<p>I agree, even moreso actually - every play in the game should be reviewed if needed. My issue wasn’t really with the fact that the plays were reviewed, it was that they ran plays at midfield to begin with.</p>
<p>They have 60 game-minutes to play field position and to run plays at midfield (and spend time on replays if needed) - and it didn’t settle anything. So let’s cut out all those plays. Put the ball at the 25. Each team has a limited number of plays to either score a TD or give the ball up. The importance of scoring on one of those few plays goes way up.</p>
<p>The situation at USC is pretty interesting, and I’ve been hearing some talk of repeating the SMU penalty. The program has committed a lot of major violations and Lane Kiffin is already starting to get recruiting violations. The NCAA has investigated the program for four years now and have found a lot of incidents that do not look good for USC. With Reggie Bush’s parents living in a house they did not pay for, Joe McKnight unable to explain how he girlfriend got a free SUV, and the program admitting to paying OJ Mayo, how likely is it that USC get the death penalty?</p>
<p>I know the program has self-imposed sanctions for the OJ Mayo scandal, but the NCAA never agreed to them so it was really just a gesture of good-will.</p>
<p>jbusc: I imagine you would be most knowledgeable, and I would like to hear your opinion.</p>
<p>I don’t think the NCAA will ever do another death penalty simply because of what it did to SMU. It took them almost 25 years to be even somewhat competitive again.</p>
<p>There is absolutely zero chance USC will get what SMU got.</p>
<p>Besides a general unwillingness by the NCAA to do that penalty, the circumstances are very different. SMU got caught paying cash to a large number of players directly from the athletic department budget. While they were on probation. Less than a month after they were penalized for doing exactly the same thing.</p>
<p>For all the talk about USC allegations, they’re a lot different. Only around 2 (or possibly 3, depending on how fast they added the McKnight issue) players were involved. In the Bush case, it was not “pay to play” - the money allegedly came from sports agents unaffiliated with USC, who could not care less if Bush took another carry for USC as long as it didn’t affect his NFL career.</p>
<p>The most serious penalties that could be imposed would be bowl ban in football or vacate wins from 2004 (which makes the national title sticky). There won’t be a TV ban, because that harms every other Pac-10 school+Notre Dame far more than it harms USC. </p>
<p>More likely penalties are going to be football scholarship reductions and recruiting restrictions, and probation for the athletic dept.</p>
<p>It’s also unlikely there will be more penalties in basketball, since vacating wins and tournament ban already happened.</p>
<p>Also, the program hasn’t admitted any such thing. They admitted to various recruiting violations that made Mayo ineligible.</p>
<p>The problem for the NCAA is that (at least what is publicly known) there is staggeringly little hard evidence against USC. The NCAA hasn’t been able to find a single person willing to testify against USC, not even among ex-employees like Tim Floyd who are clearly not on good terms with the athletic dept.</p>