The Waiting Game: USC Meets with NCAA Today

It's pucker time in Los Angeles.

While the rest of college football focuses on upcoming spring practices, the University of Southern California has only one thing on its mind today—meeting with the NCAA to discuss the results of the seemingly decades-old investigations of the Trojans' basketball and football programs.

Mike Garrett will no doubt continue to maintain the school and its Athletic Department had no complicity in the alleged accusations by some unsavory characters, despite throwing then-basketball coach Tim Floyd under the bus.

Garrett has been a source of ire for Trojans' fans—he made some questionable decisions, only to be lauded as a brilliant mind when Pete Carroll became the fair-haired child of Los Angeles. Sometimes, you get lucky.

Let's just see how his luck holds out today.

Most football fans don't ever want to see a school hammered by the NCAA. Part of the reason why is the NCAA's own doing. The NCAA has no fans in football nation because their heavy-handed tactics have ruined at least one major program (SMU), which probably deserved what it got but is now the gold standard that the NCAA should never reach for again.

The NCAA's discussions with USC should reveal the depth and scope of the investigation and what violations they found, if any. After five years, you would think there was something substantial, but think again.

Five years?

If the allegations about Reggie Bush were true, wouldn't that have come out a long time ago? The fact that this investigation took so long seems to indicate that the investigators had leads but couldn't make them valid. Either you have the goods on USC or you don't. If you don't, you keep looking. And looking.

Or you hope you can use information gathered from Lake v. Bush pre-trial depositions, which as of now still haven't taken place. The NCAA apparently wanted to wait for that information but has decided to press on without testimony from the depositions.

Without legal testimony, the NCAA has to rely on eyewitness accounts and documents submitted as evidence. But this gets tricky, because the main witness, Lloyd Lake, has a shaky background. So who do you believe?

Lake? He has been arrested seven times, was incarcerated several years, and is described as a "career offender" by the US District Court. He also made some cash from a book—Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush turn his final college season into a six-figure jo b?— when he gave author Don Yaeger taped excerpts of Bush's alleged illegal benefits.

Bush? Super Bowl winner, Heisman Trophy winner, two-time National Championship winner, on-again, off-again boyfriend of Kim Kardashian, and contributing rebuilder of New Orleans after Katrina hit. He has no criminal record.

If this case is decided on the character of witnesses, Bush wins.

If this case is decided on overwhelming evidence—which seems far-fetched, because if there was a ton of evidence, why did this investigation take five years?—then USC deserves to get hammered.

Lack of institutional control is the key. If USC knew players were receiving illegal benefits, or should have known they were receiving illegal benefits, then loss of scholarships and more is a distinct possibility. The school has already denied having any knowledge of violations occurring, so the question is, should they have known if evidence points to the allegations being true?

What will likely happen?

Football: Two years probation with the NCAA's microscope under USC's butt for the next two years to make sure every i is dotted, every t is crossed.

Basketball: Status quo. USC already imposed severe sanctions on itself, including probation, no postseason play, no Pac-10 Tourney, and reduction of scholarships. Lengthening probation seems like a likely scenario.

How the meeting today went may not be known right away, but if you see a pen in Seantrel Henderson's hand, Trojans fans can exhale.

To view live blogging updates from ESPN's Ted Miller, who is camped outside the meeting doors, click here: http://tinyurl.com/yzrg6s5