New NCAA scandal highlights reasons to bring Reggie Bush back to USC football

A new NCAA infractions scandal has hit college football, and it should give USC football even more reason to fight the NCAA’s ban of Reggie Bush.

What a coincidence.

The same week Arash Markazi of the LA Times highlighted the injustice of the NCAA’s ban disassociating Reggie Bush from USC football permanently, another NCAA scandal involving illegal benefits rocked the college football world.

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On Tuesday, in the midst of the college basketball bribery trial which shook the hoops world, a former financial advisor and now federal witness dropped a bomb shell: In addition to his college basketball dealings, Martin Blazer claims to have paid thousands of dollars to football players at Alabama, Michigan, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Pittsburgh, Penn State and North Carolina, among others apparently.

The infractions were allegedly committed between 2000 and 2014.

“The payments, some of which were in the thousands of dollars, were aimed at convincing the player to remain in college and not enter the NFL draft in the hopes that they would retain him as their financial adviser when they did turn pro,” per John Taylor of NBC Sports.

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What does that have to do with Reggie Bush?

First, there’s the noteworthy timeline, which spanned the full length of not only Bush’s infractions for receiving benefits from a would-be agent but also the NCAA’s drawn out investigation of USC, the levying of penalties against the football program and the completion of said sanctions.

Shocker, Bush was far from the only college football player on the take, then or now. And while the NCAA was pontificating about USC’s great crime of not knowing what house Bush’s parents were living in 150 miles away, many other universities were also not knowing what was taking place right under their noses.

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Next, there’s the infractions themselves, which stand in contrast to Bush’s. While Blazer allegedly paid players to entice them to stay in school, Lloyd Lake and company dished out benefits to ensure Bush’s departure for the NFL. (An overly large number of college football fans still wrongly assume USC was punished by the NCAA for committing a recruiting violation when in fact Bush was recruited away from USC.)

Finally, there’s the punishment. Blazer’s testimony doesn’t appear likely to result in penalties of any sort for the schools named. Without specific players cited, the NCAA doesn’t have the power to compel Blazer to give them any more information than is already out there. Besides, the statute of limitations, usually four years, is well passed.

Meanwhile, more than a decade since Bush’s actual infractions and nearly 10 years since sanctioned were imposed, the former Trojan running back is still being barred from returning to USC, with no end to the disassociation in sight.

As Markazi pointed out in his article, which detailed the logistical issues with the ban restricting Bush from USC’s campus given his new position on Fox Sports’ college football pregame show, this is a unique case. Chris Webber was disassociated from Michigan after it was revealed he took $280,000 in illegal benefits from a booster. His ban, however, was capped at 10 years. Bush’s was made indefinite.

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USC “has tried on at least three occasions to have the ban removed or lessened,” according to Markazi. “The NCAA has rebuffed each attempt.”

Matt Leinart called what is happening to Bush “a travesty.” And he’s absolutely right.

It’s a travesty that the NCAA won’t just let it go. They don’t need to strike Bush’s infractions from the record, even though it’s clear he was one small drop in a very large pond of rule breakers in the college football world. They don’t need to give USC back scholarships, even though most clear-minded college football observers can agree they over punished the Trojans relative to the crime.

To get this right, all the NCAA needs to do is to treat USC the way it treated Michigan. Set a date for Bush’s disassociation to end. It’s really that simple. And it’s time.

But when has the NCAA ever gotten it right?