Free Republic

WHERE CAN A STUDENT-ATHLETE GET THE MONEY TO PAY FOR THE INSURANCE WHILE IN COLLEGE? Family members upon whom the student-athlete is naturally or legally dependent may provide the money for the insurance premium. The student-athlete is permitted to borrow the money from a regular bank or savings and loan or credit union, provided a coach, booster or athletics staff member does not make the loan arrangements. The Panel and/or the associate athletic director for compliance will provide you advice if the student-athlete wants to secure a loan. The NCAA has arranged a disability insurance program so that qualified student-athletes...

UCLA has fired coach Rick Neuheisel after four seasons in charge of his alma mater. Neuheisel will be allowed to coach the Bruins (6-6, 5-4 Pac-12) in Friday's Pac-12 title game at Oregon, the school announced Monday. Offensive coordinator Mike Johnson will be the Bruins' interim coach if they earn a bowl berth. Neuheisel is 21-28 since taking over the program in 2008, never building the momentum he needed to reach his goal of challenging Southern California for city supremacy. UCLA made it to just one bowl game in his first three seasons, winning the EagleBank Bowl in Washington, D.C.,...

Pretty funny video. SPONGEBOB FIGHTING TWO WOMEN

USC's 23-14 victory over Utah sent Las Vegas sports books into a tizzy Saturday night. The game originally ended with USC winning, 17-14. But two hours after the game, the Pacific 12 Conference overruled game officials who had not allowed a last-second touchdown by USC's Torin Harris after a blocked field-goal attempt. Contacted about the finish by The Times, a supervisor at the MGM Mirage Sports Book said, "That cost us huge. We needed USC to cover the 8½ and when they didn't allow that touchdown, that killed us."

The Bowl Championship Series has stripped Southern California of its 2004 title and will leave that season without a BCS champion.

LOS ANGELES (CBS) — New research suggests that pollution in Southern California may be harming our brains. We already know that pollution can do harm to our lungs, but research from the University of Southern California suggests that residents here are even worse off thanks to our traffic-polluted freeways. “It’s not like what you see in smog and the days when you don’t get to see the mountains,” says Todd Morgan a researcher with USC referring to the type of pollution investigated in the study. Researchers looked at the smallest of particles that are not visible to the naked eye....

After defeating Steve Poizner in the Republican primary, it looked as though Meg Whitman would simply steamroll the Democrat candidate. Meg Whitman had been the CEO of e-Bay and became a billionaire in the process. The idea of a successful businesswoman running California had a strong appeal, but an over-managed campaign by inept advisers and Whitman’s inability to take a stand on key issues of the greatest importance to California doomed her campaign to failure. The individual running against Meg Whitman is none other than aging hippie retread, Jerry Brown, the same bungler who allowed California state workers to unionize,...

(10-22) 04:00 PDT Los Angeles - -- President Obama starred Friday at the largest political rally of California's 2010 election season, imploring a raucous crowd of 32,000 to vote and telling them, "You have the chance to set the direction of this state, and this country - just like you did in 2008." "You can defy the conventional wisdom that says young people are apathetic," Obama told an adoring throng at the University of Southern California's Alumni Park. "You have a chance to say, 'Yes we can,' " he said, as Democrats enthusiastically took up the chant. But while Obama's...

LOS ANGELES -- Democrat Jerry Brown has moved into a narrow lead over Republican Meg Whitman in their fractious contest for California governor, while his party colleague Barbara Boxer has opened a wider margin over GOP nominee Carly Fiorina in the race for U.S. Senate, a new Los Angeles Times/USC poll has found. The Democratic candidates were benefiting from their party's dominance in California and the continued popularity here of President Barack Obama, who has retained most of his strength in the state even as he has weakened in other parts of the country. Support for Obama may play a...

... The terms of the Constitution originally were clear. Section 8 of Article I enumerates the exact powers the federal government, through Congress, can exercise - and, by doing so, excludes all other powers. As James Madison, the chief conceptualizer of the Constitution, wrote in Federalist 39, "the proposed government cannot be deemed a national one; since its jurisdiction extends to certain enumerated objects only, and leaves to the several states a residuary and inviolable sovereignty over all other objects." Madison wrote this before adoption of the 10th Amendment, which restates, "the powers not delegated to the United States by...

