Todd McNair Documents: So What Now for USC and NCAA?

At long last, the Todd McNair documents and NCAA emails were released on Tuesday. And just as expected, they’re incredibly damning for the NCAA on the account that they acted maliciously in their punishment of USC over the Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo investigations.

So what’s next for USC? For many, it’s time to get vengeance on the NCAA. It’s time for the school and athletic department to throw their wallet behind a legal gameplan to wreck the corrupt federation.

But just because that’s the feel-good response if you’re a USC fan, doesn’t mean it’s what needs to happen.

It’s been five years since the Trojans were bent over the desk by the NCAA, and just over nine years since Bush last played a game.

While a serious lawsuit scratches an itch, at this point, what end goal is there that’s worth fighting for?

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Any sort of damages won would be too little too late. The ship has sailed. USC should have fought the NCAA years ago if they wanted a bounty.

Now, it’s impossible for the NCAA to reinstate lost scholarships and no amount of money is going to help the Trojans go back in time to close out games in 2014.

The only satisfaction that USC can seek out at this point is simply being right in knowing that they were excessively punished with malicious intent.

And that’s already come in watching the NCAA spend millions of dollars on fighting McNair, and could be furthered by vacated records being restored if the Penn State case has any sort of precedence on the NCAA’s new-found tendency to cave.

Even then, a paper victory of restored records would be as much of a falsehood as vacating wins in the first place.

Those games happened. Bush won a Heisman and then tried to lateral the ball to Brad Walker.

But just as simply, the sanctions already happened too. Lawsuit or not, the 2011 Trojans will never be able to win a Rose Bowl.

No matter what USC decides to do, Paul Dee’s already hummed his last tune and the NCAA has won the war.

What say you? Should Pat Haden and Max Nikias lawyer up or is it too late to do anything? Vote in our poll and sound off in the comments below.

What should USC do next regarding the NCAA?

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