Dillon Baxter regains eligibility
According to a recent report from ESPN.com, the University of Southern California's tailback Dillon Baxter was reinstated by the NCAA on Wednesday 24 November. Haden stated that the Trojans freshman running
back made a $5 donation to a local charity as a reimbursement for a golf-cart ride he took last week from a registered agent.
“You would anticipate that he’s going to be eligible,” Haden had said of Baxter, as the Trojans prepare for this weekend’s match-up against their rival, Notre Dame.
Baxter was ruled ineligible late last week and missed the team’s most recent game against the Oregon State Beavers. A compliance official with the university stated that he saw Baxter take a ride with Teague
Egan, a fellow USC student. Coincidentally, Egan happens to be the CEO of 1st Round Enterprises, as well as a certified agent with the NFL Players Association.
“We know we have a student who is a registered agent,” Haden told the website. “I don’t know how the NFLPA allows that to happen, but he’s a registered agent.”
According to Haden, the school looked into the matter and turned all of its findings in to the NCAA after learning of Egan’s agent status. School officials had also stated that they spoke with Egan personally
and asked him not to provide any benefits to the university’s student-athletes nearly a week before the incident and subsequent suspension.
“I explained to [Egan] when he was in here the other day, ‘These guys may be your friends, you can have friends, but once you become an agent, it’s an entirely different relationship,’” Haden said. “You have
to know that and they have to know that.”
The university has apparently tightened its leash since receiving an NCAA-mandated probation that runs until the summer of 2014. The Trojans’ football program is currently in its first year of a two-year
bowl ban and four years of probation overall for providing improper benefits to a pair of former student-athletes, running back Reggie Bush and basketball guard O.J. Mayo.
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