A data dump of more than 500 documents including emails, phone records and interview transcripts is shedding new light on the NCAA’s investigation into USC football that resulted in a four year probation for the program, beginning in 2010.
The previously sealed records show the NCAA targeted former USC running backs coach Todd McNair as the primary focus of its four year-long investigation and maintained that irrefutable evidence was not needed in order to impugn him.
The emails and transcripts had been sealed as part of the ongoing defamation lawsuit brought by McNair against the NCAA. After years of requests by the New York Times and the Los Angeles Times, the California 2nd District Court of Appeals ordered the documents to be released, but gave the NCAA leeway to decide which records to release and when. That decision has led some to believe that the paper trail that came out yesterday may be just the tip of the iceberg. There are reportedly another 200 files that have yet to be released. The NCAA had argued that releasing previously confidential files would inhibit its ability to manage future investigations.
The documents do not exonerate former Southern Cal running back Reggie Bush for taking the improper benefits that led to the investigation. Bush’s family was provided a house in the San Diego area by two former sports marketers, working alongside a would-be sports agent, who wanted to sign Bush to a contract once he turned pro. Multiple investigations, including some by the media, indicate Bush’s family allegedly also received complimentary hotel suites for USC away games and cash in order to settle outstanding debts. In the 2010 findings by the NCAA, the school was cited for a lack of institutional control based on the illegal benefits given to Bush, and to then basketball star O.J.Mayo. USC was retroactively stripped of its 2004 BCS football championship and Bush had to return his Heisman Trophy.
The files released yesterday show, however, that once the probe started, the investigators honed in on McNair’s alleged involvement and would not let go, regardless of any evidence to the contrary. One of the emails, from committee liaison Shep Cooper, referred to McNair as, “…a lying, morally bankrupt criminal and a hypocrite of the highest order.” Former US Attorney Roscoe Howard was on the investigative team and he wrote an email to the infractions committee in March of 2010. “Credibility determinations are for this committee and this committee alone. As with all tribunals or fact finders, we do not need to say why we disbelieve him, (McNair), we need only let the public know that we disbelieve him.” Howard also wrote, “McNair should have all inferences negatively inferred against him.” Some committee members felt the need to rehash an issue from the mid 1990’s when McNair was charged with animal cruelty as New Jersey investigators suspected he was training dogs for fighting. The charges were eventually reduced to neglect.
In one of the more curious writings a committee member compared the amount of evidence against USC to the circumstantial evidence the federal government had against Terry Nichols in the Oklahoma City bombing case. Committee Member Rodney Uphoff also took issue with USC’s hiring of Lane Kiffin to replace outgoing head coach Pete Carroll. Kiffin had been on Carroll’s staff for five years and was now leaving his job as head coach at the University of Tennessee to take over at Southern Cal. The NCAA had already opened a file on Kiffin for questions that arose at Tennessee regarding recruiting. “USC has responded to its problems by bringing in Lane Kiffin. They need a wake-up call that doing things the wrong way will have serious consequences. In light of all the problems at USC, a failure to send a serious message in this undercuts efforts to help clean up NCAA sports,” Uphoff wrote to the committee.
The newly released evidence shows there was also concern among committee members that ongoing use of email for communication might one day come back to bite them. Infractions committee member Elanor Myers said, “ I am concerned about confidentiality because I do not know California open records law. Several of us use our institutional email accounts at public institutions.”
Because Bush, and Mayo, had left USC for the pros by the time the probe started, the NCAA had no subpoena power over them during the investigation. Bush, however, faced a civil suit from the sports marketers for breach of contract. The NCAA was given direct access to depositions and discovery as it related to Bush, the sports marketers, the agent and USC. The civil case was settled out of court in April of 2010, two months before the final report on USC was issued by the NCAA. As part of the out-of-court settlement in the civil suit, the depositions and discovery used by the NCAA remain sealed.
The final 2010 NCAA report determined McNair knew or was likely to have known that Bush had dealings with the marketers and agent, but did not provide a direct connection. As a result of the contentious investigation, the NCAA also declared that McNair had engaged in unethical conduct in covering up for Bush. They penalized him personally with a “show-cause” order, meaning that even as he left USC after the disciplinary action was delivered, the personal sanctions would follow him to other jobs for the duration of USC’s probation, rendering him virtually unemployable.
Last night, USC Athletic Director Pat Haden issued a statement that read in part, “These recent documents confirm what we’ve believed all along, that we were treated unfairly in this investigation and its penalties.”
