Trojan and Mayo Kickback Sandwich
Basketball, College Basketball, Major Sports
Posted by Obiora, May 12, 2008 - 2:32 pm
ESPN blew up former USC athlete OJ Mayo and the USC basketball program on Outside the Lines this past weekend. It was a damning and thoroughly well-done piece. And not surprising at all, coming on the heels of the Reggie Bush scandal.
I’m one who believes that 99% of college athletes, even those on big-name basketball and football teams, are good kids who work hard to be better students and players. They study hard; they work part-time jobs in the summer to pay for essentials (Rhett Bomar notwithstanding) and abide by the rules of their scholarships. If they get extra tutoring then so be it. No, I don’t mean the Jim Harrick school of tutoring. They have games to play and classes to pass. And most of them eventually realize that there is life after the final whistle blows.
I remember one time during college when I was hanging with some friends and a few football players. One player was a sophomore and a friend of mine started grilling him about his choice of major. The kid replied that he was doing such-and-such major and didn’t really know what he wanted to do after college. My friend, who shall remain nameless, took this as a sign that he wasn’t serious about his studies because he played football and he need to shape up and grow up. Two years later, this same female changed her major from nursing to business.
A scandal such as Mayo’s obscures the stories of thousands of student-athletes who do the right thing. Now it’s true that Mayo has been pimped like a whore since the day someone discovered he was good with a basketball. I doubt he’s a bad kid and the issue of NCAA athletes receiving some compensation in addition to a scholarship is a topic for another column. I don’t think it was wrong of USC to take a chance on a player like Mayo.
The wrong here is that USC didn’t do right by Mayo while he was in Pasadena. They apparently didn’t know that he was receiving kickbacks. Or more likely, they looked the other way in hopes of not getting caught. Now USC is in hot water and so is Mayo. His character will be impugned and USC, an institution of higher learning which purports to help shape the minds of America’s best and brightest, will wash its hands of him as quickly as it can.
USC avoided any penalties from Reggie Bush’s alleged NCAA violations but it’s hard to see how they can be so lucky twice. Pat Forde of ESPN advocated that USC basketball should get the Death Penalty. Even though I’m somewhat inclined to agree, I don’t see how can you drop the axe on the basketball team when they have only one major violation and the other major violation was committed by the football team, though never found guilty. So they both should get it?
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