While ESPN made it sound like breaking news overnight, the expected has happened and a banished former USC football player has welcomed back into the fold.
In June of 2010, the NCAA, citing lack of institutional control and failure to monitor, levied historic sanctions on the USC football program as a result of Reggie Bush — and his family — accepting impermissible benefits from “unscrupulous agents.” As part of the punitive measures, USC was forced to permanently dissociate itself from Bush. Back in October of 2011, USC’s interim athletic director, though, acknowledged that the disassociation is no longer permanent. Rather, the NCAA had previously reduced all permanent disassociation to 10-year bans.
The disassociation was levied June 10, 2010. Today is June 10, 2020. Exactly 10 years after the disassociated was put in place. In that vein, the university announced Wednesday that it has officially reassociated with Bush.
Welcome home, @ReggieBush. pic.twitter.com/iUYRiyB7Px
— USC Football ✌️ (@uscfb) June 10, 2020
“I’ve dreamed of this day for 10-plus years,” Bush said in a statement. “I’m excited to come home!”
The fact that USC immediately opted to welcome the former football player back shouldn’t come as a surprise.
” USC has long said that we would love to have Reggie back around campus, but the NCAA has mandated the school permanently disassociate from Reggie,” USC sports information director Tim Tessalone told the Los Angeles Times in September of last year, after Bush’s Coliseum appearance in his role as a TV analyst. “If we did so, it would lead to further NCAA penalties. We have tried several times to appeal the permanent disassociation with no luck. … We’re going to keep trying, but this isn’t a USC decision.”