BCS Will Consider Stripping USC Of 2004 Title

-- Now that the NCAA has denied Southern California's appeal to reduce sanctions imposed on its football program, Bowl Championship Series officials will consider whether to strip the Trojans of their 2004 title.

BCS executive director Bill Hancock says there is no timetable for that decision, but he expected it to happen "sooner, rather than later."

The championship would be left vacant and not awarded to another team.

USC won the 2004 national championship by beating Oklahoma 55-19 in the Orange Bowl to complete a perfect season. The NCAA later ruled Trojans star Reggie Bush had received improper benefits and was ineligible for that season.

Auburn and Utah also finished the '04 season unbeaten.

The AP will not vacate the championship it awarded USC for 2004.

Comments

[paulwl]

03:49 PM on 05/31/2011

Strip all you want...we will ALWAYS KNOW WHO r-e-a-l-l-y WON!

[Gregor53]

12:36 PM on 05/31/2011

And then there is the fresh news from Columbus Ohio and the Buckeyes football team. Looks like some bad NCAA times coming due to player issues.

[Mattcat25]

09:42 AM on 05/31/2011

TITLE?

what "Title?"

one bowl game win a TITLE does not make.

[Megandale]

06:47 PM on 05/30/2011

The coach is ultimately responsible...and of of course, he's moved on. The entire team deserved to be punished, hopefully the program learns from this.

[MisterCee]

01:02 PM on 05/30/2011

Why strip the whole team for something one player did that did not affect the score of any of their games? Bush was already at USC and his signing to an agent did not influence his choice of school to attend, and did not give the team an unfair advantage in any way. Bush alone signed to an agent, what does that have to do with USC's title game?

[mburgh]

07:16 AM on 05/30/2011

The utter hypocrisy of college sports beggars the imagination. The so-called scholar-athlete is long gone, replaced by the minor-league professional prospect. The sooner this ends, the better the situation will be.

[JazzSax UT]

06:24 PM on 05/29/2011

Give the title to the Utes!!!

[BrightLitBlueSkies]

07:27 PM on 05/28/2011

I mean if USC is guilty as charged then by all means, yank that title away. But this isn't going to deter future violations in the slightest. The only way to to do that is to change a culture that encourages this behavior.
Now...if the BCS could find a way of punishing schools by interfering with their ability to recruit top prospects, THAT might shake things up a little. But other than that how do you make the punishments truly real? The players don't care, if they're good it doesn't matter they'll still get drafted to the NFL. Lane Kiffin still found work, and Jim Tressel will too when all is said and done at OSU, so you can't go after coaches. You can't truly scare them unless you find a way to truly hurt the school's ability to win games as punishment.
Or, and this is even more drastic, the BCS could start going all Southern Methodist on everyone and start handing out death sentences for this kind of crap. I know thats outlandish, but things are getting out of hand with this constant stream of scandals.

[Howard53545]

06:56 AM on 05/28/2011

Do it and flog Reggie Bush too.

[Power2ThePeaceful]

03:20 AM on 05/28/2011

Go DUCKS!

[Intelligentia]

12:22 AM on 05/28/2011

A bunch of corrupt and hypocritical idiots! They can make billions on the backs of these Black men but let any of the Black men get one cent for his hard work and these idiots are foaming in the mouth. They want us to believe that these Black men are bad people because they did not abide by a corrupt expolitative rule? What does taking gifts has to do with on-the-field performance? I guess gifts are now performance enhancing drugs! If I had a child playing college football and is that good to receive gifts, I will tell him ot get as much of it as he can get!!!! Corrupt rules are not worthy of following. Their children who are on all kinds of scholarships (tennis, golf, music, etc) can get gifts, but let a football or basketball player get a gift and they want you to think he has violated some type of inviolable ethical code; except that those who make the rules are in no position to be judging anyone, because of their own corruption. Some of these Black men make billions for them and end up not gaining a cent if he is injured or does not maintain a certian GPA that results in academic expulsion. So, why should these men not be paid for their hard work. They make nothing but the coaches, athletic directors and everybody else are making millions but the players! It's absurd

[Tom22602]

10:30 AM on 05/28/2011

Yea the BCS is keeping the black man down.

[AllowMeToObserve]

03:06 PM on 05/30/2011

You need to consider that "the coaches, athletic directors and everybody else" are professionals who have worked hard at smaller, lower-paying jobs for years and climbed the ladder to get where they are based on their job records. The players are students at a school. They are in the earliest part of their training for their professional lives. If they, as the coaches have, prove themselves in the professional world they will get their financial rewards.

[addisonsteele]

06:03 PM on 05/27/2011

The University of Spoiled Children deserves it.

[traveler291]

10:43 AM on 05/27/2011

while the ncaa strips usc, they fail to strip the bcs of allowing ncaa constituents to participate in their corrupt bowl system. just another glaring example of the corrupt nature of the ncaa and more proof they are the most disingenuous organization the the usa.

although it won't happen but it should, the best solution to an overriding problem in college sports would be for usc to remove their affiliation from the ncaa altogether. then only schedule home games and lure those to play them with huge financial incentive. this would create the crack in the dam where the ncaa would be forced to re-evaluate their "governorship" over college sports.

fight on, trojans.

[Jacob007]

10:15 AM on 05/27/2011

The only things that matter is the scoreboard.

[Gregor53]

12:34 PM on 05/31/2011

Agreed. I did not even remember that USC was the "Title" team in 2004.

[MisterCee]

09:40 AM on 05/27/2011

This is bull. What Reggie Bush did was to enrich himself. He didn't take drugs. Didn't take steroids. USC didn't steal players. Bush had a side deal with an agent for when he went pro. How is that an unfair advantage for USC winning their championship? The PAC-10 needs to get out of this BCS mess and go it alone. As a matter of fact, every team west of the Rockies need to break off from this corrupt system.