Running back Reggie Bush has decided to hand over the Heisman. Under pressure since his award winning 2005 campaign at Southern California was vacated, Bush said in a statement on Tuesday that he will forfeit the Heisman Trophy. "One of the greatest honors of my life was winning the Heisman Trophy in 2005," the statement released by the New Orleans Saints reads. "For me, it was a dream come true. But I know that the Heisman is not mine alone. Far from it. I know that my victory was made possible by the discipline and hard work of my teammates,...

SATIRE — Conference realignment has been the buzz word of the college football offseason and a huge source of confusion for most sports fans. To sum up the recent changes: Colorado left the Big 12 for the Pac-10, making the Pac-10 actually the Pac-11 and reducing the Big 12 down to the Big 11. Then the Big Ten (which really had 11 teams) added Nebraska making the Big Ten effectively the Big Twelve and leaving the conference formerly known as the Big 12 with just ten teams. Then Utah joined the Pac-11 to make it the Pac-12 and we thought...

In late February, I asked USC recruiting coordinator Ed Orgeron what he told prospects and their parents about the possibility of NCAA sanctions. With the penalties having been announced earlier this month, I revisited the subject with the boisterious defensive line coach: Question: Let’s say I’m a recruit, and I tell you I want to play in the Rose Bowl next season. How do you respond to that? Orgeron: “Here’s the deal. You’re going to play for a great university with a great tradition. That hasn’t changed. Next, you’re going to get a great education here. That, for sure, is...

RENTON, Wash. -- Days after the NCAA trampled his former Southern California Trojans, coach Pete Carroll's mindset remains the same from afar. Fight on! Carroll says the NCAA had no basis for unfair and "really, really harsh" sanctions on USC. "There's nothing there," he said Tuesday of the investigation into his program's knowledge of former Trojans running back Reggie Bush's improper benefits and relationship with an agent. "Now the word's out. You can do this," he said. "One person can do this, go after a university and a kid. And nothing has to be true. Nothing has to be true....

USC Trojans redshirt junior linebacker Jordan Campbell has become the first player to defect from the land of Troy and take advantage of an NCAA-regulated free-transfer policy for juniors and seniors, telling ESPNLosAngeles.com Monday he has already told USC he will transfer.

In the wake of the NCAA's decision to penalize USC, former Trojans running back Reggie Bush, a key figure in the sanctions, released a statement that read predictably formal. Nothing surprising here: "I have a great love for the University of Southern California and I very much regret the turn that this matter has taken, not only for USC, but for the fans and players. I am disappointed by today's decision and disagree with the NCAA's findings. If the University decides to appeal, I will continue to

School needs to fire athletic director, who is talking nonsense after NCAA hammers school with sanctions. From Boston There was a time when the daughter and I did a radio show together every Sunday morning. Don't worry, no one else remembers either. But Kobe came on the day after his initial Christmas meeting with Shaq. Donald Sterling did his first radio interview in more than 20 years. Vin Scully made our day. Jerry and Jeanie Buss were on together, as were Arte Moreno and daughter and John Wooden and daughter. Jamie McCourt was on, so was Frank McCourt, but for...

While upperclassmen will be allowed to leave the USC football team, the Trojans claim other schools have illegally jumped the gun with a freshman. Juniors and seniors to-be will be allowed to transfer to other FBS programs without having to sit out a season after the program was hit with a two-year postseason ban among other punishments, the NCAA clarified to ESPN on Friday. "The second school would have to submit a waiver asking to waive the year in residence, but NCAA rules allow for this waiver to be granted if a student-athlete's first school has a postseason ban in...

Sthern California will likely lose its 2004 BCS championship, but its Associated Press title appears safe. "The 2004 poll stands," AP sports editor Terry Taylor confirmed in an e-mail to the Los Angeles Times on Friday. "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." USC beat Oklahoma in the BCS title game on Jan. 4, 2005. The BCS is likely to force USC to vacate its national championship. BCS executive director Bill Hancock said in a statement Thursday that the presidential oversight committee...

Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll has responded Thursday afternoon to the NCAA sanctions against his former USC Trojans football team with a videotaped message released on YouTube via his Twitter account. Carroll said he was "absolutely shocked" by the NCAA's decision to bring the hammer down on his former program with a two-year bowl ban and stripping of 30 scholarships over the next three seasons. "I am extremely disappointed we have to deal with this right now," he said. "After going through the process from the depositions and interviews over years and years and also participating in the hearing with...