Trogan-to-English: Southern Cal good, tOSU evil

-Bumped. BN Eds.

Leftover in my Troganisms in-box awaiting translation is the December 21, 2011 whine by Trogan Times apologist Bill Dwyre. His single point is that Southern Cal was unfairly sanctioned compared to Ohio State. His reasoning is so illogical, confusing, biased, and self-serving, it reminds me of reading cases in first year UCLA Law. Let's roll.

"Most would also wonder aloud, again, why <USC> took such a hard hit when other situations, certainly including Ohio State's, seemed similarly egregious."

Law school teaches students to distinguish situations. Specifics are provided below, but for starters 1) SC stonewalled the NCAA for years, 2) the quantity and magnitude of Trogan violations left everyone else in the dust, and 3) SC has a storied history of rule breaking going back at least to John McKay that no other university can even remotely approach.

"...the Buckeyes were penalized a season of no titles, no bowls and a loss of nine football scholarships over the next three years. USC has just finished its second straight no-title, no-bowl season and its scholarship assessment was 30 scholarships lost over three years."

Equality of justice means equal punishment for equal offenses. If I said convict X received the death penalty but convict Y received 10 years' imprisonment, it sounds awfully unjust. If I told you X was Charles Manson and Y was Jane Doe who'd committed involuntary manslaughter, then the punishments are, on a relative basis, fair. As Bruins Nation has observed many times, there is a very strong argument to be made that so long as the NCAA has its own death penalty, USC was a prime candidate to receive it; I've heard no one make that statement about Ohio State.

"The sins against NCAA doctrine of each school have been well documented."

You're hallucinating, Bill. Did Reggie Bush testify to the NCAA, or in court for multiple lawsuits? No, he paid off plaintiffs to keep everything hush hush. Did Pete Carroll attend the NCAA hearing? No, he fled Los Angeles for a pay cut in Seattle to avoid answering questions on a myriad of evils. Did Garrett, or Sample, or McKnight, or Senora Ross, or etc. etc. ad infinitum.

He goes on to gerrymander the facts to be about: a house for Reggie Bush's parents in some faraway place versus Tressel knowing players were selling memorabilia.

This type of logic doesn't declare, but clearly implies, that while Tressel knew about wrongdoing, of course Carroll did not. It also treats memorabilia as comps for a house. But Dwyre forgets to mention that 1) the assistant coach (McNair) clearly knew, and 2) stories were out for a long time and Carroll somehow never managed to hear anything. He also implies the standard Trogan argument, that nothing bad ever happened at SC except with one bad apple (Bush) -- no Jarrett, no McKnight, no etc etc.

"<Tressel> cannot be employed by an NCAA school for the next five years..."

This legal ploy is especially sweet. Ohio State must be worse than SC because the NCAA issued a 5-year show cause to Tressel, and of course none was ever issued to Carroll. But Carroll was no longer a collegiate employee when sanctions were (at long last) unleashed on Troy. Tressel lied, then belatedly confessed, and his school fired him -- 5 years whack to Tressel. Carroll lied, it certainly appears, never confessed, and his school never fired him (in fact, made him the highest-paid college employee in the land) -- 0 years whack to Carroll.

"<The person who bought the memorabilia> is now in jail for drug trafficking and money laundering."

Here we try the guilt-by-association maneuver. Dwyre never states that Tressel even knew the person in question, but since he's a convicted criminal, even if Tressel never met him, Tressel must be the worst coach ever. This of course overlooks Carroll's association with a double killer who now receives free room & board at taxpayer expense in Nevada, one who Carroll had at football practice (a fine role model for the boys). (Carroll also hired McNair, who had his own criminal record, which appears to be a tradition at Troy, note Kiffin hiring Orgeron.)

"Which school was the bigger sinner?"

Bruins Nation welcomes a fully-transparent public hearing on this important issue. We've compiled a list of Trogan witnesses to call that, at one witness per day, will run for many many weeks. We fully expect the list of Buckeye witnesses will be, by comparison, pretty meagre.

"Ohio State, once caught with Tressel lying, signing false documents and playing a season with players he knew had cheated and were therefore ineligible, self-imposed penalties. USC, with the Bush violations becoming clearly indefensible and.. OJ Mayo... did so only in basketball."

More obfuscation. Bill is correct that OSU imposed sanctions on its football program and of course Southern Cal did not -- trying a last-minute diversion to point the NCAA to its laughable hoops program. But Bill continues to overlook McNair and (it appears) Carroll lying, and continues to act as if Reggie Bush was the only player during Carroll's regime who was really ineligible. (Ask Senora Ross and Joe McKnight if that is truly the case.)

"Pete Carroll... suddenly found the NFL appealing. Mike Garrett... said... NCAA went after USC because it was jealous of the Trojans. ... That attitude... may have cost USC some bargaining points."

This is the blame the prior regime tactic; we're pristine now, so don't sanction us -- even though we didn't take any action against these despicables. Dwyre doesn't seem to notice that he's turned a spotlight on 1) Carroll's fleeing the scene of the crime to avoid unpleasant questioning, and 2) Garrett's having no factual or legal argument he can make, so go ad hominem. (Lawyers know, if the law is on your side, use the law; if the facts are on your side, use the facts; if neither are, plea bargain.)

"The key difference in how each school was penalized appears to be a matter of semantics. Ohio State... "failed to properly monitor" its football program. USC... had "lacked institutional control.""

Lawyers know words have meaning. It's not semantics, it's substance. OSU didn't keep an eye out for violations & when the coach found out about them, he covered up & lied (for a while). SC had a culture of continuous rule breaking, stonewalled the NCAA, and experienced unprecedented financial payoffs to players in both major sports. Dwyre undermines his own argument by quoting an NCAA spokesman that '"lack of institutional control" is the "heaviest thing" that the NCAA rules on.' In other words, SC committed the worst offense possible -- and OSU did not.

"He also said that Ohio State "met its obligation to cooperate."

This hardly applies to Heritage Hall.

"This is, indeed, a "new day" for NCAA get-tough policies and USC, as the hardest hit, holds a special spot.

Poster child."

Yes, the NCAA made an example for everyone, that Southern Cal is the worst we've seen, and if anyone else tries to come anywhere close to their Carroll behaviors, they will be hammered. Maybe even receive the death penalty the Trogans were fortunate to escape.

Bill Dwyre, I commend you. Prior to this article, I believed only PlaSChke could suspend belief so readily.