Matt Leinart violated an NCAA rule by appearing in a promo for ESPN following the UCLA game. USC quietly reported the violation and petitioned the NCAA for his reinstatement.
Has anyone seen this promo?
How is an athlete ever endorsing something if no money is changing hands? If Matt Leinart told you to visit TrojanWire, would he be in violation of NCAA rules?
Leinart Had Been Ineligible [LA Times]
From what I know, it was just a “I’m Matt Leinart and this is SportsCenter” blurb–one they’d play right before the show started. Not even a commercial–just a little piece of programming. But I guess somehow it qualifies as a promo, especially b/c he’s saying his name.
The NCAA is SO stupid. Which is scary when you think about it.
I saw the promo the night it aired (after the UCLA game) and it was about 2.5 seconds long. It was after the intro segment where they do the rapid cuts of that day in sports they then cut to Matt who said “Sportscenter is next”. That was it.
My initial thought was “That was short but pretty cool. I dont think I’ve ever seen a CFB player intro Sportscenter before” That was immediately followed by “Maybe they never did it before because it is illegal. But ESPN would probably be aware if it was.”
As a result when this story aired initially (before they had specified the particular spot) I immediately flashed back to that night – turns out I was right. What I really want to know though is why USC or the athlete should be held responsible for this. Shouldn’t ESPN be aware of the NCAA rules and be the ones held responsible? Someone should definitely be suspended for this on their end. What if Matt had remained ineligible? Would USC then be justified in never granting ESPN access to their athletes ever again. Me thinks so.
Where there is smoke there is fire, ask Reggie Bush and his parents.
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