Dillon Baxter Dismissed By San Diego State After Transferring From USC

Embattled former USC Trojans running back Dillon Baxter is now former San Diego St. Aztecs running back Dillon Baxter as well, now that the school has dismissed him from the team less than two months since transferring.

Baxter was being held out of spring practice at SDSU for a "variety of things" that happened since his enrollment, according to Aztecs head coach Rocky Long last week. At the time, Long said there was a good chance Baxter would be back with the team.

"He’s working on personal issues and academics, and if all that turns out all right at the end of the semester, he’ll be back with us at training camp (in August)," Long said.

Apparently Baxter did something between then and now to warrant his outright release from the school. Unfortunately, to the surprise of very few people.

Baxter had a number of run-ins with coaches, including a suspension for two different games during his freshman season in 2010.

For more on the situation, visit our comprehensive Dillon Baxter StoryStream. Fore more on the Trojans, visit USC blog Conquest Chronicles and SB Nation Los Angeles.

Dillon Baxter will officially move on from USC football. The school granted Baxter a release from his scholarship, according to a report from the Orange County Register. The running back will begin the transfer process after the fall semester with San Diego State, Florida and Portland State among the schools he will consider.

Baxter did not travel with the team to Notre Dame last week, which head coach Lane Kiffin later said was because of the player's grades.

"After speaking with Coach (Lane) Kiffin, we decided it was better to part ways," Anthony Mooney, Baxter's stepfather, told the OC Register on Thursday. "It was an amicable situation that was better for Dillon and for USC. We want to thank everyone at the university for the opportunity and support they gave to Dillon while he was there. Unfortunately, it just didn’t work out. It just wasn’t a match at this point."

Baxter arrived at USC from San Diego as a heralded recruit, but a series of issues hindered his time in a Trojan uniform. During his time in Los Angeles, he was disciplined for making up stories about illegal recruiting activity, taking a golf cart ride with an agent, and most recently, his grades.

For more on the situation, visit our comprehensive Dillon Baxter StoryStream. Fore more on the Trojans, visit USC blog Conquest Chronicles and SB Nation Los Angeles.

So now we know why sophomore running back Dillon Baxter didn't travel with the USC Trojans to play the Notre Dame Fighting Irish last weekend. In a statement, USC coach Lane Kiffin essentially said Baxter has been removed from the team due to his grades:

"The decision has been made for Dillon Baxter to focus on his academics.  As he does so, he will not be part of our football program.  However, we will continue to support him with our academic services department.

"There will be no further comment regarding this from me or any member of our program."     

Baxter has been mixed up in many a situation since stepping onto the Los Angeles campus. There was the agent thing, the making-stuff-up thing and now this. The once-heralded recruit has produced 355 yards from scrimmage in scattered appearances, but evidently nothing that would make it worth putting up with his various adventures.

For more, visit USC blog Conquest Chronicles and SB Nation Los Angeles.

According to the Twitter feed of Charles Robinson, who as a Yahoo! reporter is a natural source for all scandalous news concerning USC football, the NFL Players' Association has revoked the certification of Teague Egan, the nauseatingly-named agent-like substance who got Dillon Baxter's eligibility suspended (albeit briefly) for a cross-campus golf cart ride.

[UPDATE] The NFLPA has released a statement confirming the revocation:

The NFLPA’s Committee on Agent Regulation and Discipline (CARD) revoked the Certification of NFLPA Contract Advisor Teague Egan today for violating numerous provisions of the NFLPA’s Agent Regulations when he provided an improper benefit under NCAA rules by giving University of Southern California player Dillon Baxter a ride in his company’s golf cart, resulting in Baxter being suspended for USC’s game against Oregon State in November. He did so after being advised by USC officials the week before that giving such rides was an improper benefit under NCAA rules. He also is alleged to have placed misleading information on his agency’s website about his relationship with a Southern California attorney.

Under the Regulations, Egan now has the opportunity to have an expedited appeal if he so chooses.

Appeals process or no, it's hard to imagine the NFLPA reversing field on this decision, not with cleanup efforts in college football so publicly ongoing. Without it, Teague Egan is once again just some sterling prat with a golf cart. And after one look at this video, it's hard to argue that's about what he deserves. Join the yub-yub party at Conquest Chronicles.

USC running back Dillon Baxter did not travel with the Trojans this weekend, and was ruled ineligible for their game against Oregon State, after he was spotted riding in a golf cart across the USC campus with an agent. The agent, USC student Teague Egan, is listed as the founder and CEO of 1st Round Enterprises. Egan is also a registered financial advisor with the NFL Players Association.

Baxter reportedly asked Egan for a ride to the student health center after feeling dehydrated on Thursday. He told the USC cmpliance office that he knew Egan, but did not know he was a registered agent. For now, Baxter is ineligible, though a USC compliance officer told the LA Times he expects Baxter to have his eligibility restored pending a charity donation for the value of the ride.

The curious part of the story surrounds 1st Round Enterprises. According to the Los Angeles Times, the agency lists former USC linebacker Jordan Campbell as a founder.

