Bad News at USC Only Going To Get Worse As Sanctions Hit Next Year

If USC fans don't like the 7-4 record they have this year, they should get prepared to pray for that record soon.

With the NCAA sanctions starting to affect them next year, a 7-4 record will soon look like a good thing.

If teams like 5-5 Oregon State can simply stomp the Trojans this year, can you imagine the beatings to come once they have 10 fewer scholarship athletes on the team? And it was a stomping.

It doesn't give much hope for a season-ending flurry of wins against Notre Dame, who wants a shot at kicking the Trojans while they're down, or 4-6 crosstown rival UCLA.

The Trojans simply don't have an understanding of just how bad it will get. This is the high point this year, and you can subtract two wins per season from this total for the next two years until the low point of a 3-10 season about two years from now.

For Lane Kiffin's detractors, watching him hold the wheel as the USC ship sinks will be pure joy. One can only picture how desperate he will become—and with him and Ed Orgeron manning the recruiting—what further "chances" will be taken to try and salvage something.

Having Lane Kiffin and Ed Orgeron manning the compliance wheel of the ship is like having a lit match guarding the gasoline.

One can only wonder if and when things will blow up there.

Patience is not a Lane Kiffin virtue, and patience is what it will take for USC to climb back up to the ranks of the "Big Boys" once again.

It's a crying shame that boys who never met Reggie Bush have to pay the penalty for him using USC like his personal toilet paper, but that is the price the school pays for having coaches turn a blind eye to all that was going on while Bush did what he did.

But take heart fans, USC is too big and too good an institution to stay down for more than five years. The Trojans will return to the top.

As bad as it will get—and it will get worse—now is USC's time to show its character, stick together, avoid finger pointing and man it out as well as it can.

Fans, let the players who stayed and those who continue to come know that you support them for making that tough decision at this time. They won't get the bowls and accolades that others get, but the warmth that they feel from the fanbase will go a long way.

Keeping the championship mentality in place means more than just the players buying in. The fans have to buy in too, and buy in for the long haul.