Sanctions? What Sanctions?

USC is hoping to sign 28 high school football players tomorrow. 28. Not the 15 we were led to believe that they were limited to by their penalty, but almost twice that number. Why? Well, because they are appealing the verdict handed down by the NCAA last summer they are going about their business as if all is okay. Now they certainly need bodies, due to a lower number of recruits last winter (14) and to replace the guys who jumped ship since the summer (many of whom were pushed). Plus, they want to have a full load of bodies to weather the eventual storm of smaller classes.
The Trojans are taking advantage of a rule that if a recruit can early enroll in January, he can count toward the previous winter's haul of players. And so nine guys are already enrolled at Southern Cal (I hope they stay clear of Everson Griffen) and can partake in spring practice. That's all well and good, and I understand why Lane Kiffin wants to go this route. After all, he is still proving himself as a head coach and can ill afford rebuilding years. And Kiffin and recruiting coordinator/assistant head coach Ed Orgeron are recruiters masquerading as coaches. They cannot stop themselves even if they wanted to.
But what confuses me in this matter is the USC high command. Sure they feel that the NCAA was too harsh. Fine, but having Orgeron and Kiffin--whose work at Tennessee attracted NCAA investigators--solicit a huge class may raise red flags. But more importantly, why postpone the inevitable? At some point this penalty, even if it is lightened, will hurt and why not have it hurt now when fans are expecting it to? Lose for a couple of years but develop some young talent and then can Kiffin and hire a legitimate coach. As I mentioned here last summer, the model for this is Miami in the late 1990s. They took some lumps, but played a bunch of talented kids who stuck it out and eventually won a national championship once larger classes came in for depth.
What USC is doing reminds me of professional teams who refuse to rebuild but continue to make runs every year even if their squad has no real chance of winning a title--like, let's say, the New York Mets.

Power Shift

Within three years of Alabama being put on probation, with scholarship losses, in 2001, SEC West rivals Auburn and LSU turned in glorious seasons with Louisiana State winning a share of a national title in 2003 and Auburn enjoying a 13-0 season in 2004. Coincidence? Maybe, but it is clear that the two sets of Tigers did benefit from their rival's self-inflicted misfortune. When a major power slumps, others benefit.

Who stands to gain the most from the recent sanctions leveled onto the Southern California program? The obvious answer is nearby UCLA, who has always gone head-to-toe with the Trojans for many of the star players produced by area high schools. Typically the Trojans win those battles, but the tide had turned a bit in recent years and coach Rick Neuheisel can smell blood. But the Bruins need to win, and win soon, to attract the type of player that was attracted to the great success enjoyed by USC the past 10 years. If the Bruins are indeed one of the programs gaining a major boost from this situation, we may not see the major bowl they gain for a couple of years. California, Oregon, and Oregon State may be the programs better suited to vault themselves up the rankings with help from USC's troubles. Also look out for Arizona and Stanford, two programs on the rise that may be able to cash in on better recruits and a better record against USC to move into the Top 10. It is not just a boost in recruiting that these squads hope to enjoy but more chances to beat the Trojans.

The other situation to monitor is with the national recruits who have recently chosen between powerhouses like USC, Florida and Ohio State. USC's woes will help all of those programs, plus Notre Dame, who not only has a better chance to reverse a horrible recent record against their longtime rivals but can possibly pluck an additional star recruit who may have been headed to the land of Troy.

Of course, these sanctions do not guarantee years of agony for USC fans. USC is still allowed to play games with all of the talent currently on the roster. If coach Lane Kiffin wants a model to follow he should look at the Miami Hurricanes of Butch Davis from the mid-to-late 1990s. After a similar hit from the NCAA Miami definitely dropped from their standing among the game's elite, which helped Florida and Florida State in the top 3 and Syracuse in the Big East. But Davis still recruited well and played the kids, who grew into the powerhouse program that would win nine games in each of the 1998 and 1999 campaigns before running off 46 wins with a national title from 2000-03. For Kiffin to do as well he needs to not only make the limited number of scholarships work, but also recruit more four-year players than normal. Play the kids and keep the kids. It worked for Miami.

Got Those Reggie Bush Blues

Did anyone see this coming? Fans of the University of Southern California were expecting a slap on the wrist. Fans of everyone else feared a slap on the wrist. There was talk of how the legal team at USC was running rings around the NCAA. After all, if the NCAA had something on the Trojans for actions taking place years ago, something would have been decided long ago.

Or so the story went. Even when head coach Pete Carroll seemed to be jumping ship by taking the Seattle Seahawks head job just a few weeks after the 2009 season ended, the apologists chalked it up to Carroll getting a situation in the pros that he could not refuse. What did he have to prove in the college ranks? And why would Lane Kiffen leave the head job at Tennessee if he thought that the sky would fall on Troy.

But now the sky seems to have fallen. And being that Kiffen was around during the glory days, there is something appropriate about his holding the bag. And for those worried about the current USC players paying for past sins, well they did sign on with a program that was under investigation and some of the signees were attracted to the glamorous life of a Trojan football player--a life built, somewhat, on lies.

Which brings us back to Carroll. In looking at some of the posts by USC fans today on various sites, Bush seems to be getting the lion's share of vitriol. but the responsibility for this problem lays at the feet of Carroll, his coaching staff, athletic director Mike Garrett, the behind scenes powers that be and multiple men who have held the job of school president. To return to glory a decade ago the school decided that they would do anything to build a winner. Included in the design was the acquisition of the best possible talent. And so Carroll and his boys rounded up some impressive recruiting classes using whatever means necessary. Along the way Carroll established a laissez faire approach to running a program reminiscent of Oklahoma in the 1980s or Miami in the '80s and '90s. But like those two programs you can only go so far before you crash and burn. I hope the Trojans brought a fire extinguisher. So if you are going to surround yourself with the type of player attracted to wine, women and song, well you really cannot complain if some of those players took care of themselves beyond what is legal.

More to follow tomorrow.