Looks like we'll find out if Switzer was right
Published: 11/15/2007 8:03 AM
Last Modified: 11/15/2007 8:03 AM
Back in September, Barry Switzer told the Los Angeles Times that Oklahoma has been the NCAA's "whipping boy" when it comes to law enforcement. As for USC and Notre Dame?
"Sacred cows," Switzer called them. "They've got alumni out there doing things for their kids too, just like it happens here."
The quotes formed the base of Chris Dufresne's story about bitterness percolating around Norman, not just over the NCAA's treatment of OU over the Rhett Bomar/Big Red Sports & Imports scandal, but over the NCAA's seemingly blase attitude toward Reggie Bush's improprieties.
Here was Bush, allegedly accepting money and gifts while still a Trojan so he would sign with an upstart marketing agency out of USC. Here was his family, living (rent-free apparently) in a home owned by one of the would-be marketers. Here was Yahoo.com breaking the story, and the LA Times doing extensive follow-ups.
And yet here was USC, taking zero responsibility and showing zero leadership on the matter. And the NCAA, doing next to nothing because it didn't have anyone jump-starting the investigative process for it.
Thus the sour taste in the Sooners' mouths. It is OU's opinion that it went overboard in self-imposing penalties for Bomar's and J.D. Quinn's taking money for work they never did at Big Red, and yet all it got in return was the vacation of eight wins and a Holiday Bowl championship from the 2005 season.
The lesson: Be proactive, lead the investigation and kick the miscreants off the team, you pay a price. Twittle your thumbs, whistle and wait for out-of-court settlements, you skate.
Anyway, that was until one of Bush's wanna-be agents, Lloyd Lake, decided to both file suit against the Heisman Trophy winner and fork over extra-benefit evidence to the NCAA. Apparently Lake got tired of waiting for his settlement.
Now that the NCAA's hand has been forced, it will be interesting to see how sacred that cow really is.
-- Guerin Emig
Written by
Guerin Emig
Sports Writer
