Just to put a bow on the reports earlier Wednesday, two more schools have received written letters of apology from USC.
According to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Washington has received its apology from Trojans athletic director (for now) Mike Garrett for being falsely accused of illegally contacting ‘SC running back Dillon Baxter after NCAA sanctions were slapped on the program.
George Schroeder of the Eugene Register-Guard also reported this afternoon that Oregon had received the same oops, my bad from Garrett.
It had been reported this morning that both Florida and Alabama were on the receiving end of an apology as well.
That means four of the five schools initially accused of illegal contact with Baxter have both denied the accusations and received the apologies; Fresno State, the other school mentioned in the initial report, neither publicly denied it nor are there any reports out there we’ve come across that has them receiving the same letter as the other schools.
(Those devilish Bulldogs, always the rapscallion.)
While the apologies are nice, there has yet to be even a hint of an explanation proffered by USC as to exactly WTF happened that led to this situation getting to the point where apologies needed to be sent in the first place. Did Baxter lie to USC’s compliance department about receiving phone calls from the five schools? Did somebody put Baxter up to lying to the compliance department about phantom phone calls? Was it something/someone else?
USC needs to be completely transparent in the very near future as to what exactly led to the accusations, especially in light of the difficulties they face given the “situation” they have on their hands with the NCAA.
UPDATED 7:11 p.m. ET; Joe Schad of ESPN.com reports that Fresno State has received their letter of apology from USC.
What a surprise. Not! This is either another Lane Kiffin publicity stunt or Dillon Baxter lying. The former would be more of the same from the ultimate douche lord whereas the latter would imply that Baxter is making Seantrel Henderson look like the smart one to get out when he can.
[...] the school or the player. Then again, Baxter’s not exactly been a beacon of truth and forthrightness since coming to school — and he’s had his fair share of run-ins with the staff already [...]
[...] for a variety of issues, including but not limited to a marijuana incident; paternity issues; falsely accusing several programs of illegally contacting him after NCAA sanctions were handed down on USC; a golf [...]