USC Vindicated - and the NCAA is as screwed up as we thought

Finally, at the long end of the day, the truth is coming out. A California Appeals Court ruled on the trial court's decision to unseal NCAA documents with a scathing ruling that noted, amongst other things, that the NCAA had specific malice and took action to fulfill a predetermined adverse ruling against USC and its football program. They'll pay $10 mil or so to the coach they smeared to avoid a trial, but any other action by them is TBD. They fought the release of these documents vigorously in state and federal court for more than five years; now we know why.

Court slams NCAA in Reggie Bush USC violations case
The link might not take you to the page, but it is on the USA Today Sports masthead of top stories today

After years of "Cheat On" and U$C and all that other crap, it turns out we received the second harshest penalty in the history of college football because they just wanted to hang a head outside the tent to scare everyone else. With Miami, Ohio State, UNC and others, that strategy didn't seem to work very well...

Reggie Bush is, and will remain, in his status with his penalties, which is appropriate. Considering that Penn State had their penalty cut in half as s goodwill gesture (and to avoid a lawsuit), and that the USC sanctions cost the program at least $25 million in lost bowl and TV revenue, I'll be interested to know how the NCAA might make this right. I'm not holding my breath, though.

Of course, after devoting significant attention to the fall of USC in an investigative report a few weeks ago, more than 12 hours after the ruling, ESPN doesn't even have it on their site.