroughly documented "Outside The Lines" report that goes into stunning detail about the money and gifts star guard O.J. Mayo allegedly received before and during his one season at USC.

All directly beneath USC's chronically blind eyes.

You can plead ignorance once -- and even that was almost impossible to believe, in the case of Bush. Plead it twice? Um, no. USC should be crushed by the NCAA, the Pacific-10 and its own administration.

Especially with a player everyone in Hoopsworld strongly suspected was no amateur before he set foot in Los Angeles. You had to search hard to find a soul who didn't think O.J. Mayo had been prostituted for years as his prep legend grew, starting in seventh grade. (Put it this way: When early Mayo confidant Sonny Vaccaro gets muscled out of the scene, somebody's bringing some serious juice to the table.)

So you take the Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of "lack of institutional control"?

If all the allegations stand up, USC athletic director Mike Garrett and the Inspector Clouseaus who comprise his compliance staff must lose their jobs over these serial embarrassments, or the school has no credibility whatsoever. When USC's two highest-profile sports both have star players allegedly on the brazen take from agents, somebody needs to answer for it. A lot of somebodies.

Or USC can take its ignorance and explain it to the NCAA Committee on Infractions, which shouldn't be in much of a mood to listen if the same OTL facts are presented to NCAA investigators as compellingly as they were on national TV and on this Web site Sunday.

Just one question: where was the LA Times?

First it was YahooSpots breaking the story open on BushGate and now WWL's OTL bursts open not so shocking MayoGate. You'd think Southern California's number 1 newspaper with its access to Southern Cal's athletic program would be on to this stories. No ... once again it's the national media reporters who ends up exposing what we have been suspecting all along.

Otherwise, we have nothing to add to Pat's article, which fired off this missile pointed towards Timmeh :

In the wake of this, it's hilarious to listen to Floyd's interview on "Pardon The Interruption" before Mayo started his brief career at USC. In a previous episode, Michael Wilbon had arched an eyebrow about taking someone with Mayo's red flags into the program. Floyd's response made Mayo sound like a tragically misunderstood Eagle Scout.

According to Floyd, Mayo was raised by a single mother who didn't have the money to pay a big cell phone bill -- which ostensibly is why Guillory discouraged Floyd from calling him during his recruitment. Floyd also said the kid "doesn't have anything" materially.

Despite that, the USC coach apparently never got around to wondering how the poor child from Huntington, W.Va., could afford the expensive clothes on his back or the expensive shoes on his feet. How about the flat-screen TV in his dorm? That never set off an alarm? If the answer is that USC coaches or compliance workers never set foot in Mayo's dorm room … why the hell not?

When you recruit someone radioactive, you better have everything checked down to the smallest detail. Or else your program turns into Three Mile Island.

As for the TrOJans making excuses from this latest scandal I will just leave you Pat's closing words in that must read article : "deny on".

GO BRUINS.