HOW HARD IS IT TO RECRUIT AT USC?

Imagine being the head coach of USC football, and traveling the country to recruit athletes. How do you mess that up?

You go to Ohio and tell some kid that it never gets colder than 50 degrees.

You go to Texas and tell some kid that USC is on national TV almost every week.

You go to Florida and tell some kid that USC goes to BCS Bowls, and Trojans go on to the NFL.

You go to northern California and tell some kid that USC is the 2nd biggest sports team in LA, behind only the Lakers.

You go to New Jersey and tell some kid that he'll have classmates like this:



With all this incentive to attend USC, why do the Trojans need to bend and break the rules?

USC's Joe McKnight, who rushed for 1,014 yards on 164 attempts, hasn't made the trip up to San Francisco with his team. He was spotted driving an expensive SUV, which he claims belongs to his girlfriend, but the lease is owned by an LA businessman. This is what's known as a "friend of the program."

I think every major program in the country has "anomalies" like this. It's next to impossible to completely police this kind of stuff. And this certainly doesn't seem to be sanctioned by USC itself. But still, it's so easy to recruit guys to go there, it's funny that they also need loaner SUVs too.