One particular aspect of NCAA's Michigan ruling should infuriate USC fans
However, there is one aspect of the NCAA's decision that should absolutely infuriate USC fans. Following Friday's ruling, Nicole Auerbach of NBC Sports published a particularly notable quote. According to Auerbach, the NCAA believed that Michigan's offenses warranted enough of a violation for a postseason ban. 'However,' the NCAA said, 'the panel determined that a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program."
USC football fans should be furious
Any USC fan that reads this quote should be absolutely furious, because the Trojans received no such luxury from the NCAA back in 2010. The 2011 Trojans were unable to play in the Pac-12 Championship Game and a potential Rose Bowl due to NCAA sanctions regarding Reggie Bush receiving improper benefits while he was at USC.
Middle school
Many of the players on that team were in middle school when Bush was playing for the Trojans.
Scholarships
Further, USC was stripped of 30 scholarships between the 2012, 2013, and 2014 recruiting classes. In other words, kids who were between the ages of eight and 11 when Bush allegedly received a limousine ride to the 2004 Heisman Trophy presentation ceremony had the ability to play football for the Trojans taken away from them.
Lots of irony
The especially ironic part is that Michigan's violations are much more recent than USC's were at the time of the Trojans' sentencing. By 2010, not a single USC player who had been teammates with Bush remained on the roster, and the Trojans' coaching staff looked very different as well. By contrast, there are still some upperclassmen on the Wolverines' roster who were a part of their 2023 national championship team, and current head coach Sherrone Moore was the offensive coordinator for that group.
Perspective
More than 15 years later, it remains obvious that USC got jobbed by the NCAA. Every NCAA ruling with a much lesser punishment than what the Trojans got back in 2010 will only continue to highlight the point.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Venus Williams receives wild-card entry for US Open mixed doubles at 45 years old
Venus Williams is 45 years old and about to play in a Grand Slam. The longtime tennis star received a wild-card entry into the mixed doubles field of the US Open on Tuesday, the tournament announced, setting her up to play alongside partner Reilly Opelka at Flushing Meadows. She will be joined by several other stars in the field, including Jannik Sinner, Carlos Alcaraz and Iga Swiatek. When she takes the court, it will be Williams' first appearance at a Grand Slam in any field since the same tournament in 2023, when she entered the singles draw via another wild card and was eliminated in the first round by qualifier Greet Minnen. Since then, Williams has been mostly inactive while dealing with health issues, including a surgery to remove uterine fibroids. She made her return last week at the D.C. Open, where she won a singles match and a doubles match for the first time since 2016. Williams surprised former NCAA champion Peyton Stearns, then ranked 35th in the world, in the first round of the singles draw before losing to fifth-seed Magdalena Fręch in the second round. Opelka, Williams' doubles partner, is currently 74th on the ATP Tour men's singles rankings. He is 27 years old and notably tied for the tour's tallest-ever player at 6-foot-11, which gives him one of the nastiest serves in tennis. Williams is a 23-time Grand Slam champion, with seven singles titles, 14 doubles titles and two mixed doubles titles. She played her first US Open in 1997, when she made the singles finals at 17 years old. She has nothing to prove at this stage, but she raised some eyebrows last week when asked why she decided to return to tennis in her mid-40s. Venus Williams is doing this for the health insurance (sort of) At the end of her first-round post-match interview, Williams provided a small peak behind the curtain of how professional athletes go about healthcare, revealing that she was actually on COBRA, which allows employees to stay on their employer's health insurance after losing benefits. Here's what she said: 'I had to come back for the insurance, because they informed me earlier this year I'm on COBRA. So that's like, I got to get my benefits on ... You guys know what it's like. Let me tell you, I am always at the doctor, so I need this insurance.' To be clear, Williams was joking. She said all that with a smile and called it a "fun and funny moment" after her second match. However, many people and outlets took the statement quite seriously, with some of them using it as a jumping-off point to discuss broader healthcare issues. It's true that health insurance coverage is an issue for many retiring athletes. Active professional athletes get some of the best health insurance in the world, but having to figure out coverage after retirement is a challenge for many people who just exited the most lucrative stage of their lives. While clarifying the tongue-in-cheek moment following the second match, Williams said in the same breath that it was a "serious issue" and one "that people are dealing with." With $42.7 million in career earnings from her WTA career and likely much more than that from endorsements, Williams isn't one of those people (barring astonishing financial mismanagement). Still, given the choice, she will take the WTA's insurance because it gives her one fewer thing to worry about. But it's a stretch to say she's still playing because she needs the insurance.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Dan Hurley's legendary father wanted him to take Lakers' coaching job
