When Push Comes to Bush, USC, Leave the Hardware Alone

He's a cheat. Well, he was for the longest time. The same goes for others associated with the college that Reggie Bush helped turn from famous to infamous in athletics during the last few years.

Still, you can't snatch the Heisman Trophy from the guy, and you have to allow sleazy Southern Cal to keep that shiny hunk of crystal it received for winning the 2004 national championship in football after scoring more than Oklahoma during the BCS title game.

This is despite everything.

I mean, Bush was as insufferable as the Trojans. He stiff-armed NCAA rules by accepting enough gifts from a sports agent to fill Santa's bag, sleigh, house, barns for his reindeer and South Pole timeshares. He also showed his disregard for fair play after he spit on the rule book. Remember? He shoved quarterback Matt Leinart into an end zone at Notre Dame to steal a victory during an epic game. And I'm guessing he didn't floss every night on campus before going to bed.

But you know what? Bush was pretty good.

He was fast, and he had more than a few shifty moves as a tailback, receiver and return man.

As a result, he did lead the nation during that 2005 season in all-purpose yards per game. He did make defensive players look ridiculous with his zigs and zags. He did join the all-time elite by capturing nearly every award that existed in college football for an offensive player.

You just can't snatch away Bush's Heisman Trophy by declaring, in effect, he didn't do all of those things, because he did.

Vince Young didn't, for instance, which is why the Texas quarterback was a distant second to Bush in the voting.

Thus the bottom line: For 2005, nobody was better than Bush. And, according to the mission statement on the website for those in charge of the award, "The Heisman Memorial Trophy annually recognizes the outstanding college football player whose performance best exhibits the pursuit of excellence with integrity."

Uh-oh.

That doesn't sound like Bush. The rest of the statement does, though, and it concludes by saying, "Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and hard work. The Heisman Trophy Fund ensures the continuation and integrity of this award."

There's that word again -- integrity. No question, Bush lost his version of it somewhere between riding Leinart's back across that goal line at Notre Dame and jumping into a limousine provided by a sports agent when Bush went to pick up his Heisman Trophy.
It's just that, if you wish to penalize Bush for lacking 'integrity,' then you have to do the same with other Heisman Trophy winners -- most noticeably Billy Cannon, Johnny Rodgers and O.J. Simpson.

It's just that, if you wish to penalize Bush for lacking "integrity," then you have to do the same with other Heisman Trophy winners -- most noticeably Billy Cannon, Johnny Rodgers and O.J. Simpson. They all have nasty legal histories, but they all have their Heisman Trophy honors intact. And they should. Just like Bush, they did a bunch of splendid things on the field.

So did Southern Cal along the way to its 2004 national championship, with a loaded roster stuffed with NFL talent.

How did the Trojans acquire that talent?

Good question.

We know that, courtesy of Bush's indiscretions, at least one among their gifted many was ineligible. We also know that you have to rank with the naïve to believe Southern Cal officials didn't know what was going on in the shadows with Bush and likely others. As a result, the NCAA infractions committee proceeded to do the smart and the silly.

This was the smart: The infractions committee gave Southern Cal a four-year probation, banned the Trojans from bowl games for the 2010 and 2011 seasons and took away 10 scholarships a year for three years. It also barred an assistant coach from off-campus recruiting for a year and told Southern Cal to avoid Bush at all cost.

Which the university has.

Gone on campus are jerseys and pictures associated with Bush, and Southern Cal officials even removed the replica of the Heisman Trophy that it received in honor of Bush's award.


This was the silly: The vacating of Southern Cal's last regular-season victory of 2004 as well as its Orange Bowl triumph. The NCAA also vacated all of the Trojans' victories in 2005 -- including the one with Bush's illegal push of Leinart into that Notre Dame end zone.

But Bush did push Leinart into that end zone, and the refs did raise their hands for a touchdown to give Southern Cal a last-second victory. Eighty-six thousand people saw it in person, and millions watched it on national television. Not only that, the Trojans did score 63 points earlier in the season against Hawaii followed by 70 points against Arkansas.

And they did win a crazy shootout against Fresno State, and they did smash a good UCLA team.

Even so, members of the Knee-Jerk Society of America want the BCS folks to strip Southern Cal of its 2004 national championship and give the thing to whom ... and why?

Auburn is the popular choice.

That's because those parts of the Tiger Nation are pouting the loudest. They keep whining about how Auburn finished second that year in the Associated Press and Coaches Polls, but how the Tigers were shut out of the title game after ranking No. 3 in the final BCS standings.

The thing is, Auburn shouldn't have been in the title game. Yes, the Tigers were 13-0, and they played in the heavily hyped Southeastern Conference, but their schedule included the lovely likes of Louisiana-Monroe, The Citadel and Louisiana Tech.

Just leave it alone.

Actually, leave them alone -- Southern Cal and Bush, at least when it comes to what they earned (you know, while holding your nose) on the field.

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