Basketball troubles could pour over to USC's gridiron

Here is a vision of USC football's post-apocalyptic nuclear winter:

The loss of 15 scholarships over three years, a postseason ban, forfeits including a Pac-10 title and ... screeeech. Hold it right there.

All of that is almost acceptable if the glass bowl remains in the trophy case at the end of the Reggie Bush case. If you're Trojan football staring down the NCAA's semi-automatic at this point, they're almost flesh wounds. This is USC. It can recover from scholarship losses in a relatively short period of time. Forfeits are just paper penalties.

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The next step is unfathomable.

Yes, it's time to start thinking about the worst. The investigation into USC football (and basketball) took another ugly turn this week when Yahoo! Sports reported hoops coach Tim Floyd might have greased the palm of an O.J. Mayo runner.

The headlines scream Floyd. The drumbeats are foreshadowing disaster for the school's franchise sport. The NCAA recently lumped both cases together, making Troy a one-stop shop for the infractions committee. So when you think Floyd, think football, too.

You wonder when it will be time for the BCS fathers to consider ripping that 2004 national championship. If the allegations are true, Bush was competing while ineligible during the 2005 Orange Bowl, won by the Trojans 55-19 over Oklahoma. If the NCAA forfeits (or vacates) victories, it isn't going to stop at the regular season. But when it comes to bowls, all it can do is take away the wins, because I-A football is the only sport for which the NCAA doesn't stage a championship.

Would Pete Carroll ever have to part with his 2004 national title trophy? (Getty Images)

All those wire service and glass football titles? Technically mythical. The UPI (coaches) poll used to refuse to rank teams on probation, but that had nothing to do with titles won. The Associated Press has never vacated a title. It won't start now because Bush was on the USC team that earned its final 2003 top ranking. (LSU won the BCS title that year.)

This one could be on the suits. In legitimizing (in some small way) the sport's national championship, the BCS might have to decide if what USC accomplished was illegitimate.

"They want to stay out of that," said a BCS source.

If USC gets blasted, the next step would be up to BCS Presidential Oversight Committee. The group of eight presidents would consider a recommendation from the BCS' 12 commissioners (Notre Dame AD plus the 11 I-A commishes). As of now, nothing has changed since September 2006 when the commissioners were asked to consider the USC situation.

Back then, SEC commissioner Mike Slive (then BCS coordinator) said the group would wait until any penalties are handed down before deciding, "if any action is appropriate."

The time may be getting close. USA Today reported investigators wanted to "tie up loose ends," at least on the basketball side.

So what's appropriate? Does Oklahoma get the title, despite being a 36-point loser to USC? Bush was so valuable, he finished fifth that season in the Heisman voting without starting a game.

The Heisman folks already have shown a weak stomach for taking back their trophy. (O.J., anyone?) If the BCS sits on hands in this case, what's the disincentive for any program to cheat to get a title? Lose scholarships and conference titles but the glass football stays in the trophy case.

It would be hard enough to recruit to a program decimated by scholarship reductions, a postseason ban and negative recruiting from rivals. But as mentioned, USC is one of the few superpowers that could rebound.

Take away a national championship, and it's not just about removing a few banners. It's like amputating a limb. It's personal, embarrassing and everlasting. Something that has never occurred in major college football.

The NCAA already has put one of its toughest investigators, a bulldog named Rich Johanningmeier, on the USC cases. Johanningmeier started in 1986, has been sued (in the messy Alabama case) and, at least in some corners, is feared.

"Some of those guys if they find a locked door, they just go on home," said a coach whose program came close to the death penalty in a case headed by Johanningmeier. "This guy goes to the next door."

The case has the smell of lack of institutional control. That's an NCAA violation that is both major and cryptic. The association can go different directions in dropping the hammer. The basketball program seemed doomed long ago. Floyd could be a dead man walking.

USC knew exactly what it was doing when it got in bed with Mayo and his entourage.

The vibe coming from the football side has long been that Bush was a rogue agent, acting on his own by taking cash, a house for his parents and bad advice from would-be agents.

It's getting to the point where it might not matter whether coaches knew of Bush's cash grab. The NCAA might determine USC should have known, that it had to keep better tabs on one of your best players. Remember when Dwayne Jarrett was getting sweetheart deal on his rent while living with Matt Leinart?

"I think USC has them a problem," the same coach said.

Bush's case has been lingering for three years in and out of the spotlight. The latest report gave us an idea of what the NCAA is thinking.

But in the end it's not Big Brother USC would have to worry about. It's the BCS' version of those 12 Angry Men who can predict a nuclear winter.