BCS strips USC of 2004 title by the Sports Network

The Bowl Championship Series has stripped Southern California of its national title from the 2004 season.

The BCS announced the action Monday, about a week and a half after the NCAA rejected USC’s appeal to reduce sanctions levied against its football team last June.

The penalties were handed down after an investigation revealed ex-Trojan football player Reggie Bush received impermissible benefits while at the school.

“The BCS arrangement crowns a national champion, and the BCS games are showcase events for post-season football,” said BCS executive director Bill Hancock. “One of the best ways of ensuring that they remain so is for us to foster full compliance with NCAA rules. Accordingly, in keeping with the NCAA’s recent action, USC’s appearances are being vacated.

“This action reflects the scope of the BCS arrangement and is consistent with the NCAA’s approach when it subsequently discovers infractions by institutions whose teams have played in NCAA championship events.”

The BCS also vacated USC’s appearance in the 2006 Rose Bowl — the national championship for the 2005 season. Texas beat the Trojans in that game to win the title.

Bush played in that contest as well as the 2005 Orange Bowl, which served as the national championship game for the 2004 college football season. He ran for 75 yards and caught two passes for 31 yards in the Trojans’ 55-19 victory against Oklahoma.

USC had already forfeited the win as part of the NCAA’s sanctions. The NCAA forced the Trojans to vacate all victories from December 2004 to the end of the 2005 season.

But the NCAA could not act on the behalf of the BCS, whose Presidential Oversight Committee vacated the Orange Bowl win Monday. The BCS said there will be no national champion for the 2004 season.

The announcement likely concludes the fall from grace for the USC program, which was a dominating presence for the better part of last decade.

But the investigation into Bush resulted in an empire falling. Bush eventually gave up his 2005 Heisman Trophy, while head coach Pete Carroll resigned to join the Seattle Seahawks in January 2010 — about five months before the NCAA enforced the stiff penalties.

In addition to the vacated victories, the NCAA imposed a two-year postseason ban, a loss of 30 scholarships, and a four-year probation period for the USC athletics program.

USC will serve the second year of the postseason ban this fall, meaning the Trojans will be ineligible for the first Pac-12 title game or a bowl game. The probation runs through June 9, 2014.

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