#Reggie Bush likely to be associated with USC again

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A dejected Reggie Bush walks off the field after USC’s Rose Bowl loss to Texas in 2006.
AP

Reggie Bush ban from being associated with USC is about to end.

After 10 years, the Trojans running back’s disassociation from the university is expected to be expire soon, according to ESPN.

The reason Bush can be associated with the school again is because of a rule, adopted in 2017, by the NCAA Committee on Infractions that limits penalized bans between an individual and school to no more than 10 years, according to the report.

Bush’s removal from all dealings with USC began on June 10, 2010 and was part of sweeping sanctions that included 14 vacated wins (including the 2004 BCS national championship), a two-year postseason ban and the loss of 30 scholarships.

The strong penalties against Bush and the school came in the wake of a four-year investigation that the Heisman Trophy winner received illegal benefits. The probe determined that while Bush was a student-athlete at USC, he received cash, travel expenses and a rent-free home in the San Diego area for his parents in which they also were provided $10,000 to furnish.

Bush, who played for five teams during his 10-year NFL career from 2006-2016, also had to return his Heisman Trophy.

According to ESPN, Bush — who has not associated with the Trojans football program in any way or had been welcomed on campus — is in the process of finalizing an agreement that would enable him to be reinstated with USC again, though nothing is official yet. The website contacted USC for comment, but a school spokesman could not confirm Bush’s looming reinstatement.

Bush, as a broadcaster for Fox Sports last season, was permitted to return to the Coliseum in September for USC’s game against Utah Utes.

Bush recently told The Athletic he felt “horrible” when about the sanctions he and the school faced, and that it was “one of the worst feelings in the world.”

“It felt like I died when I had to hear that there weren’t gonna be scholarships for kids because of me or because of something connected to me,” he told the website. “I’m still not over that. It’s just something you learn to live with.”

The Committee on Infractions procedures say that once a 10-year period ends, the NCAA will no longer “monitor or enforce” any disassociation and will allow schools the freedom to decide whether or not they want to be involved with the penalized player again.

The NCAA recently offered a proposal in which student-athletes could soon be paid for their name, image and likeness.

But Bush said college athletes still must be careful and get good advice.

“Guidance is the one thing that young athletes coming through the college system miss on so much,” Bush told Playboy recently. “I missed on it. They’re about to start paying college athletes. This is something that has never been experienced before, and it’s going to destroy some people if their foundation is not in the right place.”