OT: Heisman Trust: "No 2005 winner." How stupid.
Reggie Bush took money that was offered to him by an agent. That was against the rules and he or SC should be punished for it. He did not beat up anyone, kill anyone, drink and drive with the Heisman Trophy, steal, take performance enhancing drugs, or on any way cheat on the field, nor did SC. This idea that he does not "deserve" the Heisman is completely ludicrous. As is SC returning its trophy, As is SC stripping every mention and piece of evidence from their halls that Bush ever existed, and the continuing Pat Haden tour of self-flagellation.
You can not dump the records down the rabbit hole and pretend none of this happened. It is also silly and tragic to strip away the accomplishments of the other 100 guys on those teams because a guy took money from an agent. Reggie Bush won the Heisman fair and square on the field. Perspective please. Let's not go from legitimate contrition to the overboard position that we're wiping all of this "shame" away.
To be clear, I'm fine with the NCAA sanctions, just not the stuff I'm discussing here.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100916/ap_on_sp_co_ne/fbc_heisman_bush
September 16th, 2010 at 2:34 PM ^
Was Andre Ware really that big of a name before he won it? He played at Houston. I know this was in the days of the old Southwest Conference, but still.
Personally, I think it's kind of cool that players from Oklahoma State (Barry Sanders) and Houston - smallish schools that weren't in national-title contention - won it in back-to-back years in the late '80s. To me that strengthened the award's credibility, if anything.
I do agree that Torreta had no business winning it in '92, though.
September 16th, 2010 at 10:44 AM ^
September 16th, 2010 at 10:49 AM ^
I feel like this should have been cross-posted to the Bleacher Report.
September 16th, 2010 at 10:53 AM ^
I have no problem with RB giving back the trophy. What I cant understand is how the Trust can say that they have no way of knowing how people would have vote is Reggie wasnt an option. When you vote you vote for a 1st, 2nd,3rd, and 4th place. If you take out Reggie you take out all the votes for him and change the votes accordingly. Example if a ballot had RB 1st, VY 2nd, ML 3rd, and BQ 4th, the new vote is VY 1st, ML 2nd, ect. They method they use to vote is perfect for determining winners in cases like this.
September 16th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
Well, I don't think they really had a choice after the NCAA vacated the Trojans' records. The Heisman Trust doesn't want to alienate the hand that feeds it.
The thing that is lousy, though, is that we all know that a whole lot of these guys over the years have taken money from boosters, but because of the NCAA's toothlessness, only a select few ever get caught..
September 16th, 2010 at 2:38 PM ^
Reggie Bush and USC cheated multiple times and they both are paying for it accordingly. Bush should not have been able to play the year that he won the Heisman, and you can't tell me he was the only Trojan in the Pete Carroll era that didn't accept some kind of financial assistance.