Trojans had their ‘heads in the sand’

Hours after his USC football team was hit with a series of harsh sanctions, Lane Kiffin stood before boosters at a previously scheduled dinner and talked about trying to ensure that all his players follow the rules.

The coach likened it to a father watching over 120 kids.

“It’s a pretty difficult situation,” he said.

Coaches and university administrators often use this argument when violations arise, but in the wake of this week’s penalties against the Trojans, it apparently no longer holds water with officials who govern college sports.

The 67-page report on USC’s wrongdoings made clear the NCAA is upset not only that rules were broken, but that they were broken by former tailback Reggie Bush and former basketball guard O.J. Mayo, two of the most famous, attention-grabbing athletes in school history.

“The real issue here is, if you have high-profile players, your enforcement staff has to monitor those students at a higher level,” said Paul Dee, chairman of the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions. “High-profile players demand high-profile compliance.”

This reasoning sidesteps the traditional notion of closely scrutinizing all 100 players on a football team or even a dozen on a basketball roster.

NCAA officials seem to be telling schools to focus more attention on those few players talented enough to attract improper gifts from boosters and agents.

“The language in this report is a warning to all NCAA members,” said Michael Buckner, a Florida attorney who represents schools accused of violations. “They must be proactive in addressing this issue.”

Heads in the sand

The NCAA placed USC on four years’ probation, imposing postseason bans and loss of scholarships for both the football and basketball teams.

The Trojans’ powerhouse football program could also have its 2004 national championship permanently vacated, the issue to be decided in an upcoming meeting of Bowl Championship Series officials.

The case began four years ago with allegations that Bush and his family took cash and gifts from a pair of would-be sports marketers in San Diego. Then came the news that Mayo and people close to him received improper benefits from a representative of a Northern California agent.

In both cases, the outsiders hoped to represent Bush and Mayo when they turned professional and signed multimillion-dollar contracts.

As Dee put it, “If somebody was a fourth-round draft pick, none of this would have happened.”

The committee’s report characterized the violations as “a window onto a landscape of elite college athletes and certain individuals close to them who, in the course of their relationships, disregard NCAA rules and regulations.”

Universities and their athletic programs stand to benefit from signing top-notch players in ways that extend beyond touchdowns and three-point baskets. A well-known athlete can put his team on national television and help recruit future stars.

NCAA officials said these potential rewards put the onus on schools to ward off outsiders and be wary of contributing to a sense of entitlement among elite athletes.

“Institutions need to assure that their treatment on campus doesn’t feed into such a perception,” the report stated.

But equal treatment does not apply to scrutiny by compliance staff, charged with overseeing the athletic department. The committee wrote that universities “may not hide their heads in the sand” by devoting the same level of monitoring to every athlete.

“To me, it’s common sense,” said another private attorney who specializes in NCAA cases and spoke on condition of anonymity because he often argues before the infractions committee. “If you have athletes in positions like Reggie Bush and the Mayo kid, you know there are going to be agents hanging around.”

The NCAA is not looking for perfection, attorneys said, merely evidence that coaches and administrators are making a determined effort.

Buckner’s firm runs periodic background checks on the cars that athletes drive, the apartments they rent and the homes where parents and other significant acquaintances live.

If an athlete or someone close to him begins spending more on housing, transportation or clothing, the school needs to know how that happened.

Or, at least, show that it tried to know.

In USC’s case, the infractions committee noted that, among other things, “the institution fell far short” in its monitoring procedures and “failed to heed clear warning signs.”

Bush’s parents, for example, lived in a house owned by one of the marketers without paying rent.

The report also mentioned that the football team’s practices and locker room were open to many visitors, a policy that began with Coach Pete Carroll’s arrival in 2000.

The school had only one or two people in the compliance office.

Critics of the NCAA say the organization does not set minimums or even make recommendations for compliance staff. Still, Buckner said, “the USC case is unique in that it highlights the dangers of not devoting the proper resources.”

Big family

In an open letter on the university’s website, President Steven Sample addressed the need for greater manpower.

“Because of the increasing complexity of NCAA rules, we have significantly increased the number of professional staff in the athletics compliance office in the last few years,” he said.

The university has also hired the Freeh Group, led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, to study the issue of agents and marketers.

But, Sample wrote, “let’s not kid ourselves — no amount of resources can guarantee that we can keep every unscrupulous sports agent or marketer away from our student-athletes and their families.”

Buckner agrees, but suggests that schools need to show the NCAA they have conducted frequent checks and asked all the right questions. Then, if violations occur, the penalties might be far less severe.

As a USC alumnus, he muses about the costly sanctions his alma mater incurred this week.

“If they had invested a few thousand dollars conducting due diligence reviews,” he said, “how much money would they have saved?”

Times staff writer Ben Bolch contributed to this story.

david.wharton@latimes.com

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