University Of Southern California

Tim Floyd submitted his resignation Tuesday and Athletic Director Mike Garrett accepted it so fast he probably got a paper cut snapping it out of the fax machine. The good news, of course, is that it's only the fall of USC basketball, leaving the all-important work of preserving, defending and protecting the constitution of USC football. What happened to Floyd was inevitable and the appointed hour of his departure was inconsequential.

USC won its only Bowl Championship Series title four years ago, but Coach Pete Carroll still ranks No. 1 in at least one category. A new report released today says Carroll was the highest-paid private university employee in the United States during the 2006-07 fiscal year. Carroll earned $4.4 million in total compensation, four times as much as USC President Steven B. Sample, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education.

Weeks have dragged into months, and months into years, since USC was rocked by allegations that star football player Reggie Bush broke rules by accepting cash, a car and free housing from two businessmen who hoped to profit from him after he turned professional. Now, the still-unresolved case has become a clinic in the limits to self-policing in college sports.

USC's off-week practices provided the showcase, as planned, for younger players hoping to impress coaches. But junior quarterback Mitch Mustain also took advantage of the opportunity and might have positioned himself to become Matt Barkley's backup for the seventh-ranked Trojans' Oct. 17 game at Notre Dame. On Friday, after Mustain completed 10 of 12 passes and threw for two touchdowns during an early morning workout that was conducted without pads, Coach Pete Carroll declined to say whether the former Arkansas starter had overtaken sophomore Aaron Corp as the Trojans' No. 2 quarterback.

USC linebacker Rey Maualuga is a hitter not a hittee, so it's somewhat appropriate that the weight of this reality has not fully struck him: Life as he knows it is about to change. "I guess it really hasn't sunk in yet that tomorrow will be my last day as a college athlete," Maualuga said in a phone interview Thursday from his home in Eureka, Calif. "It's strange to think it's over." Over, and just beginning.

A University of Southern California fraternity has been temporarily suspended as Los Angeles police investigate allegations that a female student and possibly others were sexually assaulted at the Lambda Chi Alpha house during a rowdy party this week. USC officials said three women had come forward reporting assaults at Lambda Chi Alpha early Wednesday and a campus crime alert was issued.

USC quarterback Matt Barkley says he is ready to play, pain or no pain. Barkley, who started the first two games and then sat out the loss at Washington because of a bone bruise in his right shoulder, said Tuesday that he was planning to start Saturday night against Washington State at the Coliseum. But Coach Pete Carroll cautioned that he would monitor the freshman's progress before any choice was made between Barkley and Aaron Corp . "It could happen if everything works right," Carroll said of Barkley's starting.

After a while, USC linebacker Rey Maualuga stopped watching the NFL draft. "Friends would text me and I'd feel the phone vibrate," Maualuga said in a phone interview Saturday from his home in Eureka, Calif. "I thought, 'It's cool, I'm getting picked.' Then I'd say, 'Dang.' " Brian Cushing, Clay Matthews and Maualuga were expected to become the first trio of players from the same unit to be picked in the first round.

USC football Coach Pete Carroll employed a former NFL tactician last season to help with the team's punting and kicking game, an arrangement that may have violated NCAA rules that prohibit consultants from coaching, The Times has learned. Carroll's action could widen a continuing investigation by the NCAA, the governing body of major college sports, which has been looking at USC football for more than three years and the school's basketball program for the last year.

USC cornerback Shareece Wright had the charge of resisting a police officer against him reduced from a felony to a misdemeanor Thursday in San Bernardino County Superior Court. In a decision that eliminated the possibility that Wright would spend time in state prison, Judge Douglas N. Gericke ruled the player's actions at a friend's party in Colton in September were "less violent to a significant degree," than how a felony is described.