Mark Emmert to Be Deposed in USC Assistant's Defamation Case

NCAA president Mark Emmert is scheduled for an April 4 deposition related to a defamation lawsuit filed by former USC Trojans assistant football coach Todd McNair in the wake of the Reggie Bush scandal.

On Thursday, Los Angeles County Superior Court judge Frederick Shaller ruled Emmert must answer questions about a 2010 comment concerning the Bush case—"they got it right, I think"—made before McNair's appeal process was complete, per Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times.

"Plaintiff needs, and has the right, to depose Emmert in order to investigate the intent and knowledge behind one of the statements Plaintiff alleges to be defamatory," Shaller wrote.

Emmert declined comment on the issue, per Fenno. 

McNair was the Trojans' running backs coach from 2004 through 2010. His contract wasn't extended by the program following an NCAA investigation into alleged improper benefits given to Bush.

In May 2011, the Division I Infractions Appeals Committee wrote he "knew or should have known" that Bush and members of an agency were "engaged in violations that negatively affected [Bush's] amateurism status."

The 52-year-old New Jersey native, who spent eight years in the NFL as a running back, received a one-year show-cause penalty. He hasn't received another coaching job since the punishment.

McNair filed the lawsuit against the NCAA in June 2011 following the failed appeal.

Emmert's deposition will be the latest step in the long-running case.

"Defamation claims turn largely on the knowledge and internal mental state of the person who made the statement in issue [in this case, Emmert]," Shaller wrote, per Fenno. "No one has more direct evidence on that point than Emmert himself."

The NCAA president will be questioned two days after college basketball's national championship game to conclude the 2018 NCAA tournament, one of the organization's biggest events.