Recently I wrote about the joke that is Lil’ Romeo’s basketball scholarship to USC, and in that piece I made it clear that Trojan fans may not be happy with the direction their basketball program is headed in. Now, coach Tim Floyd has added fuel to the fire by implying that USC may lose a scholarship because of O.J. Mayo and his academic habits.

Basically, what it comes down to is that if Mayo leaves for the NBA, and he leaves academically ineligible, USC will lose a scholarship next year. The NCAA has an Academic Progress Rate (APR) that schools need to maintain in order to keep their scholarships. If USC falls below a certain level, they could lose scholarships.

The problem is that guys like Mayo show up to college knowing that they will likely only be there for one year, and they blow off their classes, particularly in the second semester. They go to class the first semester to maintain their eligibility, but when the second semester starts in January, the players know that the season is over before the semester. All they do is try to make it a few weeks, then they blow off their academics. By the time they would be ineligible, the season, and their college careers, are over.

If O.J. Mayo blows off this second semester, he stands to become academically ineligible. If he does become ineligible, USC may have to forfeit a scholarship. That has caused coach Tim Floyd to question the idea of recruiting players like Mayo, who know that they are one-and-done. There is almost no incentive for a student like Mayo, or Kansas State’s Michael Beasley, to focus on academics in their second semester. Of course, they could just do it for the education, but you can’t expect an 18 or 19-year old basketball player to do that.

With Mayo, it has come down to getting him to understand that he needs to work for a few more months for the good of the program. Unfortunately for these schools, not every athlete is going to understand, or even care about the good of the school argument. It’s a no-win situation for everybody. You can’t force a student who knows he is leaving to go to class, and it’s tough to penalize a program for what a former player did academically. All you can ask is that they have strict academic standards for as long as a player is enrolled at the school. But making them care once the season is over is on each program and coach, not the NCAA.

I don’t have a solution to this problem, only that it would make sense for the NCAA to look at these instances on a case-by-case basis. If they see that a student let his academics go after the season, when he already decided to go pro, it’s tough to penalize the school for that. There’s only so much you can realistically do.

I feel for Tim Floyd on this one, but only so much. When you recruit a one-year player, you have to know what you may be getting into. I stand by my earlier statement that USC fans are not going to be happy with the direction their team is taking in the coming years.

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