"Trade Tech College" == Easy Grades. Who Knew?

USC fans will be relieved that Trojans other than Reggie Bush are in the news. They will not be relieved when the subject of said news is revealed: some twenty USC athletes, a dozen of them football players, took a third-semester Spanish course at Los Angeles Trade Tech College instead of, you know, USC. Why would they do this? Ask 73-year-old Senora Ross her grading philosophy and find out:

"Those USC kids told me, 'If I took this class at USC, I'd get a D.' All of them said that," Ross said. But she is not apologetic. "I've never given an easy grade in my life," she told The Times in a recent interview. "You come to my class and work, and I see you want to learn, I'll give you an A. I see some lazy ass, coming late all the time, acting like he doesn't care, I won't give him an A. I'll give him a B."

Harsh discipline from Mrs. Ross.

To its credit, USC noticed Ross' wildly inflated grades (five Bs, the rest As) and prevented the credits from transferring, but the reason LATTC's Spanish 3 was flooded with athletes was because LB Dallas Sartz and OL Kyle Williams had already taken Spanish 2 from Ross, enjoyed her mellow grading style, and managed to avoid taking the class at, you know, USC. Pete Carrol says it's common practice:

Football Coach Pete Carroll said he wasn't concerned about the matter. Players routinely take general education summer classes at junior colleges, he noted.

"I don't know what's the big deal. Guys do stuff like that all the time," Carroll said.

This is evidently true at USC and schools around the country. Purdue WR Kyle Ingraham spent the summer at a community college near his Texas home trying to get eligible for the Boilers. (He didn't.) This presents a simple question: why? The NCAA has enough academic troubles at the actual football factories themselves without having to police various tiny colleges with less than rigorous academic standards, so why allow athletes to get credit for fake classes at fake colleges?