Basically, what's being investigated in the book is this: Bush allegedly had ties to two San Diego men, cofounders of a fledgling sports agency, who claim to have paid Bush and his family in cash and gifts to ensure his endorsement — benefits including a vintage car, lavish trips, and an upscale home where Bush’s family lived rent-free. All told, it added up to about $300,000 in benefits. Bush may ultimately have to give back the Heisman and USC may lose the National Championship it won while Bush was there.
Yahoo! Sports has been on Bush's case forever, and this new book (not done by Yahoo!) just ups the ante.
But the question is, should we be surprised by any of these allegations?
The answer is no.
Whether people want to believe it or not, college sports, at least at the biggest schools, is a business - plain and simple. In fact, for two sports - football and basketball - college isn't just a business, it's a de facto minor leagues.
There was once a time when only the uber-elite sports universities could make money off of their sports teams. But these days, with TV contracts, shoe deals, radio shows, merchandising, etc., there is a lot of money to be made. Just check out this story about how LSU gear is flying off the racks right now, with the school getting 15% in royalties.
But usually the way you become profitable is simple - you win. And to win, and put butts in the seats, you need top talent. So you let boosters bend the rules a bit to bring in top recruits who are used to getting whatever they want. But that top talent also brings agents to the table - like the two guys tied in with Bush - who are hungry to create a relationship with a potential star who'll help make them wealthy down the road, even if it means breaking the rules.
In other words, it's an incredibly toxic mix. You have colleges looking to make money. You have boosters looking to bring top talent in by any means necessary to improve the teams and keep fans happy. And you have agents patrolling the sidelines looking to sign the next great star.
What's bad is that this system is so ingrained in our culture, there's almost no way of getting rid of it. We're not about to create a system where we get rid of college athletic programs and replace them with paid pro athletic divisions, like the European model, even though that might solve the problem.
So what can we do?
Basically there's nothing we can do. Bush's case isn't the exception in college sports. It's actually fairly common if you're familiar with college athletics (see: Webber, Chris - who got gifts and cash totalling up to $280,000 while at Michigan).
Whether you think that's sad or not is basically irrelevant. Because that's the way it is. And it isn't changing anytime soon.
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