That's definitely a fair distinction, and a mistaken attribution on my part, but the point still stands. USC should get their wins back, just as we should. They can go back as far as they'd like for whatever team got disproportionately penalized for doing something that would be completely trivial in today's landscape.
The DUMBEST thing about this was that UM Administration suggested their own penalties and the NCAA was like uhhhhhhh, sure! F*ck that spineless punk-a$$ Royce Engstrom and his academic cronies.
And UM didn't hire an ncaa legal counsel until late in the game, like about June that year. The ncaa settlement was in late July. The ncaa counsel they did hire was a smaller practitioner/firm, who, at the time, didn't seem to have big experience and big pull. Royce was too busy telling the AD to get rid of some players he had heard rumors about, all of whom happened to be black. Then, Engstrom fired O'Day and Pflu.
Agreed. UM had booster benefits. Supposed benefit to 2 players who were represented contingently (as the firm tired to set up a civil case), which even the ncaa didn't value as being worth much; and booster Sunday night home-cooked meals from a couple (not known to the athletic dept) who had met the players from church. I don't recall if the hot dogs/water to a few players after a game was even cited as a reason for the penalty. Likewise, the player being allowed to wash his clothes at a friend's house on occasion.
Engstrom was the worst friggin thing to happen to UM in... forever, academically and athletically. Seth Bodnar has turned the University completely around.
Agreed. Rumblings I've heard working around campus is that many faculty and upper mucky mucks liked him because "he was nice and friendly to talk with" and he had a faculty/tenue background and was viewed as "one of them". Some faculty like Seth and some don't (mostly from what I've heard it is the ones who are having trouble adapting to the reality of how things are now - and are slow playing tweaking their teaching style and degree offerings to current student needs).
