Former USC assistant coach Todd McNair scored a victory over the NCAA today stemming from his involvement with Reggie Bush receiving ‘impermissible benefits’ during his time with the Trojans. According to Nathan Fenno of the Los Angeles Times, a judge determined that the show-cause penalty inflicted upon McNair by the NCAA did indeed violate California state law.
“McNair’s ability to practice his profession as a college football coach has been restricted, if not preempted, not only in Los Angeles, but in every state in the country,” Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller wrote in his decision Tuesday.
Originally, McNair was barred from recruiting for an entire year and if another program wanted to hire him they’d have to provide the NCAA with a written statement as to why his penalty shouldn’t be applied after his contract at USC wasn’t renewed. Likewise this made it very difficult for coaches facing show-cause penalties to find new jobs or didn’t make it worth the possible hefty risk for schools in hiring such coaches.
Unfortunately, at least for now other coaches in the State will still have to abide by their show-cause punishment despite the precedent set in this case. According to Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott, UCLA, California, Stanford and USC would still need to follow the NCAA rule on the books until further notice. However going forward it certainly seems possible that the already corrupt NCAA may have their punishing power greatly limited given what happened in the McNair ruling.