Let's pin the University of Southern California's upcoming meeting with NCAA officials somewhere on the scary scale between dentist's appointment and meeting your significant other's parents for the first time. In a word, the meeting will be uncomfortable.
USC officials will meet behind closed doors Thursday in Tempe, Ariz., with NCAA enforcement officials and a 10-person infractions committee, the Los Angeles Times reports. As the story says, USC will play the role of defendant in this athletics-themed court. The enforcement officials will be the prosecutors; the infractions committee will play judge. The meeting will hash out allegations against USC's men's basketball and football teams. Former men's basketball coach Tim Floyd is expected to attend, and former football coach Pete Carroll may also.
"It's no cup of coffee" meeting with the infractions committee, University of Memphis Athletics Director R. C. Johnson tells the Times. "I absolutely hated being in there." Johnson's program was punished in 2008 for infractions in men's basketball and women's golf, the Times report says.
Much like a court proceeding, there will be opening statements, both sides will argue their cases, and then the infractions committee will question both sides and deliver some kind of ruling. The whole event should last the weekend, the report says, and an official public report will be released about 10 weeks later.
It's probably an understatement to say the USC athletics community is holding its breath. After all, meeting with the infractions committee is never fun. Just ask Johnson.
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