Todd McNair’s Appeal Denied By NCAA Infractions Appeals Committee

Todd McNair, former USC running backs coach and central figure in the NCAA’s investigation of illegal benefits in the Trojan football program, has largely been forgotten in the months that have elapsed since the university declined to renew his contract. With all the storied programs that have fallen under the Committee on Infractions’ scrutiny since, it’s understandable to have forgotten the USC investigation entirely, but pieces are still moving, albeit small ones: Recall that the investigation formally wrapped in January; the COI’s report was released and sanctions levied in June, and that the appeals process got underway just days later.

Apart from the restrictions placed upon the football program, McNair himself was slapped with the dreaded show-cause order, and according to a news release from the NCAA this morning, his appeal has been denied. And if you have been following this case with a modicum of interest, it will not at all shock you to learn that McNair’s attorney is adopting the hallowed HATERZ defense, first popularized in this case by former Trojans AD Mike Garrett.

“Mr. McNair is disappointed in the decision, but he’s not surprised,” his attorney, Scott Tompsett, said in a statement. “After all, the NCAA publicly endorsed the Infractions Committee’s decision last June before we had even filed the notice of appeal. And NCAA President Mark Emmert said last December — while the Infractions Appeals Committee was still deliberating the appeal — that he believed the Infractions Committee got the USC case right. So, [Friday’s] decision simply confirms what the NCAA leadership had already decreed publicly.” [...] He also said the infractions committee “mischaracterized and manipulated key testimony” and that McNair was “considering legal action to remedy the injustice he has suffered.”

USC’s appeal, of course, continues. You my reliably assume that this will never, ever be over. After four years and counting, what’s more waiting?