Show them the money

It’s not often in sports when a person or team does the right thing when it’s not also the easy thing to do. I would like to applaud USC and new AD Pat Haden in how they handled the recent misdoings in their Men’s Basketball and Football programs. They sent a clear and powerful message to all present and future USC student athletes. That message is that cheating will not be accepted.

USC has removed the Heisman Trophy awarded to Reggie Bush from its trophy case. O.J. Simpson’s Heisman is still there and he is a double murderer. But not only did USC remove the Heisman, they removed all images of Reggie Bush. USC has given the same treatment to O.J. Mayo. Two of the schools top and most celebrated athletes in the new millennium have been given this treatment. If I was an incoming frosh at USC I would be on the up and up.

Pat Haden could have easily pushed these issues to the back burner and give a statement about how “USC is focused on the future” and avoided it all. But he didn’t. He did the right thing and I am sure that many Trojan fans weren’t happy about it. Lane Kiffin, if you read this, be on your best behavior because I have a feeling you have one short leash right now.

The USC issue and the current situation with SEC football players and agents makes me wonder why these guys don’t get paid. I know Title IX would force the women to get paid too and they should. In 2010, the SEC signed a contract with ESPN for the rights to their football and men’s and women’s basketball games. That contract is worth $2 billion. Yah that’s right $2 billion. There are 12 teams in the SEC, so by some simple math that is roughly $11 million a year per school. You’re telling me each student athlete should get at least a small amount of that. I don’t blame the players for taking money from agents, especially with rules forcing players to go/stay in school a certain amount of time. One and doners in college basketball don’t even go to class the second semester. It’s a joke. I don’t care how little the amount is but give the kids some money and a lot of these problems will go away.