Good for Mayo...get all you can get

USC's tactics here were garbage.  However, I'm tired of the OJ Mayo's of the world, as well.  Just go to the NBA draft next time, PLEASE.  Don't go to college if your looking for handouts.  And why is it that an "outside source" always uncovers this type of scandal.  When will we get a player with enough fortitude and moral value to expose it themselves.

Shame on you OJ.  You never should have played college ball.  Good Riddance that your leaving!

And shame on you, USC.  We all know that the Trojans aren't much of a basketball program, but this type of desperation to land a good player is an embarassment to the university.

I  completely agree.  Everyone gets paid EXCEPT the student athlete.  To bad he had a snitch friend who rat'd him out.  I would assume this is pretty common for those players coming out of high school who are already NBA prospects. 

Looks to me like that agent is on top of his game.  He just gave the kid a little of his NBA money early.

Agreed. Get what you can. OJ will be punished enough through the media. He'll have to field questions about this sh*t for years probably. Meanwhile, the BDA and their "runner" can simply respond with "no comment".

I watched the news story on ESPN, and when OJ was confronted, you could see it in his eyes. He was scared and ashamed all at the same time.

I don't think he has much to be ashamed of. It's not like he hurt anyone by doing this. In reality, it probably helped him and his family out  a great deal. I don't know much about his home life, other than his family was not wealthy.  

It's not as if OJ Mayo had to wait an entire 4 years of college education for this money.  It was ONE YEAR.  Now he's going to be making millions.  Now he's also going to be answering these questions for the rest of his life.

It's also sad that you think giving someone an education is a "guise."

Millions of people in this country don't get the opportunity to attend a top 15 school.  I'm sorry you think it's a "guise" that the NCAA thinks of these young men as STUDENT athletes instead of just slave labor.

It makes you wonder how he ended up at USC to begin with. Their is reports that BDA greased the wheels at USC and with Tim Floyd.

I wonder if teams like UNC, KU, Kentucky, UCLA, and other big names, shied away from Mayo because they foresaw this potential drama unfolding?

Here's the story......

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/21/sports/ncaabasketbal
l/21usc.html

I will certainly agree that the system is broken, and even that it's good business.  The NCAA and the universities make big bucks off of these athletes.

HOWEVER, USC SHOULD BE HAMMERED BY THE NCAA AND MADE AN EXAMPLE!  I say this because they routinely hammer other schools for even less.  They flat-out killed the sports program at SMU for doing what lots of other schools were doing.  The enforcement is uneven and hypocritical.  USC is off limits because they sit right in the middle of a huge media market and they make lots of money for the NCAA.  USC should already have been smacked for the whole Reggie Bush mess, and now this.

If nothing is done about this, then none of the championships in football or basketball are legitimate.  Some schools do their best to play within the rules, while others get to break them openly and thumb their noses at everyone else.  Either change the rules or enforce them fairly.  Otherwise, we might as well just watch professional sports and let the colleges get back to the business of education.