When Reggie Bush’s advisers either told him or couldn’t get him to settle the claim by Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels, for close to what was asked, the cycle that led to the NCAA punishment of USC was set in motion.

Lake and Michaels were looking for compensation, after Bush and his family received money and benefits from them while Reggie was in school. In exchange they were to represent Bush as a pro but he stiffed them. He signed with someone else.

There is more than speculation that those two men were the sources for the very first story about this scandal, published in Yahoo! Sports a few years ago.

Next, the civil lawsuits were filed against Bush and his family by the two men. Bush decided to go to the District Attorney to claim that Lake and Michaels were engaging in extortion by seeking return of money they weren’t owed.

An investigation commenced into those charges which amounted to nothing. But on the heels of that criminal allegation, the NCAA began its slow crawl towards today’s announced sanctions against the university.

Bush settled relatively quickly with Michaels but continued to refuse to do the same with Lake. Mere weeks ago, Bush and Lake came to a confidential settlement on the eve of him having to testify under oath about the facts of the case.

In the meantime, the university toughed it out, got in trouble on the basketball side of the athletics department and purged Tim Floyd from his position as coach. Floyd, by the way, was not named as a culprit in the report issued today abut the violations related to OJ Mayo.

Pete Carroll jumped to the NFL as the NCAA was getting closer to wrapping up its inquiry. Bush as we know is ensconced with the Super Bowl champs, the New Orleans Saints and OJ Mayo plays for the Memphis Grizzlies of the NBA

The music stopped in this game of Musical Chair as of today. Will the cheese stand alone? That is Athletic Director, “Teflon” Mike Garrett. Story on how Garrett uses plausible deniability, here

The NCAA called the situation at the school, a lack of institutional control and while we wait this thing to play out, one huge question remains, “Will Bush lose his Heisman Trophy?”

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

When I picture USC execs standing to face the music and have to accept the sentences for their NCAA crimes, a caricature scenario runs through my mind that includes ex-Trojans football coach Pete Carroll driving off in the getaway car leaving his fellow cronies behind to take the beating.

Carroll’s name has come up around the NFL regarding coaching vacancies several times over the years since he returned to an NCAA bench but he never took any offers seriously enough to leave until this off-season.

When it was announced Carroll would be leaving USC to return to the NFL, the NCAA allegations against USC were long out there with investigations dragging out over several years, so the timing of him shedding his Cardinal and Gold comes into question.

Being behind the Trojans bench this year would have been a disaster since the sanctions include a two-year ban from participating in a bowl game, the loss of 20 scholarships and sacrificing wins over the past several years. The L.A. Times has all the sanctions listed here.

Good luck recruiting with your hands tied like that.

The records for top NCAA football programs after being issued harsh sentences have produced grim results in the past. The five-year conference records for Alabama Crimson Tide was (21-14), OU (17-15-2) and Auburn (18-22) after being penalized by the NCAA and after an impressive winning run, the University of Miami took several years to dig out of a hole after they were slammed with sanctions.

It’s all about recruiting in college ball which is basically the minor league of the NFL. Elite high school players get lured to whatever schools can get them the most exposure to the NFL scouts.

So what’s going on in Knoxville then? Where Lane Kiffin left the University of Tennessee hanging just as the team was making its way around the corner from a dark, dingy alley they had been stuck in for several years.

Be assured there will be some heavy partying at that campus when Kiffin learns his recruiting has suddenly become so difficult.

Kiffin is known as one of the kings of recruiting and even went as far as sending hot looking babes in skimpy outfits to high school games and events trying to lure top prospects to UT during his short stay.

While all this is happening in Southern California, the caricature comes back to mind and I picture Carroll glancing back in the rear view mirror of the getaway car, well out of danger, heading toward sunnier skies in Seattle.

MORE: L.A. Times Lists All Sanctions Here

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Reggie Bush, pride of USC, Heisman Trophy winner and the second overall pick in the 2006 NFL draft has lost his bid to be tell his tales in a private arbitration. And guess who is most interested in what he has to say? The NCAA, that’s who.

The deposition testimony in a civil lawsuit will create a public record about Bush’s side of a story that is more than four years old. Did he and his parents receive hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash and goodies while he went to college, in exchange for a promise that he would become a client of Lloyd Lake and Michael Michaels after he jumped to the NFL? A promise he did not keep.

The NCAA hasn’t finalized its recommendation about whether there should be punishment meted out after its far reaching investigation into USC’s adherence to NCAA rules. It got lucky that a judge recently ruled that Bush’s testimony cannot remain secret.

The Associated Press reported that the college governing body has asked for a full transcript of Bush’s testimony and that of Mr. Michaels. Presumably it is only after reviewing all that material that USC’s fate will be determined.

In the meantime, the NFL Draft, televised on ESPN will serve as a reminder of what all this is about. Round one is scheduled for prime time on Thursday evening April 22, rounds two and three will go off on the next night and it will all wrap up on the weekend.

