Over the weekend the University of Southern California concluded that O.J. Mayo while a basketball player at the school was improperly paid and as of such ineligible during the 07-08 season. As a result of these finding USC imposed these following punishments:• No postseason play in 2009-10, including the Pac-10 Conference Tournament.
• A reduction of one scholarship for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 academic years.
• Reducing the number of coaches permitted to recruit off-campus by one during the summer of 2010.
• Reducing the number of recruiting days for the 2010-11 academic year, to 110 from 130.
• USC said it will vacate all wins during the 2007-08 regular season, which was when Mayo competed while ineligible. It will also return the money it received through the Pac-10 for taking part in the 2008 NCAA tournament. [ESPN]
Of the infractions 4 of the 5 have meaning, the final bullet point is dumb. Think of it this way. Say a person committed assault with a baseball bat and their punishment was the following:
• 7 Years in Jail
• The baseball bat would need to be returned and anything the baseball bat was used for would be erased from history.
Erasing the past makes no sense because you actually aren't punishing or rewarding anybody. What happened happened, we can not go back in time.
The worst such case of the NCAA removing tournament wins comes with the Michigan Wolverines and the Fab Five. The Fab Five according to the "Record Books" never happened thanks to Chris Webber's rules infractions. So if they never made the Final Four in 1993 than who did? Did Temple make the Final Four? John Chaney never made a Final Four in his illustrious coaching career but in 1993 he "lost" to Michigan in the Elite 8. But according to the NCAA Michigan lost that game, so should Temple hang a Final Four banner?
Finally, how is the actual person who broke the rules being harmed? O.J. Mayo took money when he obviously knew he wasn't supposed to. Do you think he actually gives a shit about USC forfeiting his wins, or the other punishments they self-enforced? The only reason he played in college in the first place was because the NBA came up with their bogus age restriction. Do you think he's going to repent that his time at USC "doesn't exist" in the record books? No one cares. Hell the Trojans didn't even beat Michael Beasley in the 1st round anyway.
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