NCAA delivers postseason football ban
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ESPN.com news services
The NCAA handed the University of Southern California a two-year postseason football ban and vacated wins in Reggie Bush's final season, among other penalties, for violations in its football, men's basketball and women's tennis programs on Thursday.
The university was put on four years' probation, while the football program was hit with a two-year postseason ban and the men's basketball team was banned for one year from the postseason, which had already been self-imposed by the school.
USC was hit with scholarship reductions in football and basketball and recruiting restrictions for the men's basketball team.
The school was fined $5,000 and forfeits its $206,200 it earned from the 2008 men's basketball tournament.
In addition the university must vacate some regular-season and postseason wins in all three involved sports.
The NCAA said its findings included "a lack of institutional control, impermissible inducements, extra benefits, exceeding coach staff limits, and unethical conduct by an assistant football coach."
The violations, which span almost four years, primarily involved "agent and amateurism issues for a former football student-athlete and a former men's basketball studen-athlete," the NCAA wrote in its report.
Last year, the NCAA bundled its Bush investigation with its look into the men's basketball program. USC imposed its own sanctions on the basketball program four months ago over its recruitment of former player O.J. Mayo by former coach Tim Floyd. Floyd was accused of giving cash to a middleman who helped steer Mayo to USC.
In their football investigation, the NCAA and investigators from the Pac-10 Conference tried to determine whether Bush and his parents took improper benefits, including an alleged rent-free residence provided by a sports marketer. Bush has not met with NCAA and Pac-10 investigators and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
"I have a great love for the University of Southern California and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC, but for the fans and players," Bush said in a statement.
"I am disappointed by [Thursday's] decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings. If the University decides to appeal, I will continue to cooperate with the NCAA and USC, as I did during the investigation. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on making a positive impact for the University and for the community where I live," Bush said.
The women's tennis violation involved a former student athlete using an athletics department long-distance access call to make 123 unauthorized calls to her family. The total value of the calls was more than $7,000, the NCAA said.
The football team must vacate all wins in which Bush played while ineligible, starting in December 2004. The NCAA accepted USC's self-imposed penalty of vacating all wins in which Mayo competed during the 2007-08 season.
The women's tennis program must vacate all wins in which the ineligible player competed between November 2006 and May 2009 -- a penalty which was self-imposed by USC.
USC already admitted wrongdoing with the basketball program and sanctioned itself, including a ban on postseason participation, a reduction of scholarships and vacating all of its wins from 2007-08.
USC chose to contest the allegation against the football program.
