Rankings Update

As you can see from my original rankings (please keep the comments coming by the way!) I'm just a little bit down on USC. I should have noted in the commentary section that was only partly due to the loss of Leinart/Bush/White, but also as a result of the uncertainty surrounding Dwayne Jarrett. Yesterday Jarrett was reinstated by the NCAA, an action that will be reflected in an adjusted poll ballot in the next day or so. I'm still not as high on USC as many others are, but they will be sliding up just a bit.

My favorite part of the whole debacle is most definitely what Pete Carroll had to say after it was over.

"We've felt comfortable throughout this process that the outcome would be like this," Carroll said. "I'm happy that the NCAA recognized the uniqueness of this situation."

What exactly is the uniqueness of this situation? That Jarrett plays for USC? That he didn't actually know that he was violating NCAA rules so its all good? I'm really not sure what anybody thought was going to happen when USC became the primary attraction in America's most popular sport in America's most entertainment crazed city. Of course these guys are going to want to live like rockstars. At some point the NCAA either needs to step in and require all student-athletes live on campus or do away with the concept of a student-athlete entirely because the hypocrisy just isn't working anymore.

I'm not criticizing the NCAA's response here, after restitution reinstating Jarrett is the correct move, but why isn't the NCAA more proactive with regards to preventing this sort of thing? With scandals seeming to break once a week or so this summer, clearly the NCAA could use a little more enforcement (hello Oklahoma) and a little less political correctness (hooray Illinois).