NCAA, Heisman Trophy Trust Have No Shame

Lee Russakoff, Comcast Sports
Wed Sep 8, 3:28 PM UTC

You know what's worse than cheaters? Hypocrites. Which is why it's time to go Russell Edgington on the NCAA, BCS, USC AD Pat Haden and the Heisman Trophy Trust.

Here’s a simple question for the holier-than-thou NCAA types: It’s nice that you’re “severely” punishing USC by forcing them to vacate wins and banning them from bowl games. But if what Reggie Bush did offended your sense of honor so much, why don’t you forgo all the money your organizations earned off Bush’s on-field heroics?

Why not forfeit all the money made from the 39 games during Reggie Bush’s career and put it toward education and enforcement of your sacred NCAA amateur status?

Because only the schools and the conferences are allowed to willfully use these young men’s talents to make billions of dollars? Oh, I see. Silly me.

Let’s get into the meat of this. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Heisman Trophy Trust is on the verge of stripping former USC RB Reggie Bush of the Heisman he won in 2005. Yahoo! Sports has been all over this story from the jump, first detailing Bush’s transgressions and then the NCAA’s ruling that Bush took illegal benefits and was therefore ineligible during USC’s 2004-05 BCS-winning season. (USC is appealing that decision.)

In the end, Bush’s college career will be wiped from existence by the NCAA, Heisman Trophy Trust and USC over mounting evidence that the Super Bowl-winning Saints RB took “cash, gifts and other impermissible benefits” while playing for the Trojans. And I mean that quite literally. Part of the NCAA’s ruling includes ordering USC to, “remove all references to Bush from its sporting venues and promotional materials and vacate his statistics from all games in which he was ineligible.”

Erased … from existence!

Bush’s stats will disappear, any wins he took part in while ineligible will be vacated, including that 2004-05 BCS title, and if reports are accurate, he will become the first player ever to be stripped of the Heisman in its 75-year history.

Meanwhile, USC is being hit “hard” with punishments: a postseason ban, loss of scholarships, vacation of wins, probation, etc. Notice anything missing from that list?

What does the university do with all the money it made off Reggie Bush?

What charity will benefit from the cash it made from the 37 wins and two BCS title game appearances in three years while Bush donned that cardinal and gold uniform? Where will USC send all the proceeds from the No. 5 gear and paraphernalia it sold during Bush’s tainted tenure? How much of the estimated $42-54 million in additional revenue USC pocketed as a result of the lack of institutional control will be returned?

What about the BCS? What’s it going to do with all the money it made off the two BCS Championship games Bush helped make memorable?

Oh, and how about the NCAA as a whole? Surely, the NCAA will take some blame for the broken system; a system that encourages the exploitation of "amateur" athletes who fall victim to the predatory habits of agents and marketing agencies. What "fix" will the NCAA employ with all the money it made on Bush’s back?

What? They keep it? They keep it all? There’s absolutely zero financial punishment for the university, the BCS and the NCAA?

That sounds about right.

The hypocrisy is mind-melting. Here’s a kid who was a star the minute he stepped on the field as a Trojan. He made the powers of college athletics millions of dollars. And yet, we are supposed to be outraged by the fact that he took about $300K in gifts?

I’m not sneezing at $300K. It’s a lot of money. But if we’re talking about college football injustices, Bush and his family living in a rent-free apartment rank way down on the bottom of the list.

If the NCAA wants us to take seriously Bush’s decision to accept money, it also needs to respond to the matter seriously and forfeit all the money the schools and conferences earned while Bush ran the football up and down the field.

Until then, spare me the sanctimonious blabber, Pat Haden. (“If I were Reggie Bush with Pat Haden’s soul, yes [I’d give back the Heisman]).

Spare me the self-righteous lectures, NCAA Infractions Chair Paul Dee. (“High-profile players merit high-profile enforcement.")

Spare me the paradoxical time travel lectures, BCS executive director Bill Hancock. (“If USC loses the appeal, the championship will be vacated. And the feeling is in our group, the commissioners group, is that there was not a game, no game happened.")

Everyone in major college athletics is making a mint except the young men putting their bodies on the line daily. The coaches get rich. The universities get rich. The conferences get rich. The NCAA gets rich.

The athletes? The one percent of them that make it to the pros make money. The other 99 percent of them get nothing but an education – an education that they know must come second to the sport that earned them the right to attend the university.

It’s time college athletics made a decision. Does it want to start taking "amateur status" seriously? If not, I’m fine with that. Start paying the players and all these issues go away.

But if we want to recapture amateurism in America, if we want universities and organizations to vigilantly police the shark-infested waters that surround major college sports, start going after the money.

Make schools and conferences donate all money earned off the backs of ineligible players to a fund responsible for the enforcement and education of amateur status in college athletics.

Once you hit these college presidents in the purse strings, I guarantee they’ll find a way to rein in the insanity surrounding their athletes.

Email me at russakoffrules@comcast.net; follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/russakoffrules.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Comcast.

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