Wolfie reports:

Hail To The Chief! By Scott Wolf on June 5, 2009 10:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (12) | ShareThis

We hear USC president Steve Sample is not hiding his displeasure around campus over the fact the basketball program finds itself under NCAA investigation.

Sample is displeased about the basketball team?

Does that mean he is totally cool with the football team which is also under investigation by the NCAA?

He is not happy with the allegations that OJ might have gotten $30,000 in improper benefits but he is cool with the allegation that Reggie Bush and his peeps might have gotten hundreds of thousands of dollars in improper benefits?

Two revealing details

This from the Daily News:

"There was an ongoing relationship between Rodney Guillory and Tim Floyd," said Johnson's attorney, Anthony Salerno. "He was going to steer Mayo where to go. Floyd knew he had to kowtow to Guillory to get (Mayo) to USC. Floyd knew he had to butter up Guillory."

David Murphy, another attorney for Johnson, said the NCAA became aware of the Floyd allegation last week and contacted Johnson on Friday.

"They knew about it before we told him," Murphy said.

Murphy added Johnson originally told federal investigators about the incident last May but did not tell the NCAA during a meeting last June.

And this from yahoo sports about the list of 17 people who have talked to the NCAA:

These individuals are believed to represent only a small fraction of the interviews that have taken place during the course of the probe.

Tip of the iceberg?

Miller says on his ESPN's Pac-10 blog (I am bolding the fun parts):

If you're a bigger fan of USC football than basketball, it should feel worrisome.

The individuals who allegedly gave Bush cash and gifts and a rent-free home for his parents were anonymous outsiders, two men trying to become sports agents. Unless the NCAA is going to pull a rabbit out of its investigative hat, all reported connections or interactions with these men and the Trojans football program were scant and tenuous.

In other words, it didn't completely strain credulity that the coaching staff claimed ignorance.

The Mayo case had a different feel. Basketball coach Tim Floyd and his staff knew Rodney Guillory, a Los Angeles events promoter who allegedly was receiving monthly payments from the Northern California sports agency Bill Duffy Associates. They knew of the close relationship between Guillory and Mayo. They knew Mayo was a risky player to bring into the program.

By connecting the two cases, the NCAA appears to be now reviewing these investigations as systemic problems within USC's athletic department.

Yes, we're talking about the dreaded "lack of institutional control."

Or as ESPN's Pat Forde wrote in May when "Outside the Lines" broke the Mayo story: "So you take the Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of 'lack of institutional control'?'"

Which means potential penalties could include scholarship cuts, post-season bans, victories erased from the record book, etc., -- all the big ones.

As good as it feels to read all this I don't think NCAA (or the PAC) will have the gonads to do the right thing. They are going to find a way to sweep all of this stuff under the rug so that they can keep feeding the cashcow and ESPN's Mushberger and Herbstreet can keep blowing Pom Pom on national TV.

Although I have to wonder why exactly was Timmeh so anxious to get out of SuC? I don't believe it was Timmeh who turned down Arizona. I really think it was the other way around (just a hunch). I think Timmeh's desperation showed when his agent was also sniffing around the Memphis gig.

Now it looks like his players (who don't seem to be buying into his schtick) are ready to jump ship. May be something is going on?

I guess I will see it when I believe it.