USC appealing for lighter penalties on violations. Decision expected within the next 2 months.
http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=6048195
NDIANAPOLIS -- Southern California officials are hoping their second round before the NCAA turns out better than the first.
School
president Max Nikias, athletic director Pat Haden and four other
university representatives spent more than four hours talking with the
infractions appeals committee Saturday in hopes of reducing some
sanctions imposed against the Trojans' storied football program. A
decision is expected in four to eight weeks.
"All I will say is
that I want to thank the NCAA for giving us an opportunity before the
appeals committee to have a good and fair hearing," Nikias said after
the meeting at an Indianapolis hotel. "Now we have to wait for the
ruling."
The Trojans want the NCAA to reduce a two-year bowl ban
to one year. They're also hoping the NCAA will limit football
scholarship reductions to five in each of the next three years instead
of the scheduled 10.
The NCAA imposed those penalties June 10 after ruling Heisman Trophy winner
Reggie Bush and basketball player
O.J. Mayo
received improper benefits. The university also was cited for a lack of
institutional control. Bush gave back his Heisman Trophy.
After
requiring schools to prove "abuse of discretion" after a rules change
instituted in 2008, only one appeal has been successful. The other 10
failed.
NCAA spokeswoman Stacey Osburn said the rules do not allow school officials to present any new information in the appeals phase.
Haden
and Nikias showed up about 45 minutes before the hearing started. One
member of the delegation carried a printed board that outlined the
original sanctions against the school, and during two short breaks, the
Southern California contingent huddled in discussions.
Nikias made
the opening statement. Haden, the former Trojans quarterback and Rhodes
Scholar, made the closing argument, the school said in a statement.
After
accepting Southern California's self-imposed penalties in men's
basketball and women's tennis, the football program took the biggest
hit. Football coach Pete Carroll and basketball coach Tim Floyd both
left the school.
Two weeks after the June ruling, school officials
said they would appeal some of the penalties, calling them excessive.
The Trojans were given four years probation, had to vacate 14 wins and
were required to banish Bush from the program.
Critics of the
original NCAA ruling believe the NCAA's recent decisions involving
football programs at Auburn and Ohio State should play in the Trojans
favor.
Tigers quarterback
Cam Newton
was allowed to keep playing despite an NCAA ruling that his father had
asked Mississippi State for cash when his son was being recruited out of
junior college. Investigators said neither the son nor Auburn knew of
the plan. Newton wound up leading Auburn to the national championship
and won the Heisman Trophy, too.
Three weeks later, five Ohio
State players were suspended for the first five games of the 2011 season
after the NCAA ruled they had sold their championship rings, jerseys
and awards and received improper benefits from a tattoo parlor. But all
five, including quarterback Terrelle Pryor, were allowed to play in the
Buckeyes' bowl game.
Neither Nikias nor the school's statement
indicated whether Southern Cal cited the Auburn or Ohio State cases
during the hearing.
The scholarship reductions could be an even
more pressing issue for a program that won seven straight Pac-10 crowns
and back-to-back national titles in 2003 and 2004.
This year's
football signing period runs from Feb. 2 through April 1, and if the
decision does not come before then, the appeals committee could delay
the three-year penalty from 2011-13 to 2012-14.
All Southern Cal can do is wait.
"The
university's legal team presented the case for reduced sanctions," the
school statement said. "The delegation and the university community look
forward to the decision of the infractions appeals committee. Until
that time, the delegation will have no further comment."
