Answer Sunday! (Part 4)

A soccer question sneaks in and a question about that AP football title in 2004.

Q: Sam Gilbert said:
What is your opinion and that of soccer fans outside of the United States of Landon Donovan?

How is he viewed upon in the Premier League and for that matter on the world stage?
Outside of MLS is he a team/league star or a role player?
Is he respected by players, managers and fans?
Did his comments about Beckham hurt his standing? If he had made those comments about a different player would it make a difference?
Could he take Wayne Rooney in beer pong?

A: Well, let’s see. He enjoys great popularity in Liverpool, home of Everton, the club he played for last season for a few months and enjoyed success. He is less popular in Munich, where he made no impact at Bayern Munich the year before. And possibly less in Leverkusen, where he played in Bayern Leverkusen and pretty much was considered a failure in his first stint in Europe. He told me he did not take it serious enough or work hard enough the initial time he spent in Germany.
I’ve always viewed him as someone unwilling to step up and be the best player he could be because he refused to play full-time in Europe unlike Clint Dempsey and Michael Bradley, etc. He’s been a little too comfortable in the MLS, where he is the biggest fish.
I think his comments about Beckham helped him because some people did not think he was tough enough and then he ripped one of the best known players in the world.
I doubt he could come close to Wayne Rooney in beer pong.

June 21, 2010 8:51 PM
uscmike said:
Part of the NCAA’s football sanctions is to remove the vacated wins from the USC record books, media guide, etc.

The AP has already indicated that it will not conduct a new vote, such that USC will always remain No. 1 in the final AP poll for the 2004 season. A couple of related questions (which assume that (a) the appeal will not result in a reversal of sanctions, and (b) the BCS votes to vacate the 2004 BCS title):

Will USC still keep the 2004 Championship banner in the Coliseum (because of the AP Poll)? Will USC still count the 2004 championship in the records books? (Will the NCAA further sanction USC if it does so?)

Will USC have to return the Crystal Football and, if so, who gets to keep it? The BCS committee? Oklahoma? Auburn? No one? (i.e., just smash it)
Can I keep my 2004 championship shirt, or do I have to return it to the NCAA?

Any thoughts on how USC will comply with the “records/statistics” sanctions is appreciated

As always, thanks for the forum Scott.

A: The AP Poll result remains unchanged. So USC’s 2004 national championship banner, which, like all of USC’s football national championship banners, does not reference the “source” of the “national championship,” still flies.
It will be considered a national championship because the AP is one of the organizations recognized for this title (along with the BCS).
You can keep your shirt.
I would assume the crystal football gets returned to the BCS, but that is not official. They will need to decide what to do about it. USC needs to show the victories were “vacated,” under NCAA rules, but that does not mean it cannot say it won the AP championship.

17 thoughts on “Answer Sunday! (Part 4)

  1. and Floyd Landis can wear his Tour De France Yellow jersey all he wants, but guess what? he was stripped of the title for cheating and claiming the title would make him look sad, pathetic and perpetually locked in denial. at least he finally came to grips with it, why can’t Southern Cal?

    does Southern Cal really want to be viewed like this?

    wolf, you are encouraging this destructive path. only by acknowledging they are cheaters and that the Orange Bowl title was stripped, can Southern Cal ever hope to regain any dignity.

  2. To this date no real information has been released proving at all when Reggie’s family started receiving benefits. We know it was in 2005; however, not clear at all if it started before the BCS title game against Oklahoma. The NCAA made that decision based on assumption as no receipts were turned over by Lake and co. and the Bush family did not cooperate. It is probable that the Oklahoma forfeit was in a way a punishment for the lack of cooperation of Reggie and his family.

    USC is still 12-0 with no violations prior to that game. Matt still earned the Heisman, which was determined prior to the Oklahoma game. Do we deserve to be the champions for that year – YES! No one was better and that was clear. So “Count” get over it!

  3. Sy, have take the time to read the 67 page USC Sanctions Report? I don’t think you have, read it. And you will come away feeling lucky that you still have a football team to root for at USC.

  4. Sy,

    The Bush family-Lake deal was consummated sometime in December 2004. It is alleged (and probably true) that Lake paid for the Bush family’s plane ticket to Florida to watch the Orange Bowl. Does having Bush’s family in attendance have something to do with the 55-19 win? No but it is still an extra benefit and against the rules. It’s funny though because Rhett Bomar and a teammate at Oklahoma took no-show jobs from a booster and Oklahoma had to originally forfeit the wins in which those players played. On appeals, the forfeitures were overturned. But that was before the NCAA rigged the appeals process because by their own admission, “they were losing too much on appeals”.

