USC: Out of the Frying Pan...

Myles Brand turned up the heat on USC's athletic department with the announcement that the NCAA has "new information" on Mayo and that an investigation would be forthcoming.

Seems reasonable to expect that the hammer will come down on the Trojans even harder than Achilles, Agamemon, Odysseus and the rest hit USC's ancient namesakes. I mean, an ESPN investigative reporter was able to find a sales clerk who remembered ringing up a couple thousand dollars' in threads for Mayo on Rodney Guillory's Amex card... the NCAA investigators just need to find someone who TiVo'd last weekend's Outside the Lines and their work is done, right?

The investigation hasn't even begun, and we're already starting to see how it might affect USC this season and beyond. Top recruit DeMar DeRozan has said he'll ask out of his commitment if USC is hit with sanctions, and assistants from "two of the four Final Four teams" have reportedly contracted DeRozan's high school coach about his status.

As for Mayo... it's unlikely this mess will impact him one iota. He'll be drafted on June 26th -- most likely in the top five, and get a guaranteed contract for millions.

And that is why this sort of thing keeps happening.