Mayo Fallout: ESPN.com's Forde Suggests USC Has a 'Lack of Institutional Control' - FanHouse - AOL Sports Blog

Lemme ask you a question: Were you honestly shocked to hear that O.J. Mayo has allegedly taken cash and gifts during his high school and college career? I wasn't.

And neither was ESPN.com's Pat Forde who is putting major blame on USC and coach Tim Floyd:

Especially with a player everyone in Hoopsworld strongly suspected was no amateur before he set foot in Los Angeles. You had to search hard to find a soul who didn't think O.J. Mayo had been prostituted for years as his prep legend grew, starting in seventh grade. (Put it this way: When early Mayo confidant Sonny Vaccaro gets muscled out of the scene, somebody's bringing some serious juice to the table.)

So you take the (Reggie) Bush allegations, add a side of Mayo and ask the question: Has there ever been a more textbook definition of "lack of institutional control"?

Forde even throws around the "death penalty" as an option (even he acknowledges it wouldn't happen).

What riles up many people is the fact that Tim Floyd is flat out denying that Mayo couldn't have done these things. The allegations have a guy named Rodney Guillory -- a guy who was linked to former USC player Jeff Trepagnier's troubles -- financing this deal, which means he is still rooted in the program.

What made other people skeptical was the fact that Mayo chose to play at USC in the first place. Why weren't the North Carolinas, UConns, UCLAs, Kansases, etc of the college hoops world going after him? None wanted any part of the red flags that were thrown up. No offense to USC for bringing him in, but how could they not keep an eye on a guy that was treated like a hot potato?

You have to assume USC simply didn't want to know. Didn't want to know the extent to which runners already had set their hooks into their highest-profile basketball recruit ever. The Trojans knew they were in this deal for one year before Mayo turned pro, and they probably just averted their gaze, hoping nothing blew up and the victories would pile up.

Maybe. Maybe not. It is hard for most people to think that a program that is reeling from the Reggie Bush allegations would let something like this bite them again.

Both Floyd and Mayo deny any of this (the whistle blower has had his own problems in the past and recently fell out of Mayo's "inner circle") and they could be telling the truth. Right or wrong, that may be the only way anyone becomes shocked.