There are times in life when you hear breaking news and your first reaction is something along the lines of “ wow I never saw that one coming,” with just the slightest hint of sarcasm. 

For instance, when George Michael got outed in a London bathroom. I mean really, watch 2 seconds of any Wham video and tell me you didn’t see that one coming. That’s how I felt this weekend when news broke that OJ Mayo allegedly took money and gifts illegally before and during his one year hiatus at USC. 

ESPN has uncovered a mountain of evidence that points to Mayo taking cash, clothes, TV’s,  and airline tickets for starters. They have a former Mayo confidant with receipts to back most of the allegations.  It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out OJ Mayo was never a amateur athlete. 

The circumstances around him picking USC without ever even being recruited by them has more twists and back alley dealings than a John Grisham novel. He stunk of NCAA violations long before he left West Virginia for the bright lights of LA. It’s kind of funny that OJ cited Reggie Bush as one the reasons he wanted to come to USC. He saw the kind of star that Bush became at SC and wanted the same for himself. He may not of had the same on field impact as Bush, but now the two stand as equals in potential program killers for the Trojans.  How anyone can take a look at Bush and Mayo and not see a mountain of violations should pull their head out. Are you listening NCAA?

And don’t try and sell me the 'hooker with the heart of gold either,' --that the school had no idea about what was going on. Coach Tim Floyd once said of why he was never allowed to call Mayo during his recruitment, "Mayo was raised by a single mother who didn\'t have the money to pay a big cell phone bill" -- which is why Floyd was discouraged from calling him during his recruitment. Floyd also said the kid "doesn't have anything" materially.  

If that’s the case, didn’t someone wonder why the poor kid with nothing had brand new high priced clothes, a giant flat screen TV in his dorm, a 50 grand SUV, or was able to fly friends and family regularly out to LA and to road games.? Somewhere in there a red flag should have gone up. USC knew exactly what they were getting in Mayo and just chose to look the other way. Now it’s time someone made them pay their tab for both Bush and Mayo. 

I would love to see the NCAA  go old school SMU on the Trojans and kill the programs for a year or two. If anyone deserves it, it’s USC.  They have either chosen to ignore every rule in the book or shown a lack of institutional control on par with a prison riot. Either way a lesson needs to be sent.