The 1st Round Enterprises website also lists former USC linebacker Jordan Campell as a company executive. Campbell left USC last summer for Louisville after the NCAA handed down sanctions earlier this year that included a two-year bowl ban.

The company was founded in June of 2009, while Campbell was still on the USC football team. On the 1st Round website, Egan's bio touts his relationships with USC athletes.

Originally from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but now living in Los Angeles, the entertainment capital of the world, Teague befriended many athletes on the USC football team, as well as filmmakers around the city.

In addition to Egan and Campbell, USC law professor Fred Frenster is listed as a senior advisor/financial advisor for 1st Round Sports.

As USC continues to deal with the sanctions and fallout from the Reggie Bush investigation, more connections with agents is the last thing the Trojans need. Outside of the golf cart ride, there hasn't been any evidence of wrongdoing, though the compliance office is continuing to investigate whether any other USC players have had contact with Egan or 1st Round.

Stay tuned for more details as they become available.

Back in July, we wondered, "Who's lying in the curious case of Dillon Baxter?" The guilty party, as it turns out, looks to be Baxter himself. Suspended for USC's season opener for reasons that went coquettishly unexpressed by both Baxter and his coaches, Baxter's name has been bandied about by a vague source as the busted player in an equally vague student housing "controlled substance" report. [game show host voice] But that's not all!

Weeks before that went down, it turns out, there was this highly captivating document, obtained by the File Blog, that showed Baxter's been in hot water for a while now:

The File has learned that one of the things Baxter would rather not talk about is a letter he wrote in June that details precisely how he hoaxed his coaches into thinking he was being improperly recruited. The letter, obtained under a freedom of information request, was included in a package of correspondences that USC athletic director Mike Garrett sent to five counterparts before his firing in July, apologizing for the embarrassing incident.
[...]
Baxter says he got the idea for the stunt on June 10 -- after the NCAA hit USC with four years of probation and a ban from two bowls [...] Baxter says he was talking with friends at different schools about "what I wanted to do" when he decided to tell USC's coaches that he was getting interest from outside. He went to the team's receivers coach, John Morton, and boasted that he had offers from Washington, Florida, Michigan, Alabama and Fresno State. "From that point, the situation got blown out of proportion," Baxter writes.

We've all done stuff like this, and a lot of us probably did it at Baxter's age. At times, a lie has a way of spinning itself out of control without any real assistance on the part of the liar. Unfortunately, there was an athletic department involved in this case, one hanging on Baxter's every word.

And so ends this bizarre coda to the Mike Garrett era. But it doesn't have to end unhappily. Doesn't Baxter's characterization of the events of the summer have a bit of cinematic flair? Have you ever had to sit through one of those romantic comedies where all the problems presented could just be solved by the right person speaking up at the right time? I smell a sitcom! Somebody whisk this kid over to ABC's studios on the double, and remind the suits at the pitch that we can make this on the cheap, on account of we can't even pay the kid. I'm amazed no one's thought of this before.

Lo! The Dillon Baxter saga does get more interesting! Now, this is coming from a Florida site, so take it with whatever seems an appropriate dosage of caution, but the word now is that Baxter contacted the Gators, not the other way around:

GatorCountry.com has learned that Florida not only didn’t contact Baxter but, in fact, Baxter had contacted UF saying he was going to decommit to USC while assistant coach Brian White was in California recruiting.

Compounding all this is the convenient fact that Baxter seems to have lost the phone used for whatever contact took place. SBN's Conquest Chronicles discusses whether Baxter may face disciplinary action if his actual role in all this is ever sussed out.

Hey, internet, remember that thing, with USC's newest show pony Dillon Baxter allegedly being contacted by five schools for illegal recruiting purposes in the wake of the NCAA sanctions report against the Trojans? Remember how that was a big deal a month ago, with poachers circling the harpooned USC program, and then it all just sort of went away? That going away happened in large part because there wasn't any there there:

In the letter -- which was dated July 1 and seen by ESPN -- Garrett wrote that he spoke with Baxter and "he has now confirmed that he did not receive a call from your institution. Therefore, USC has no intention of pursuing this matter further.

The institution mentioned is Florida, and the other involved programs have received similar apologies. The question that remains is what actually happened, seeing as how it was reportedly Baxter's own words that got this whole ball of fish rolling, and Baxter's words that ceased hostilities. But the winner here, of course, is Fresno State's Pat Hill, whose program never had the wobbly knees to issue a denial in the first place, and who remains ice cold gangsta by any human standards.

On Friday, news broke that USC freshman running back/wide receiver Dillon Baxter reported illegal contact from five football programs -- Washington, Florida, Alabama, Oregon, and Fresno State. According to the Seattle Times' Bob Condotta, four of these schools have denied Baxter's claim.

In a statement released through the school's sports information department tonight, however, UW says it has contacted no USC players.

"The University of Washington denies any accusation of attempting to contact any current USC football players,'' the statement read. Oregon, Alabama and Florida have also all denied contacting Baxter.

As of this writing, it doesn't appear as though Fresno State has issued a statement yet.

For more, check back with our USC Trojans blog, Conquest Chronicles.