Billy Miller Rallies Behind Reggie Bush; Bashes USC and "The System"

… and thanks NCAA for giving Reggie ( a guy who lives to put people on his highlight real when they talk sh*t about him ) the biggest chip he now has on his shoulder. Reggie will now replace that trophy for another Lombardi.

Heisman Trophy winners that have played for the Saints:

Earl Campbell
George Rogers
Danny Wuerffel
Ricky Williams
Reggie Bush

Reggie still has his trophy. And they would have to pry my cold dead fingers from around it. USC is just following the NCAA sanctions by stripping itself of any association with Bush. All top tier recruits get paid in some way. It’s just a matter of who gets what and in this case, who gets pissed.

If you wanted to be completely fair about it, the NCAA would have to lift all future sanctions against USC, strip them of their Pac-10 and national titles while Bush was there, and give them back the scholarship they awarded Bush. They would then have to determine a value of the money realized by having Bush on the team, as Miller pointed out. That money certainly wouldn’t go to Bush, though. Not if you’re wiping the slate clean. They could donate it to charity, I suppose. Bush would then have to pay for his college education. The two points in bold seem to have been glossed over.

The biggest injustice in this situation is that future USC students are punished for what past students did. That’s completely bogus. I don’t give a rats arse about “purity of the game” or anything, so I don’t care whether college players are paid or not. Couldn’t care less if you paid me to try. But as long as the rules are the rules, if they are going to punish the rule breakers the people (players and coaches) actually involved need to be punished, without touching in the slightest the players who come after them.

So I’m seconding the idea of making Bush pay for his tuition and taking away the money he earned USC. And fining Carroll and others. But leave the unfortunate innocents who came behind them alone.

Although I kind of wish it wasn’t true. College is a business now. That is at all levels, not just athletics. Academic scholarships are simply an investment in someone the university believes will one day be wealthy enough to give money back to the place he got his degree. Athletic scholarships are given to people who will sell tickets and bring in money for the schools.

If I didn’t love the rivalry and tradition of college football so much I would be totally against the idea of mandatory time playing college ball for football players entirely and say they should do away with the false sense of academic involvement and go to a minor league system such as what baseball has. The multitude of unemployed former NFL players proves that they are not taking advantage of the opportunity to actually learn something from their time in the university, so why make them go through the motions when all they want to do is play sports? Colleges are supposed to be an institution of learning, but with the business of universities these days, it just doesn’t hold true in all cases.

But back to Reggie Bush. I just can’t bring myself to care one way or another. But I’m sure Mike Florio is going to let us know his pleasure with USC making this move within the next 24 hours.

“If I didn’t love the rivalry and tradition of college football so much I would be totally against the idea of mandatory time playing college ball for football players entirely and say they should do away with the false sense of academic involvement and go to a minor league system such as what baseball has.”

I lined out the part that doesn’t apply to me. This is pretty much all I view college football as … a breeding ground for pro football. I watch it for two reasons alone: a.) getting a better feel for specific “buzz” players about to make the big leap, b.) when there’s absolutely nothing better on TV. Who beat who, who’s ranked where … I honestly don’t care about any of that.

Nobody can take away what he did on the field. I do think he should be punished for breaking the rules. My opinion take his diploma he will probably never use it anyway. And make Pete carrol pay the money back that he made during Bush’s playing time at USC. Just my opinion.

I’m a huge SC fan but this ticks me off!!!! It’s strictly political!

Saints players would stop drawing unnecessary drama attention to the organization. Bad enough Reggie is in all this, now BM want to invite himself to the party? I mean what was BM trying to accomplish with this?

The NCAA required USC disassociate from Reggie Bush. The “symbolic” gesture of removing the Heisman from Heritage Hall and returning it to the Heisman Trust is part of that disassociation.

Reggie was deemed ineligible for the 2005 season…they season in which he won it. So why would the school continue to recognize it? I doubt the Heisman Trust will take it away…they didn’t take Charles Woodson’s away and it was found that he took money from an agent while at UM.

And frankly the Heisman is an overrated award anyway…

As for the school giving back any money WRT to selling Reggie’s Jerseys etc. Will Reggie be returning any money to USC for his scholarship? Will he reimburse the school the money they are about to lose because of the TWO YEAR bowl ban that the school incurred because of Reggie’s (and his parents) actions? I can assure that is not peanuts…

No one will debate the greatness that Reggie was on the field but his selfishness has caused significant harm to the institution as a whole. You won’t see me disagreeing with anyone about the sham that is the draconian NCAA and their arcane view of “the student-athlete” but the rules are clear and Reggie not only broke the rules but his actions when all this came out say a lot. He has NEVER discussed anything about this. He settled with one guy but didn’t with another?

He doesn’t care about USC, otherwise he would have taken some action to help the school. I have covered this from day one…Reggie has done nothing to help USC defend themselves against these charges….nary a peep.

I know he has done great things for the City New Orleans I won’t dispute that…but Reggie is hardly innocent in this.

As Reggie said in his tweets…

Well,……..we’re waiting…..