USC Needs to Do the Right Thing in Regard to Joe McKnight

USC has been down this road before in recent years. There was talk of NCAA violations with Reggie Bush and OJ Mayo. Regardless of what we feel about some of these rules, they are the rules and student-athletes are expected to follow them.

Now Joe McKnight is involved in a scandal. He apparently illegally accepted a car from a dealer as a gift. While that may not seem like a big deal to some, it is against the rules.

Students claimed to have seen him driving the car around campus. McKnight says that it is his girlfriend's car. He says that he has never driven it and doesn't even have the keys. I am sure if you watch McKnight close enough, you can see his nose grow when he makes those comments.

There is a major difference between Bush and Mayo's issues and McKnight's. Those two were already gone before word of the violations got out. McKnight is still on the team and the school has a choice to make.

USC is doing an investigation but the reality is that we know the truth without knowing the truth. McKnight is guilty of these violations.

USC and their fans have two choices. They can make excuses for him and try to sweep it under the rug or they can hold him accountable and either suspend him for at least the bowl game or kick him off the team altogether.

USC has a chance to really stand up and say that this is not what our university stands for and we will not tolerate this.

At this point USC is not at fault. If they take the appropriate discipline against McKnight they will still not be at fault. If however, they choose to make excuses for this and sweep it under the rug they will be no better than McKnight.

I certainly respect McKnight as a running back and I am not saying he is a horrible person. However, he knew the rule and he broke it. For that he should be held accountable.

You might think that, as a Notre Dame fan, I might be chuckling over this. I am sure there are some Domers who are, but not me. When Brian Kelly gets Notre Dame back to where it needs to be, I don't want to beat a program on probation. I want to beat the Trojans when the Trojans are at their best.

Notre Dame and USC need each other and the rivalry is best when both schools are on top. For that reason, I hope USC makes a stand here and suspends or removes McKnight from the team. If they don't, this will only allow more violations to happen and it will lead to probation for the program.

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