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USC will not lose its AP national title from 2004 despite heavy NCAA sanctions against the program involving that timeframe, according to a report Friday in the Los Angeles Times.
"The 2004 poll stands," AP sports editor Terry Taylor confirmed in an e-mail to the Times, according to the report. "The poll is intended to measure on-field performance. If teams are allowed to play, they're allowed to be ranked and USC certainly played in 2004."
The NCAA threw the book at the storied program on Thursday with a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year's games for improper benefits to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush dating to the Trojans' 2004 national championship. After the announcement, speculation was rampant that the AP might take away the championship.
"It would be impractical to revote," Taylor said. "It's been six years. Memories have faded and the poll board from that year is no longer intact."
USC was penalized for a lack of institutional control in the ruling by the NCAA following its four-year investigation. The report cited numerous improper benefits for Bush and former basketball player O.J. Mayo, who spent just one year with the Trojans.
The coaches who presided over the alleged misdeeds — football's Pete Carroll and basketball's Tim Floyd - left USC in the past year.
"I'm absolutely shocked and disappointed in the findings of the NCAA," Carroll said in a video statement produced by the NFL's Seattle Seahawks, who hired him in January. "I never thought it would come to this. ... I'm extremely disappointed that we have to deal with this right now."
The penalties include the loss of 30 football scholarships over three years and vacating 14 victories in which Bush played from December 2004 through the 2005 season. USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005, and won 12 games during Bush's Heisman-winning 2005 season, which ended with a loss to Texas in the 2006 BCS title game.