Bush sits down under oath on that Friday, April 23. Think those Sports Center updates won’t be have film of Reggie walking in and out of Lake’s attorney’s office surrounded by his team? Why wouldn’t they? Bush is considered one of the biggest recent success stories of a college athlete making it big in the NFL.

If his ability to stay in school and afford the things he needed or wanted was contingent on receiving financial assistance in a way that breaches NCAA rules it is news.

Not big news mind you because you and I already believe that this is a common practice.

The big news will be if USC gets punished in the present for what it might or might not have known about in the past. The school already made an admission of wrongdoing, without actually making one when it sacrificed its men’s basketball team on the altar of being a good citizen in the world of the NCAA.

But that was only about the recruiting of basketball star O.J. Mayo. While he was news out here in LA during his time at USC, he doesn’t move the meter on public interest the way the on again-off again boyfriend of Kim Karashian does.

If the stench reaches the vaunted football team it will taint former coach Pete Carroll and of course the seemingly untouchable and Teflon-like Mike Garrett, the school’s Athletic Director. Bush will go about his business without any cares unless there is something more to hide than allegedly receiving free rent for his parents and goodies for himself.

This isn’t criminal wrongdoing so don’t expect Commissioner Goodell to get involved. Reggie can write a check and make this all go away if he wants to settle the case with Lake. In the meantime, other young men will wait for their names to be called for their chance to make millions playing football. No matter what it took to get them there.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax™

ANN ARBOR – In the infant stages of this NCAAF 2008 season, we’ve learned something about the Big Ten. They may soon be referred to as the “Little Ten” if their powerhouse teams don’t get off their asses and start playing some head-banging, Big Ten ball. Another early observation is that Ohio State doesn’t deserve to play for the NCAA Championship after getting their asses handed to them by the USC Trojans 35-3. That embarrassing performance earned OSU the SportsClimax.COM “Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week”.

Then there is the disappointing, lackluster Michigan Wolverines. During the off-season, when Michigan lost the Terrelle Pryor sweepstakes to their rival Buckeye’s, many people threw in the towel and knew it was going to be a rebuilding process; but Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez should not be waving his white flag this early in the season.

After losing his debut in the Big House to underdog Utah and dropping another to Notre Dame, Rich Rod and his new-look Wolverines are off to a shaky start. Rebuilding or not, when you take over a program with the prestige and pride of the University of Michigan, a rebuilding year should include a major bowl berth since the bowl season is watered down to mediocrity.

When a major program like the Wolverines need a rebuilding year, it shouldn’t look at Notre Dame’s 3-9 garbage season last year as an acceptable standard.

After watching Steven Threet at QB over the first three games, he doesn’t possess the tools for the spread offense or possibly any offense in the Big Ten. With his lack of accuracy and throwing arm and less than average mobility, he plays more like a Mid-American conference QB in a Big Ten uniform.

Rodriguez should see that. Why not let him take more snaps under center. When Threet did line up and take some snaps in one offensive series against Miami OH, the Wolverines played to their strengths and pounded the ball down their throats for a touchdown.

Rodriguez clearly wants to implant his offense and continues to force it without players who fit that scheme and because of that, the offense is sputtering.

Michigan has 13 offensive lineman over 280 pounds who control the line of scrimmage. They have two halfbacks, Brandon Minor and Kevin Grady, who are skilled and powerful runners weighing 214 and 228 pounds respectively, who have only carried the ball a combined fifteen times.

Sam McGuffie, 5 ft. 11 in., 185 lbs, has carried the ball 50 times. McGuffie is great in open space and should get his touches through screens and other open field plays. Why hand a runner like McGuffie the ball on 3rd and short from the shotgun and expect him to grind out the yards. And somebody needs to tell Coach Rodriguez that fakes to his halfback from the shotgun is getting zero respect from a defense; especially in the bullshit situational parts of the game.

This is the University of Michigan and Rodriguez has been a disappointment because of his lack of commitment to win football games. No one wants to see his spread offense for an entire game when the team lacks the weapons to make it work effectively. This offense needs to take more snaps under center and allow their size to be a factor instead of playing against their strengths.

That offense has potential to dominate when Shavodrick Beaver is running it next year. Beaver, out of Texas, has made a verbal commitment for next year and has been evaluated has a highly athletic quarterback and compares to Dennis Dixon in size and skill.

I believe in R.R. to bring glory back to the University of Michigan in the future. Coach Lloyd Carr hit a plateau and wasn’t taking the team to the elite level of competition expected by the Michigan faithful. In his last five years, Coach Carr was 1-4 in bowl games, got swept in BCS games and had a record of 1-4 against Ohio State.

Coach R.R. is capable of leading Michigan back to the elite stage but he shouldn’t use this rebuilding year as an excuse to lose football games. Michigan is a school that reeks with prestige and pride.

Kansas City Chiefs Coach Herb Edwards said, “You play to win the game”. Coach Rodriguez needs to think about Edward’s comment every Saturday and remember he is wearing maize and blue.

The next few games are against Big Ten rivals, Wisconsin and Illinois. If Rodriguez isn’t careful, he may be staring a 1-5 record right in the face . . . on his way to a Notre Dame-like rebuilding season.

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