On Saturday, No. 4 USC will play Texas for the first time since the 2006 Rose Bowl classic, won by Texas. The Trojans, who finished that season 12-1, later had to vacate those 12 wins, thanks to the Reggie Bush scandal. The NCAA sometimes uses vacated wins as a punishment, but when this happens, it typically leaves the losses on the record books. Having a loss taken off the records wouldn’t really be a punishment.
USC media guide declares the NCAA vacated that Rose Bowl loss to Texas. That’s not normally a thing
The NCAA typically only makes teams vacate wins, but the Trojans claim a little evidence here.
Welp, apparently USC has been telling itself that losses do get thrown out with wins. On Monday, Joaquin Sanchez, a sports anchor in Austin, pointed out that USC’s media guide lists the loss to the Longhorns in the 2006 Rose Bowl as “vacated.” Here’s a screenshot from that guide, with our emphasis added. USC also changed its all-time records against Big 12 teams, to account for the “vacated” loss:
However, in USC’s case, there’s reason to believe the NCAA might’ve made a weird exception, or at least did so in one email and one database, per an ESPN report:
According to USC sports information director Tim Tessalone, the program was instructed in 2010 by Jim Wright, then the NCAA director of statistics, not to include participation in any games that year as part of its official records. That edict included the Rose Bowl.
“I have documentation in a letter sent in July 2010 to Wright noting all the changes he instructed us to make, including that losses had to be vacated,” Tessalone said in an email. “The letter also states that he had reviewed all our revisions and approved them.”
When asked to clarify how the NCAA officially views USC’s record from 2005, Jeff Williams, the associate director of media coordination and statistics for the NCAA, provided a link to the organization’s list of USC’s season-by-season records. It lists the Trojans as 0-0 in 2005.
That 2006 Rose Bowl will indefinitely be a big topic of conversation on Saturday, given how unforgettable and exciting that last matchup was, especially from a Vince Young perspective:
Young’s scramble for the game-winning touchdown on a fourth-and-5 in the last minute from the USC 9-yard line is legendary. It was the capper on this stat line:
-30 of 40 passing for 267 yards, with no touchdowns or picks
-200 rushing yards on 19 carries (10.5 average) and three scores
Young’s 467 yards from scrimmage were a Rose Bowl record until USC’s Sam Darnold got 473 in a similarly bonkers (though not a national title) Rose Bowl in 2017. Nobody after Young had run for 200 yards in the Rose Bowl until an actual running back, Penn State’s Saquon Barkley, got 204 in the Darnold game.
Largely because of this game, Young is on a shortlist of the best college QBs ever.
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