USC was also giving four years' probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year's games for a lack of institutional control in the ruling by the NCAA following its four-year investigation. The report cited numerous improper benefits for Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo, who spent just one year with the Trojans.
The basketball team escaped any further action by the NCAA, five months after the university banned itself from postseason play and vacated its victories during Mayo's season.
The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds — football's Pete Carroll and basketball's Tim Floyd — left USC in the past year. USC reacted with uniform outrage to the harshness of the sanctions, promising an appeal.
"I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed in the findings of the NCAA," Carroll said in a video statement produced by the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, who hired him in January.
"I never thought it would come to this." The penalties include the loss of 30 football scholarships over three years and vacating 14 victories in which Bush played from December 2004 through the 2005 season. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.
Bill Hancock, the executive director of the BCS, said a committee will meet to consider vacating USC's 2004 championship. While no action would go into effect until USC's appeals are heard by the NCAA, Hancock said there would be no 2004 champion if USC's victory is vacated.
" take the same stance as our university," new football coach Lane Kiffin said. "There is some guilt, but the punishment is too severe. That's why the appeal process is taking place." The rulings are a sharp repudiation of the Trojans' decade of stunning football success under Carroll, who won seven straight Pac-10 titles and two national championships before abruptly returning to the NFL.
The NCAA says Bush received lavish gifts from two fledgling sports marketers hoping to sign him. The men paid for everything from hotel stays and a rent-free home where Bush's family apparently lived to a limousine and a new suit when he accepted his Heisman Trophy in New York in December 2005.
The NCAA found that Bush, identified as a «former football student-athlete,» was ineligible beginning at least by December 2004, a ruling that could open discussion of the revocation of the New Orleans Saints star's Heisman.
Members of the Heisman Trust have said they might review Bush's award if he were ruled ineligible by the NCAA.
"I have a great love for the University of Southern California, and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC, but for the fans and players," Bush said in a statement.
"I am disappointed by (Thursday's) decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings. If the University decides to appeal, I will continue to cooperate with the NCAA and USC, as I did during the investigation. In the meantime, I will continue to focus on making a positive impact for the University and for the community where I live." USC plans to appeal some of the football-related penalties, but with no resolution of any appeal expected until next spring at the earliest, that won't help many of the current Trojans.
"It does stink to possibly not play in a bowl game," said USC quarterback Matt Barkley, a freshman starter last season. "But at the same time, I came here to get a degree from one of the best universities in the country and to win football games. If we play 13 instead of 14, then we're going to try to win all 13 of those."
