Speaking of Heisman's, they also canned their AD, Heisman winner Mike Garrett. I would imagine Haden will have Kiffen on a short leash.
Reggie Bush should keep his copy of the Heismann. It is an award for individual athletic excellence. The fact that he was paid in kind had nothing to do with his performance. It's not like he took steroids or anything...it's just why he went to USC...that's all. USC should be punished...not Reggie Bush.
I disagree because Reggie and his family took the money. I really do not care if they take his Heisman or not but he wasn't a victim. USC should be punished because of the loose ship they were running = lack of institutional control. Think of it this way. Who would win a heisman with zero victories during that season since the wins were vacated and they wouldn't have been vacated if he didn't accept money.
Good points there....but I still don't get the concept of vacated wins. To me it's like Catholic marriage annulments....you can't get divorced, but the church can say the marriage never happened in the first place...so how do you explain the kids? :huh:.
Basically a way to keep the record books in order and to keep balance. And the games did happen because the opponent's result of the game doesn't change. Imagine a team getting hammered by the NCAA and they have to forfeit every game they played over a 2 year span. Then you have this team and that team claiming national, conference, division, etc... hardware changing hands, etc... and it might be 2 or 3 years after the actual incident. Add in the BCS drama and there is a huge mess.
So if winning is everything, and a tie is like kissing your sister, a vacated win...is like..is like...I don't know...and I really don't want to ask Cajun Sensation. :rofl: :yelwink2:
Two comments from nola.com about Reggie: In response to the report that USC was returning its replica of Reggie Bush's Heisman Trophy, nola.com reader Tezopine wrote: "Ridiculous. As Joe Paterno says, football is won and lost of the football field. You can't take that away, no matter what. Oklahoma was forced to forfeit a Sugar Bowl win to Penn State, and JoePa refused it. And the same with Heisman Trophies." Gatorlawman II had a different opinion: "Shame is all I can think about this. What is really sad is the players now have nothing to do with what Reggie did and they are paying the price for him. The school should be made to pay in dollars and anyone that violated the rules should be charged and fired. Anything Reggie did should be stripped from any record books and awards and anyone else that participated. I still never heard any apologies."
I disagree too. Whether we want to admit it or not, he cheated. It didn't make him a better ball player but it certainly could have relieved a lot of stress by taking family issues and money issues off the table for him to worry about. Every other student athlete has to deal with that and he didn't because he was setup in a cushy house that his folks owned and had money so he didn't have to worry about being a broke college kid. We have rules and you have to follow all of the rules if you are going to be called the winner of something.
I agree with USC on this one. They stepped up and did the right thing here. Why would you want to honor a cheater among your distinguished athletes? His personal greed caused adverse consequences to completely innocent students, alumni, coaches, and athletes currently in the program. Should the university take some of the blame? Of course. They should have been more vigilant on monitoring their athletes relationships with agents. However, at the end of the day, it was Bush that took the money from an agent to benefit himself and his family. The money was paid to secure him as a client at the next level. It had nothing do do with getting him to attend USC and the source was not in anyway promoting the university. If an LSU athlete would have done something like this and phucked our program I'd want nothing hournoring him on campus either.
This and it is about time that they showed a bit of remorse and act a bit contrite for the situation, rather than the arrogance they had been displaying.
