The Bush House

"That house there, to lease its $3,835 a month. But I don't know nothing about it."
Reggie Bush, aspiring Real Estate Agent

By now, if you follow college football and various blogs, you know of Reggie Bush and his family's house coming under investigation. The $750,000 house was apparently leased by the family for use. No problem there. Where it might be a problem is that the house was apparently owned by Michael Michaels. Michaels, so goes the story, was trying to perhaps steer Bush towards a San Diego-based sports agent. The deal, if it had any sweetheart taste to it at all, would be a violation of NCAA rules. In question would come USC's dynasty and the Heisman that Bush won.

Bush has come out today saying that he knew nothing about the deal, but then only three paragraphs later in the same story on ESPN, Bush added that his parents "leased a house like any other parent". The word "lease" tells me that Bush knew what was happening, I mean, did he not ever visit his parents over the past year? What Bush didn't know was Michaels relation to Caravantes, the SD-based agent. From the ESPN article, it mentions Caravantes as the agent and Michaels as the promotional business-start up looking for his first big client.

I have a hard time believing that the lease was market value for the Griffin family. Quick MS Excel math puts a $750,000 home for 6.25% interest at 25-years of payments at $3,835 per month. No matter, that can be found in the lease agreement between the two parties. To that end, I say good luck getting your hands on that one. I don't know California law, but unless you have to file said documents with the county, then you forget ever knowing about that sweetheart deal.

USC has stated they have turned the matter over to the Pacific Ten Conference for them to investigate. Out of the whole scenario, that is my problem. Why is the Pac-10 the authority on this issue? Let's think this out for a second. It's an NCAA violation, who is the governing body that wrote the bylaws of which supposedly the Bush family has violated.

More to the point is to think along this angle: How much will the Pac-10 really look? You mean to tell me the conference will complete their investigation with complete diligence when they could stand to lose the BCS money awarded to USC for qualifying for the Rose Bowl? Your a conference that will have no problem returning over $18 million dollars?

Why didn't USC ask the NCAA to look into the matter? Are they sure they can bully the Pac-10 into a fast, sloppy investigation? If I am the NCAA, I step in now.

Call me cynical, but I don't trust any conference looking into the matter involving their own member school. Especially one that has been an absolute money maker in the last three years.