Saved By the Blog - Est. 2004

Reggie Bush may have not only cost USC their 2004 National Championship, but is also at risk of having his Heisman Trophy revoked.  All this is the fallout from a Yahoo! Sports article yesterday which claims that Bush's family was living for free in a $750,000 house in Cali that is owned by an employee for a sports marketing firm.

According to the Yahoo! article, "NCAA statutes prohibit student-athletes or their families from receiving extra benefits from professional sports agents, marketing companies or their representatives. A breach of these statutes could result in an athlete being ruled ineligible, and games in which they played could be forfeited."

So if it is proved that Bush's family was indeed living for free (i.e. not paying any rent), USC will forfeit their 2004 National Championship.  There is also talk that Bush would possibly lose his Heisman.

The Heisman ballots state, "In order that there will be no misunderstanding regarding the eligibility of a candidate, the recipient of the award MUST be a bona fide student of an accredited university. The recepient must be in compliance with the bylaws defining an NCAA student."

Of course, even if all this is true, it won't effect Reggie's draft status at all, so either way, he's going to be a happy millionaire.  I would think that it could, however, effect USC coach Pete Carroll.  Is it really possible that the head coach had no idea that his star player's mom was living 3,000 square foot home for free?

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• #1 Comment from chad4bama 
  4/27/06 1:36 AM | Permalink

  Even if Bush's parents were living for free (or basically free), the NCAA won't do anything.  The only school the NCAA cares about hitting hard is Alabama.  The Tide got leveled a few years back, but since then schools like Ohio State and now USC haven't so much as gotten a dirty look from the NCAA.  Their enforcement and penalties are discretionary.  Someone had a vendetta against someone at Alabama and went after them with reckless abandon.