    It also doesn’t cease to amaze me how many trolls there are on this message board. I actually think it’s funny.

  5. Hi TrojanPete,

    I agree that it is funny.

    As for the December 2004; the Bush family did not testify, nor provide any details or documents what-so-ever. The only testimony on the subject to confirm timing was a convicted felon, Lake, who had a monetary incentive to lie.

    He claimed, with no substantiated proof that I’m aware of, that they consummated a deal in December of 2004 and that the first benefit was the plane trip for the Bush family in 2005. He failed to provide any bills or other documents proving that he paid for their tickets as I understand it. The timing is based solely on his word that we are to trust. Given what he claimed with McNair, I find his creditability to be rather weak. Please correct me if I’m in error.

    One more note; we are to trust a man who is admitting to committing two crimes that I am aware of. Based on his testimony, he claimed to have called Todd early in the morning for 2 1/2 minutes and told him to fix the deal with Reggie or he will go public and expose USC. I believe that is a clear case of extortion and illegal. Secondly, we have a law in California against agents, marketers, etc. contracting college athletes prior to them declaring themselves eligible for the draft. Lake clearly violated that law and it seems odd that no one is talking about pursuing him or his partner on either count.

  6. Thanks Wolf, I had thought that the Beckham comments would have lost him respect as it was said behind his back. Regardless, after the United States showing in the World Cup his image must have improved.

    Fight On Landon!

  7. I always thought a troll was one that hides his identity and/or will make one post, stir shyt up and leave. Again, feel lucky that you still have a football team to root for. That 67 page Sanctions report is brutal, even without the recorded coversations being presented to the NCAA invetigations committee involving Pete Carroll and that dirt bag wannabe agent.

  8. BruinRob/Maze,

    You are a troll, and the very worst kind… a boring one. You’re nowhere near as witty as Ralph Von Albertson and you refuse to accept your mental shortcomings and play the court jester like Count Smack/Chuck Bucket.
    Stuck in the middle, not the smartest or the dumbest. Uninteresting. As you are in life, mundane.

    It’s as if you were a true bruin.

    Come football season you’ll be seen walking across the Rose Bowl parking lot with a man-purse in one of your chubby little hands and an ice cream cone in the other. Josh Shipley will run by and snag your purse and make you drop your cone.

    As you are on this board, without a crown or jester hat, you’re left with nothing. Again.

  9. According to urbandictionary.com, a troll is defined as “one who posts a deliberately provocative message to a newsgroup or message board with the intention of causing maximum disruption and argument”.

    Those recorded conversations only include commentary discussed between agent and Bush family, which would only confirm payouts from agent to Bush family. There is no mention of any SC personnel involvement or knowledge. If presented to the infractions committee, they would yield no new evidence.

    A lot of the supporting details were not included in that 67-page report. Some of those details are coming to surface and those details question the integrity, competence, and diligence of the infractions committee. If the appeals board is smart, it will accept SC’s counterproposal, which I think is still way too harsh.

  10. I hate to change the subject but I’m puzzled as to why those three ruin freshmen needed to steal a purse. Don’t they issue all incoming ruins purses and lipstick?

  11. Karrillo,
    your name sounds familiar, and I can see the hurt in your butt…get over it, in about 8 years or so, your cheating condoms might not be the laughing stock of college fotball. You wuss!!

  12. Trojan Pete,
    in 2006 it was reported in the times that the wannabe agent had a recorded conversation between him and Carroll in which Carroll instructed him to have all the paperwork straight, in regards to the home the Bushes were living in. Perhaps Mr. butt hurt “Karrillo” can dig up the article since he’s the research expert…and takes great pride pulling up past articles.

  13. And BruinuclaRobMaze proves my point.

    Still fighting wearing the clown face he tries to make a real argument but needs someone to look up an alleged article and explain the big words to him.

    How utterly common.

  14. This is the first I’ve ever heard of Pete Carroll having any sort of conversation with Lloyd Lake. I find this hard to believe–do you have any sources you can cite? If he had a conversation with Lloyd Lake, I would think Bryant Gumbel would have played them on the Real Sports segment when he interviewed Lake and played snippets of recorded conversations. Furthermore, when pressed by NCAA staff about whether he thought Todd McNair or anyone at USC knew of his scheme with the Bush family, he didn’t give a direct answer. His only answer was “they knew” and that only came after a roundabout prelogue.

  15. Now that UCLA ROB and BruinRob have formed an unstoppable alliance to bring the “butt hurt” to the Troxans, I will support them, to!

    And those three UCLA freshmen who got arrested — obviously that was a misunderstanding, or they were acting in self-defense, or the cops were just racist!

  16. The sun even shines on a dog’s arse some days but Robby can never win an argument.

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