Let's sue the stars

USC couldn't have picked a better time to have the NCAA hand out their punishment. (Seriously, after four years the punishment for OJ Mayo and Reggie Bush gets handed out at the same time as NCAApocalypse? What are the odds of that?)

While briefly taking over the headlines on Thursday, everyone has seemingly forgotten about the proverbial book that was thrown at USC while they try to figure out just who will be playing where and when it will happen.

And while most have set their focus on expansion, Gregg Doyel offered up one of the most intriguing columns I've read in a while. According to Doyel, Mayo and Bush should repay USC for the money they cost the school:

Mayo owes USC $206,200. That's how much the USC men's basketball team earned for participating in the 2008 NCAA tournament, and it's how much the school had to repay the NCAA because Mayo wasn't an amateur and therefore wasn't eligible. This isn't about reputations -- this is about cash. O.J. Mayo literally cheated the Trojans out of $206,200, and I want him to repay it.

Bush's monetary responsibility to USC is more difficult to pin down, but much larger than what Mayo owes. Thanks to Bush's willful cheating while in school, the NCAA has prevented USC from participating in a bowl game in 2010 or 2011. There's no way to predict what will happen this season or next, but USC played in two BCS bowls during Bush's time at halfback and earned roughly $3 million for those appearances.

USC can't play in a BCS bowl, or any bowl, in 2010 or 2011. That's potentially $3 million the football team won't be able to earn for the school.

I want Bush to write that check.

On the surface, I love this.

The way the system is currently set up, it is in the best interest of the best players to cheat, especially in basketball. Don't get caught until after your one or two year stay in college is done, and there is exactly zero the NCAA can do to you. Sure, they can drop the hammer on the school and vacate some wins, but do you think OJ Mayo cares that a first round win in the Pac-10 tournament now officially never happened? Do you think Reggie Bush cares that his 2005 season is wiped from the record books? Do you think either of them truly cares that they are costing USC sports a grand total of three postseasons? Bush won a national title, a heisman, and was the second pick in the draft. "Vacating" those things doesn't change the fact that he lived through them.

The people that take the brunt of the punishment for a collegiate athlete cheating are the players that are left at the school after the cheater leaves.

That is why Doyel's idea is so interesting to me. Maybe -- just maybe -- if we force these star athletes to be liable for the violations they commit, they will stop committing them. If you never got punished for robbing a bank despite getting caught, wouldn't you continue to rob banks? Bush got paid somewhere around $300,000. If he has to repay $3 million to USC for getting a couple trips to bowl games wiped from the record books, doesn't that create an incentive for future Reggie Bush's not to take money?

Yes, which is exactly why USC will never do it.

The $3 million that the school has to repay is far from all the money that USC made off of Reggie Bush. We've all seen the numbers being thrown around during this expansion talk. The money that a school like USC makes off of football is in the eight figures. While that $3 million no doubt hurt the USC athletics department, it certainly doesn't mean that the program won't be able to operate.

The reason USC is able to make the money that they do off of their television contract is because people want to watch the Trojans play. People want to watch the Trojans play because they generally have some of, if not the, best talent in the country. If USC takes Reggie Bush to court, do you think they are still going to be able to land the best recruits in the country?

There are always going to be star athletes that want to get paid in college. Believe it or not, but it is in the best interest of these programs to allow the kids to receive the impermissible benefits, so long as it can't get tied back to them or the coaches. Look the other way while boosters line your star's pockets, and you'll keep landing the star players. Keep the star players coming through your program, and your program will keep on winning. Win games, get on TV, make the BCS, get paid.

Taking Mayo and Bush to court will end the desire of many recruits to attend USC.

If that endless string of five star recruits dries up, so does the flow of money.

The money those stars would pay back pales in comparison to what USC made off of them.

So yeah, that lawsuit? Never gonna happen.