ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program has reported that former USC basketball player OJ Mayo received around $30,000 worth of benefits from Rodney Guillory, a “runner” for sports agency, Bill Duffy Associates. This is not just a passing accusation either; OTL has a mountain of evidence detailing the story. It stretches back to when Mayo was in high school in Huntington, West Virginia.
I was going to draw some detailed parallels between Mayo’s case and the Reggie Bush case, but Pat Forde already beat me to it. He goes a bit over the top, I think, but it’s a nice summary of the allegations.
The troubling aspect is how cavalier USC appears to have acted towards agents and their influence. Yahoo! Sports’s investigation into the football program showed that agents and their representatives were allowed to be in the locker room and on the sidelines at practices and games.
Now we find out that the school did nothing about the fact that Mayo was known to be associated with Guillory, despite the fact that former USC guard Jeff Trepagnier and a former Frenso State basketball player were suspended for accepting benefits from him. It's as though Sergeant Schultz was serving as the USC compliance officer.
Every major program has trouble with agents. The University of Florida, my alma mater, suffered its own scandal with the Tank Black episode back in the mid-1990s. If anything, that fact should make schools more vigilant about keeping agents and their runners away from their players. USC especially needed to be on that beat, considering the Reggie Bush fiasco and the fact - and this was news to me - it’s against California state law for agents to give gifts to amateur athletes.
Really, Mayo was a ticking time bomb for NCAA compliance. He has been in the spotlight since he was in middle school. His family was very poor, yet he had nice clothes, nice shoes, and a 42″ TV in his dorm. USC head coach Tim Floyd apparently had contacts with Guillory during the recruiting process, despite Guillory’s past history with the school. All the signs were there.
Mayo’s case also ties in with a lot of other issues in college sports - the role of media and now colleges in middle school athletics, the NBA’s age limit, and the NCAA’s historically laughable record of enforcing its own rules. Combined with the Bush case, it shines a light squarely on the issue of whether USC can police itself.
Where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire. We have not just one, but two major sports media outlets that have done far more investigation into Trojan players than USC itself has. From those studies, it would seem that agents and their influence are an accepted part of the culture at USC between agents being allowed at football practice and Guillory not being blackballed from the men’s basketball program.
How about it USC? When are you going to regain institutional control?
Comments (7) Add a comment »
from 10 days ago
It's not a lack of institutional control--it's the opposite. As opposed to merely not watching out for these flesh peddlers, the USC athletic department knowingly associates with them, literally inviting them into contact with the athletes. Yeah, the NCAA treats boosters more seriously than agents but do they want member institutions to be THIS reckless with agents? The NCAA's lack of action in the Bush case is sending the message that rule breaking pays.
from 9 days ago
Great Article. I think the entire system is a failure. The one person in this situation that I can't really blame is OJ Mayo himself. He's from a poor family, and he's been exploited by several people since he's been a middle school student. You can't really blame him for wanting a cut of the action - especially since the NBA and NCAA have colluded to force players to go to college for a year (and soon to be 2 years).
from 9 days ago
it's hard for me to side with a school like let's say alabama. but if this same kind of stuff was going on in tuscaloosa, the ncaa would be all over them. it kinda makes you raise an eyebrow.
from 9 days ago
College athletes should be paid. The universities make money, the coaches make money, the college towns make money and the NCAA makes a ton of money. Everyone makes money except the ballplayes, many of whom are minority youth with impoverished backgrounds. The sanctimonious teeth-gnashing is sickening and the athletes will continue to use the universities as "minor league" training grounds as long as they are treated as "cash cows".
from 9 days ago
Same thing happens in all of college sports. You can't blame either party for partaking in the illegal sanctions. It's a win-win situation for the player and the agency. And if you ask me, I don't have a problem with it. The whole college thing, where players can recieve benefits is bulllshit anyways.
I go to a major university, the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Big Ten Athletics, one of the power powers in the country. I hate Michigan, and hope Rich Rodgriguez breaks a leg. Rodriguez is a Bad man.
All of the althetes on the football team recieve an top of the line apperal from Adidas. From sweatpants, to sweatshirts, to new sneakers, to backpacks, Adidas has got them covered.
Scooters (Mo-Ped)- Everyone football, and basketball player is to recieve a scooter. They get these sweet Yamaha Mo-Ped's which are really legit. Retail over $2,000. They were donated, and then are passed done, so it's legal.
Classes and Notes- Football players and basketball players get all of the notes. To ensure that they go to class, attendance is taken. People are hired as "checkers" to check that the students go to class. Yes, they all recieve unlimited tutoring, and they are treating like royalty on campus.
And they don't pay tuituon either.
They make enough money down here in Madison off dem' Badgers, so Bo Ryan, I wouldn't mind seeing Jamil Wilson driving around Madison in a Benz to play for the Badgers.
from 9 days ago
I just graduated from UF a few months ago. Much of what you described went on there.
The issue at hand is that the NCAA has set up rules, 2 USC players appear to have broken them twice in the last 3 years, and the school has seen no punishment. Either ditch the rules or enforce them; this wishy-washy stuff in the middle is just inviting more scandal.
from 9 days ago
The NCAA will never assume a "Get Tough Policy", because if it does, it will lose so much of its revenue. Everyone needs to stop frontin and let college athletes get paid real money. Tuition, room and board doessn't even begin to cover how much money the stars make for the university. Maybe if some of the stuffed-shirt coaches weren't paid so damned much, there'd be money to pay the players. People don't come to the stadium or aren to see Steve Spurrier or Bo Ryan; they come to see Carmelo Anthony or Troy Smith.
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