By Dave Cooperman

Syracuse has a better chance of going to a bowl game next season than USC. 

I am so confident that I am willing to make that same statement for the following season as well.  Typing that sentence makes me so giddy I almost don’t care how we arrived at it. 

Apparently, USC wasn’t playing by the rules and now they are in some hot water. Pete Carroll flew the coop just in time, Reggie Bush was taking handouts, national titles and Heisman’s were won unfairly, but those are just the details.  That is the small typo on an otherwise glorious run of Trojan football.  Naturally, the fallout has just begun with 2 years of a postseason ban and a loss of 20 scholarships. 

You have to assume the next step will involve the current Athletic Director, Mike Garrett, packing up his personal belongings.  That situation was outlined for you on April 12^th by Steve Schaefer here at The Army.  

The next part of the story involves Darryl Gross and whether or not he fancies himself as the knight in shining armor who rides back into LA to save the disgraced athletic department.   I don’t think you need to know Darryl personally to say that sounds like something he would probably be into.

Let’s review a few scenarios:

(1)    Darryl leaves for USC and Syracuse is invited to the Big Ten.  This is the jackpot scenario.  We replace our AD, but we do so with the leverage of a new conference and a lot of new TV money.  We can get a real football first guy and the rest is history.

(2)    Darryl leaves and we are still in the Big East.  This probably isn’t an ideal situation.  Staying in a conference with an uncertain future won’t make the Orange a hot destination for any AD replacement. 

(3)    Darryl stays and Syracuse is in the Big Ten.  This is livable. After all Darryl delivered a new conference and that should make us grateful and if he wants to hang around and bask in that glory and swim in all of that dough, then so be it.

(4)    Darryl stays and we are still in the Big East.  Not good on any level considering we are stuck with the AD who couldn’t push us over the finish line in expansion and set back football roughly 25 years with the hiring of Greg Robinson.  Just plain terrible.

With the season still roughly 90 days away and not exactly the highest of expectations, who would have thought there would still be so much to pay attention to this summer? 

Good luck Doctor, and let me know if you need any help with your resume.