While the outcome likely won’t be known for weeks -- if not months -- the process for USC learning its NCAA fate has officially commenced in earnest.
USC’s long-awaited hearing in front of the NCAA’s Infractions Appeals Committee began at nine local time this morning in Indianapolis, with athletic director Pat Haden and university president Max Nikias among the sizable USC contingent in attendance to state the football program’s case.
The hearing is expected to last until the early afternoon. Perhaps in anticipation of that, the two sides took a break an hour and 15 minutes into the proceedings.
In their appeal, USC will attempt to convince the committee that the sanctions levied on the football program last June are excessive and should be reduced. The university is seeking to have their two-year bowl ban sliced in half, and the number of scholarships lost reduced from 30 over the next three years to 15.
It’s highly unlikely the committee will make a decision on the appeal before National Signing Day Feb. 2.