NCAA investigations into former USC stars in football and basketball have been combined into one probe of the Trojans' athletic program, sources connected to one of the cases said Wednesday.
Investigators have been examining allegations involving Heisman Trophy-winning running back Reggie Bush and NBA lottery pick O.J. Mayo. Bush is accused of accepting thousands in cash and his family for failing to pay rent on a home owned by a fledgling marketer while he was playing for USC in 2004 and 2005. Mayo is accused of accepting cash and other benefits from a middleman representing a sports agency before and during the one season he played for the Trojans in 2007-08.
The allegations against Mayo were made by Louis Johnson, a former associate of Mayo and Rodney Guillory, who Johnson says received more than $200,000 in cash and gifts from a representative of the Northern California-based BDA Sports Management agency, funneling some of it -- including a flat-screen television, meals, clothes and other gifts -- to the player.
Johnson's attorneys, Anthony V. Salerno and David Murphy, said Wednesday they were told during a recent conversation with a Pacific 10 Conference executive that the NCAA had consolidated its work on both cases into one investigation looking into whether the school showed a lack of institutional control.
