USC, Floyd need to be made examples
Written by Heegos, Wednesday May 13 2009
According to Yahoo! Sports, USC basketball coach Tim Floyd paid at least $1,000 to help get OJ Mayo to commit to his program.
Rodney Guillory accepted cash from Floyd in order to steer Mayo to commit to USC. Mayo was the top recruit of the 2007 class and was heavily recruited nationwide. His choice of USC over such traditional powerhouses like Indiana or Kentucky was publicly criticized. Mayo's explanation of his choice included the fact that he wanted to play in a big market and Floyd's experience as an NBA coach.
USC football coach Pete Carroll has had some recruiting troubles of his own recently, as well.
If the NCAA is really concerned about keeping up the appearance that it is running a tight ship, both coaches and programs need to be disciplined accordingly.
While Carroll and the football program are all ready under investigation, an investigation into the Floyd/Guillory/Mayo situation should come soon. Depending on what the NCAA finds, USC should be punished accordingly.
But not only should NCAA President Myles Brand look to clean up USC, he should also look into the relationships between high school and college athletes and "runners."
Runners are people who hook up with top recruits and steer the athletes to different sports agents or agencies. Usually the runners will also have influence on where the recruit will attend college, like Guillory.
Guillory and other runners are just out to make money by manipulating and exploiting young men. Brand and the NCAA heads have to put a stop to this practice. The way to stop this is by levying tougher penalties on coaches, programs and even the players.
Former Indiana University basketball coach Kelvin Sampson received a five-year ban in 2008 after it was found that he and his staff had made over 100 improper phone calls to recruits. IU was not banned from postseason play.
The NCAA should impose tougher penalties against Floyd and USC if the accusations against him are found to be true. A five-year ban for improper phone calls should turn into 10-years for accepting cash. USC should be banned from the NCAA tournament for at least three years. Banning a team from the tournament may punish innocent players, but it puts more pressure on athletic directors to make sure their coaches are running clean programs.
As for the players, it's tough to say. Both Mayo and Reggie Bush were out of college by the time each player's situation was uncovered, so it would be impossible to suspend them. It was suggested by some sports writers that Bush should have been stripped of his 2005 Heisman Trophy. It's less common for players to receive punishment compared to coaches, but the athletes aren't always innocent bystanders in recruiting.
It's tough to say what will happen to Floyd, or Carroll for that matter. Brand and the NCAA should make examples out of the next coach who is found to have violated recruiting rules. That is the only way to clean up college athletics.
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