ok NCAA, what are you going to do now???

[Coach34]

SAN DIEGO -- It appears Reggie Bush has reached an out-of-court settlement with a fledgling sports marketer who is trying to recoup nearly $300,000 in cash and gifts the star running back and his family allegedly accepted while he was playing at the University of Southern California.

A settlement could stymie the NCAA and Pacific-10 Conference in their investigations of whether Bush and his parents took improper benefits. Bush has not met with NCAA and Pac-10 investigators, and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Attorney Brian Watkins, who represents Lloyd Lake in his lawsuit against Bush, tells The Associated Press that depositions involving his client and former partner Michael Michaels have been called off.

A call to Bush's attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, was not immediately returned

 

[AROB44]

My bet is thatSan Francisco State University (which doesn'teven have a football program)will be put on 5 years of probation.

 

[KurtRambis4]

integrity, they would make USC vacate the wins when he was there.

 

[PBRME]

x

 

[dogfan96]

unless they can tie the guy to USC somehow.. which I doubt they can do. Rhett Bomar and 2 other guys admitted taking money from a booster and not doing any work for it and OU wasn't forced to vacate their wins

 

[msumhsfan]

If he would have been playing at a university at the time of receiving the stuff I bet they would make said university vacate wins right? So I would think USC should probably have to as well

 

[dogfan96]

OU kept their wins and their players took money from a booster... Bush and/or his parents took money from somebody trying to represent him... I don't see how they could justify taking their wins unless they can say this guy somehow represented the school, which I doubt they can do

 

[msumhsfan]

But what will they do? Some sort of penalty has to be enforced on someone right. Since the student athlete in question is no longer in school do they go after the guy giving the gifts or the school's compliance guy?

 

[Seinfeld]

the NCAA handles cases and rulings on an individual basis so they may very well not do a damn thing, but they certainly could.

I think there are a couple differences between the two cases. First, I believe that Oklahoma self reported the violations against Bomar and immediately dismissed him from the team. The Bush deal, however, was broken by a couple reporters and USC has now carried on a 4 year "investigation" with the help of the Pac-10 and to date, they have done nothing.

Second, I don't know how much Bomar made as the reports only say that he and the other players were overpaid for their work, but I doubt that it amounts to anywhere near the value of an entire family staying in a $800K house essentially for free. To make matters worse, combined with the Sidney fiasco, this now makes two USC associated families in the last few years with similar charges.

I will be shocked if the NCAA actually does a thing to USC, but definitely don't believe that they couldn't just because they didn't directly pay him. They're still responsible for keeping tabs on their athletes as the NCAA sees it.