It looks like the NCAA has again confirmed what we already knew about them. They are a completely useless governing body, who seems to get more things wrong than they do right.
The NCAA has been fighting to keep court documents sealed in the defamation case against them involving former USC assistant coach Todd McNair. Clearly there was a reason why the NCAA didn’t want these documents released and we all now know why that was; they have been caught with their pants down yet again.
With the court documents being released, USC AD Pat Haden wasted no time in stating how USC was treated unjustly and unfairly by the NCAA.
Documents filed by the NCAA revealing private communications among committee members related to its investigation of USC’s football program “are cause for concern about the NCAA’s own institutional control,” said Trojans athletic director Pat Haden in a statement released Wednesday evening.
Almost 500 pages of documents, which include emails, interview transcripts, phone records and other communication, were part of a filing Tuesday in former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair’s defamation lawsuit against the NCAA in the Second District of the California Court of Appeal.
“These recent documents confirm what we’ve believed all along, that we were treated unfairly in this investigation and its penalties,” Haden said.
The NCAA had fought to keep the documents sealed, arguing, according to the Los Angeles Times, “that not doing so would hinder future investigations by the organization,” an argument the court rejected.
McNair, who coached running backs under Carroll, was given a show-cause penalty by the NCAA as part of the sanctions levied against USC in June 2010. This came after he was told by Carroll’s successor, Kiffin, that he would be retained on staff, according to the filing. However, McNair was later informed his contract would not be renewed as a result of the penalty. He has not coached since.
USC was penalized for a lack of institutional control following a four-year investigation by the NCAA into improper benefits given to Heisman Trophy winner and Trojans running back Reggie Bush dating back to the 2004 national championship. The Trojans were hit with a two-year bowl ban, four years of probation and severe scholarship restrictions that have only recently been lifted.
So the NCAA wanted the documents sealed so that we wouldn’t know how incompetent they look, again. While USC may have been guilty of some wrongdoing, they certainly didn’t deserve the punishment to the degree they received. In comparison, we have seen the NCAA not punish schools since the USC case that seemed like open and shut cases for the term “lack of institutional control”.
There is absolutely no consistency from the NCAA and from the looks of things they missed the mark with this case and set USC’s football program back years in the process. If I’m USC, I am lining my lawyers up and suing the NCAA for damages to the high heavens.