While the Los Angeles Lakers were looking to make JJ Redick their next head coach late in the spring of 2024, they made a surprising, high-profile detour when they courted Dan Hurley, the coach at the University of Connecticut, for that same job. At the time, the Huskies had just won the men's NCAA championship for the second year in a row, and Hurley wanted to go for a three-peat. But while he was tempted to come out to Los Angeles to coach the world's most famous basketball team, the Tri-State area native elected to stay in Storrs. His father, Bob Hurley, was a legendary high school basketball coach at St. Anthony High School in Jersey City, N.J. He admitted in a recent interview on Jon Rothstein's 'Inside College Basketball Now' that the elder Hurley wanted him to take the job with the Purple and Gold. The younger Hurley explained one reason why he didn't take his father's advice to come to the Lakers. 'The thing with my dad is, at different points in my career, he's advised us to make the move and take the job, and he never did. I always took my dad's advice on career advancement with a heavy grain of salt, because he never left St. Anthony,' Dan Hurley told Rothstein. 'The one thing I don't listen to Bob Hurley Sr. about is how to advance my career, because he never left his high school when he could have coached at any level.' As it turned out, Redick did a fine job in his first season as the Lakers' coach. Although they lost in the first round of the NBA playoffs in five games to the Minnesota Timberwolves, he guided them to the third-best record in the Western Conference. In doing so, he had to overcome a couple of extended slumps, off-the-court obstacles and February's humongous trade for Luka Doncic. Meanwhile, the Huskies failed to win their third straight title and lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament to the University of Florida. Lakers fans felt a measure of karma and even schadenfreude when the loss occurred.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Yahoo
Travis Hunter injury: Jacksonville Jaguars rookie misses parts of practice (upper body)
Jacksonville Jaguars coach Liam Coen said rookie wide receiver/cornerback Travis Hunter did not participate in any of the four team periods on Aug. 15 at the Miller Electric Center because of an "upper body injury." It was the first time in camp that the 2024 Heisman Trophy winner and No. 2 overall draft pick missed team periods in a practice. Hunter competed in 33 plays the day before in a scrimmage, 16 on offense and 17 on defense. "An upper body deal he's got, a little bit," Coen said. "Just precautionary." When asked if Hunter will play in the preseason game on Sunday at New Orleans (1 p.m., WJAX-47), Coen replied, "We'll figure that out. We don't know yet." Travis Hunted suited up, held play chart Hunter participated in flexes and stretching and the first two individual periods, but was held out of the third period involving pass routes. During the team periods, Hunter stood by wide receivers coach Edgar Bennett the entire time with a play chart in his hand, studying the plays as they were called into the offense. "That's what they're supposed to do when they're hurt," Coen said. "If they can't go we want to make sure they're locked in, getting all the calls, understanding the call,s and being able to watch and execute as well in their minds." WHO'S ON THE TEAM? Jaguars 53-man roster prediction: Who stays, who goes ahead of preseason Week 2? Travis Hunter: One busy preseason Hunter has played both offense and defense in six of the last eight training camp practices, counting the scrimmage on Aug. 14, and was in on 38 plays in a scrimmage in the EverBank Stadium on Aug. 1. Hunter has participated in 25 or more plays in five practices and 20 or more in 11. What are Travis Hunter's total snaps in training camp practices? (Snaps in 7-on-7 and 11-on-11 team periods) Offense: He has 188 snaps on offense in team periods, with 39 targets and 27 receptions. Defense: Hunter has 176 snaps on defense in team periods, with 14 targets, allowing six catches. He has broken up five passes and has two tackles in padded practices. This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Travis Hunter injury: Jaguars rookie misses practice (upper body)
