How Does USC Men's Basketball NCAA Penalties Affect The Program?

USC men's basketball will be on two years of probation following the NCAA's completion of a bribery scandal from a former assistant coach.

News broke on Thursday that USC Men’s Basketball received NCAA sanctions following former associate head coach Tony Bland's violation of NCAA ethical conduct rules. 

The former assistant coach violated the NCAA ethical conduct rules when he accepted a bribe to steer players to a business management company.

Luckily for coach Andy Enfield, a majority of the punishment that the Trojans endured from this case already occurred to the team over the last few years.

According to the NCAA, The committee used the Division I membership-approved infractions penalty guidelines to prescribe the following measures:

• Two years of probation.
• A $5,000 fine plus 1% of the men’s basketball program budget.
• A reduction of men’s basketball scholarships by a total of two during the 2018-19 academic year (self-imposed by the university).
• A reduction of men’s basketball official visits to 20 during the 2018-19/2019-20 rolling two-year period (self-imposed by the university).
• A reduction in the number of men’s basketball recruiting person days by 20 during the 2018-19 academic year (self-imposed by the university).

So let's dive in to see how the NCAA infractions will affect USC's program.

First and foremost, USC will be on a two-year probation period. The probation runs until April 14, 2023 and does not include a postseason ban. 

This is important because a postseason ban could potentially scare future transfers and recruits away from the program due to the team being under tight watch.

To add, the bad publicity of having a recent scandal within the organization can a slight turnoff for recruits and their families. 

Losing money from the basketball team's budget doesn't help either, as the Trojans will have to give 1%, of their earnings over to the NCAA. 

Luckily for Southern California's program, the Trojans already served their self-imposed punishments. This included reducing the total number of scholarships they were awarded in 2018-19 by two; reducing official visits to 20 during the 2018-19 and 2019-20 rolling two-year period, and reducing the number of recruiting days by 20 in 2018-19.

Coming off of an Elite Eight appearance, the NCAA's penalties shouldn't affect USC's program all too much, especially since they were able to avoid any major sanctions.

-----

You may also like:

[Scouting Report Details Concerns on USC CB ahead of NFL Draft]

[USC Defender Reveals 'Battling a Form' of Depression]

[USC Basketball Receives NCAA Sanctions]

-----

Be sure to stay locked into AllTrojans all the time!

Follow Austin Grad on Twitter: @AustGrad
Follow AllTrojans on Twitter: @SI_AllTrojans
Like and follow AllTrojans on Facebook

For more USC news visit www.alltrojans.com.