4 quick takeaways from 500 pages of court docs on NCAA’s USC investigation

A number of the documents involved with the lawsuit between the NCAA and former USC assistant Todd McNair have been unsealed. McNair is suing the NCAA for defamation after the organization’s investigation into former Trojan running back Reggie Bush left McNair disgraced and out of football.

You’ll be shocked to learn the NCAA doesn’t look great here, but there’s a reason the governing body tried to keep portions of these docs sealed.

If you’d like, you may peruse the documents yourself, but if you’re not interested in digging through hundreds of pages of memos and emails, here are a few takeaways from these documents seeing the light of day.

Hiring away the Tennessee coach with the string of NCAA run-ins was considered evidence against USC having the proper level of shame.

Does the NCAA worry about what you think of its decisions? Yes.

NCAA Coordinator of Appeals Rodney Uphoff sent an email to NCAA Committee on Infractions chairman Shepard Cooper -- one which he should not have sent in the first place, as he wasn’t supposed to be weighing in on the investigation -- that contains this incredible line:

I haven’t been able to sleep for three nights because I fear that the Committee is going to be too lenient on USC on the football violations.

Make sure you read that sentence a few times through, so you don’t lose any of the absurdity. A grown man lost three nights of sleep because he though the sanctions on USC were going to be too lenient. The NCAA ended up vacating a national championship, docking 30 scholarships, and imposing two bowl bans, all for a player allegedly accepting gifts from an agent. Too lenient.

Another email sent to Cooper, this time from COI member Roscoe Howard, included this suggestion that seems sort of unfair and prejudicial.

McNair should have all inferences negatively inferred against him ... we need not say why we disbelieve him, we only need to let the public, or whomever, know that we do disbelieve him.

Once again, with feeling: Never email.

It seems crazy to think of now, but just a decade ago, everyone agreed that amateurism was super important and that Reggie Bush parlaying his considerable athletic talents into benefits for himself and his family was a bad thing. How dare he!

If you feel like digging through the considerable number of unsealed internal NCAA documents, you’ll find reams upon reams of emails and memos of people being incredibly earnest about stopping college kids with exceptional abilities being able to capitalize on them.

Today, this is met with considerable controversy, but back in 2006? Near-unanimous approval. We were so young and and had such silly ideas.

USC came out firing on the NCAA about these documents, claiming it proves the school never got a fair shake. The school is reportedly considering the options for recourse over the sanctions, and it’s hard to blame them, especially in light of how much the Penn State sanctions were walked back by the NCAA.

Even members of the COI had issues with the way McNair was interviewed, going as far as to refer to it as “botched.”

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There are reportedly another 200 pages of documents that were not unsealed, and it’s uncertain at this point if those will see the light of day or not. If they do, I’m sure there will be more sleepless nights to find out about.