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| The NCAA is pretending this pic doesn't exist. (Getty Images) |
Stoops, whose team lost to USC 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl, said "I don't have any thoughts (on USC's situation) and we're not claiming any championships." So if Stoops gets his way, there will officially be no 2004 BCS champion, though USC will still be #1 in the Associated Press poll because it has no tie to the NCAA or its rules.
The NCAA is wrong once again. This is revisionist history that punishes the wrong people and puts teams that did nothing wrong in an awkward position. Stoops doesn't want the title because he knows his team didn't win it, and it would be silly to pretend otherwise. Few if any athletes/teams/coaches would be comfortable pretending they won something they didn't. It's hollow.
As for USC, the school should be punished and it has been - scholarships have been lost and the team is barred from postseason play for several years. That's appropriate. Reggie Bush, the source of this mess, has been punished, too, because he lost his Heisman Trophy. But what about the guys on the team who did nothing wrong? Why should they lose a championship that they rightfully earned? And former USC coach Pete Carroll didn't get punished because he ran off to the NFL. Not a lot the NCAA can do about that, but it shows that it can be hard to punish the real culprits sometimes.
USC was found to be guilty of many violations, but at the end of the day those things were off-the-field issues. Reggie Bush didn't cheat on the field as far as we know, and USC should be able to keep the title. Besides, no other team is going to claim it and no one except the NCAA is going to pretend USC didn't win it. This is a no-win situation, the NCAA should drop the issue with USC and stop stripping titles from teams for future violations.
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