Reggie Bush-USC case opening eyes to NCAA and agents

After Reggie Bush, apparently, comes the deluge. In what feels like a flood of agent-related inquiries, the NCAA is following the severe sanctions imposed in the Bush-USC case with questions about possible payments or gifts provided top draft picks or draft prospects from four other high-profile football schools.

"It's not as if this hasn't been going on for a while," said Darren Heitner, CEO and founder of Dynasty Athlete Representation and operator of SportsAgentBlog.com. "A major aspect of this is the public is now looking at it in the wake of Reggie Bush. But if the NCAA and the individual states finally enforce their laws, this could break wide open."

Bush, the former Trojan horse who was well out of the barn, employed by the New Orleans Saints, before a four-year investigation was completed, was found to have been provided cars, a house, travel and other gifts. USC was rocked with a two-year bowl ban, the loss of 30 scholarships over three years and the voiding of 14 victories in 2004 and '05. And Tuesday, USC president-elect Max Nikias completed house-cleaning chores by firing athletic director Mike Garrett and sending Bush's Heisman Trophy back to the New York Athletic Club. (Bush's USC coach, Pete Carroll, already was safely ensconced in his new job as Seattle Seahawks coach and peddling his new book, "Win Forever.")

The NCAA will not comment on this week's report that Alabama's Marcel Dareus, North Carolina's Marvin Austin and Greg Little and South Carolina's Weslye Saunders attended an agent-arranged party in Miami, which dovetailed with the far more damaging allegation that Florida's Maurkice Pouncey, recently drafted by Pittsburgh, was paid $100,000 prior to the 2010 Sugar Bowl, his final college game.

But Rachel Newman-Baker, the NCAA's director of agent, gambling and amateurism actitivies, told The Associated Press that "people are kind of tired of sitting around and watching some of these abuses, and so I think you're starting to see that there's more and more people that are willing to talk. I do think we have been able in the last couple of years to develop much stronger information related to potential violations."

While Pouncey issued a denial, Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive called for the NCAA to switch its emphasis from agent dealings to player assistance, and Alabama coach Nick Saban said the NFL Players Association, which certifies agents, should suspend any agent whose shadowy dealings cost a player college eligibility.

"I don't think it's anything but greed that's creating it right now on behalf of the agents," Saban said at the SEC media day. "The agents that do this - and I hate to say this - but how are they any better than a pimp?

"I have no respect for people who do that to young people. None. How would you feel if they did it to your child?"

Meanwhile Heitner, the proponent of a federal agent registration system, reminded in a telephone interview that 38 states - with Illinois about to become the 39th - are signed onto the Uniform Athlete Agents Act and that "there are compliance officers at every school to regulate within the boundries of the institution.

"There's no one factor that will mean more compliance officers being hired [USC announced beefing up its compliance staff on Tuesday], or an outside company or states or the federal government putting their foot down and enforcing the laws that are there," Heitner said. "Does Reggie Bush make it a little easier for the NCAA to take some action? Sure. But we have to remember that the regulating body there is made up of about seven people; it's been around for 10 years and in those 10 years, how much has been done?

"Hopefully, this will open a lot of eyes."