Fighting On: USC Files Appeal and Goes Toe To Toe With NCAA

It seems Troy is unsettled with the punishment laid out by the NCAA.

Based on a statement issued by the University of Southern California on Friday morning, through senior VP of administration Todd Dickey, the University expects the NCAA to reduce its punishments for violations of NCAA rules during the Reggie Bush era.

By accepting some of the punishment, the school has esentially admitted at least some wrongdoing. But as many analysts who have actually read the NCAA's report pointed out, the punishment USC received simply does not match the crime.

There is some precedent in college football for reducing penalties when they are targeting the innocent, which could explain USC's appeal strategy.

According to the report, USC will specifically appeal their two-year postseason ban as well as their scholarship restrictions for the football program, which are set to run at 10 per year from 2011 through 2013.

USC's appeal will request that the postseason ban be dropped down to a one year punishment and that the scholarship restrictions be held to five.

As far as appeals go, the strategy is pretty sound. USC is no longer denying mistakes, they are simply pointing out how grievous the sanctions are.

For example, the one year postseason ban and scholarship reductions self-imposed on the basketball team were accepted by the NCAA's committee investigating USC. And the basketball program's crime was more serious because someone from the university was actually involved in the transfer of money to O.J. Mayo.

A successful appeal by USC would drastically change the dynamics of the Pac-10's football future.

Those who have been dancing on USC's grave would have to put the disco ball away.

A one year postseason ban would be a minor blip in the program's history and would likely not impact recruiting (if it is served out this year). Five scholarships gone per year is nothing for a school like USC, who unlike most of the schools in the SEC (who have severe overrecruiting problems) actually values the education and well being of their student athletes.

Other than Northwestern, USC has signed fewer players than any school in the country over the past four years.

The school doesn't use all of its scholarships now anyway and does not have a rampant overrecruiting problem, in comparison to schools like Auburn.

Over the last four years, USC signed 78 players while Auburn unbelievably signed more than 115. Many of those students lost scholarships when they didn't play as well as the Tigers had hoped.

For USC fans, this is a story to keep a close eye on. If the Trojans are successful in their appeal, it provides a rebirth of the program and the NCAA can save face as having come down harder than expected (or warranted) on USC.

The example will have been made.

But simultaneously, a successful appeal would restore some semblance of fairness to the NCAA's punishments. The punished would be those who were actually responsible, and there would still be tangible present impacts.

However, it would be a far cry from the heavy-handed overkill that was passed down a short time ago.