By: Tyler Ward
USC Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, has formally apologized to several schools for falsely accusing them of contacting current Trojans freshman, Dillon Baxter.
On June 11, USC director of compliance, Matt Billings, told a Pac-10 enforcement official that Alabama, Florida, Washington, Oregon, and Fresno State contacted Baxter after he had signed a letter of intent with USC. A few days before, the NCAA leveled USC with major penalties in the wake of improper benefits paid to former Heisman winner, Reggie Bush and current Grizzlies basketball star, O.J. Mayo. The NCAA vacated the 13 wins from USC's 2004 season and handed them a two year postseason bowl ban, along with 30 docked scholarships.Garrett officially apologized to Florida athletic director, Jeremy Foley, for bringing Florida into something that had nothing to do with them and alleging they had illegally contacted Baxter. Alabama and Washington have also confirmed that they have received apologetic letters from Garrett. Oregon has also expected an apology from Garrett and USC. Alabama denied the allegations and a follow-up investigation by USC turned out nothing incriminating towards Alabama or any other team. NCAA rules state that school can contact juniors and seniors on a team facing a two-year postseason ban, but freshmen and sophomores cannot be contacted.
Ron Barker, the Pac-10 associate commissioner for governance and enforcement, confirmed the letter and said that it stated, "I just met with [Baxter] and he told me that he received phone calls from five institutions [June 10th.] All of the institutions asked if he was interested in transferring from USC due to the NCAA decision. Would you please speak with these schools to remind them they cannot speak to this student athlete?"
Mike Garrett said that he spoke with the freshman and he was told Baxter did not receive any calls from any of the colleges. In the letter to Florida, Garrett wrote, "he (Baxter) has now confirmed that he did not receive a call from your institution. Therefore, USC has no intention of pursuing this matter further. I apologize for any inconvenience or embarrassment this matter has caused to you and your institution."
Baxter was a highly-touted running back coming out of Mission Bay High School and many teams wanted him to come to their respected school. However, he wanted to play for coach Lane Kiffin and therefore, signed a letter of intent with USC. Kiffin has highly praised Baxter, as he has said that he reminds him of Reggie Bush, who is the reason why USC is in the position they're in right now.
USC apologized for any embarrassment they had caused towards each school, but the only ones who should be embarrassed is USC. They got torn up by the NCAA and received bans that have been unheard of throughout college football. They called out two of the most recent powerhouses in football, Alabama and Florida, but turned up nothing to verify that they had contacted Baxter. Since the NCAA brought down their iron fist on USC, they were probably trying to tarnish two great NCAA school's reputations. I mean, what are the odds that a team, who just got penalized heavily, decides to accuse two schools of violations that have won 3 championships total this decade? Not to mention, they are on the opposite side of country. The other three teams that were accused have been decent football teams, but not championship contenders. It's funny to note that Lane Kiffin just left Tennessee, an SEC school, and UT's two biggest rivals are Alabama and Florida. Then, Kiffin goes to USC, and suddenly, two of his biggest rivals in the SEC are accused? Something seems a little bit suspicious to me. I can't quite figure out why they both got accused, but I think it has something to do with jealousy or his bitterness towards the SEC. Either way, the allegations were very stupid and didn't even deserve to be brought up. Mike Garrett, Lane Kiffin, and the rest of USC all need to grow up and get facts first before insisting somebody or someone did something wrong.
