The USC case: What happened when

March 2005

•Michael Michaels, who works in an Indian tribe’s development office, purchases a home in Spring Valley, Calif., near San Diego, for $757,500. Shortly thereafter, the home is occupied by Denise and LaMar Griffin, Reggie Bush’s mother and stepfather, and their son, Jovan.

December 2005

•Bush, a junior running back for USC, wins the Heisman Trophy as college football’s top player.

January 2006

•Bush formally announces that he will forgo his final year of college eligibility and enter the NFL draft.

February 2006

•During a court hearing to determine whether he had violated his probation for an earlier drug conviction, Lloyd Lake and one of his attorneys tell a judge that Lake is a partner in a fledgling sports management company, New Era Sports and Entertainment, that has an agreement with Bush.

April 2006

•USC asks the Pacific 10 Conference to investigate the living arrangements of Bush’s family after school officials are questioned by a Yahoo! Sports reporter.

•Yahoo!, followed by other media outlets, reports allegations that the Griffins lived rent-free in the Spring Valley home owned by Michaels, who was partnering with LaMar Griffin and Lake in trying to launch New Era.

•Bush acknowledges knowing Michaels and Lake but says he’s done “absolutely nothing wrong” and that his family’s living situation and his alleged involvement with the would-be sports marketers was “blown out of proportion.”

•The New Orleans Saints make Bush theƒo No. 2 pick in the NFL draft. Representing Bush is agent Joe Segal and marketing executive Mike Ornstein, not New Era. By this time, Lake is back in prison after a judge rules he has violated his probation in an assault on his girlfriend.

•Lake attorney Brian Watkins outlines the beginnings of New Era, saying LaMar Griffin approached his client in the fall of 2004 with the idea of forming a sports management company with Bush -- who was then a sophomore at USC -- as its first star client. Griffin and Lake then brought in Michaels and sports agent David Caravantes to the project. But Watkins says the partnership turned sour in December of 2005 when Bush looked elsewhere for an agent. By then, Watkins says, the Griffins owed New Era tens of thousands of dollars in cash disbursements and unpaid rent.

•Bush attorney David Cornwell says the New Era founders are trying to extort money from Bush, and he has reported them to the NFL Players Assn. and NFL Security. In a statement, the NFL says it has advised Cornwell to “consider referring these matters to law enforcement authorities.” The NFLPA says it is investigating Caravantes.

•A New Jersey-based sports memorabilia dealer says that while Bush was still playing for USC, Ornstein asked him for $500,000 to join the running back’s marketing team. Ornstein says the talks “were preliminary” and “no deal was ever consummated.”

September 2006

•Yahoo! reports that marketing agents lavished Bush with expensive hotel stays and cash while he was at USC, and that documents show Bush’s family accepted travel accommodations from an employee of Ornstein. The report also says that USC running backs coach Todd McNair knew of Bush’s relationship with the fledgling San Diego-area agents and that Bush worried that Trojans Coach Pete Carroll might find out too.

April 2007

•Bush and Michaels reach an out-of-court settlement, reportedly for between $200,000 and $300,000.

October 2007

•Lake files a civil suit against Bush and his parents, seeking to recover more than $291,600 in cash, lodging and other considerations. According to attorney Watkins, Bush used $13,000 to purchase a 1996 Chevrolet Impala registered in his name. The suit also alleges the defendants “promised repayment of monies lent and advanced” and that on Jan. 14, 2006, Bush “reaffirmed his commitment to repay Plaintiff in a written communication” but never did.

November 2007

•Lake meets with NCAA investigators, with Watkins saying beforehand that his client would provide documents and other evidence of payments and considerations made to Bush and his family.

May 2008

•Louis Johnson, a former confidant of basketball star O.J. Mayo, tells ESPN that Los Angeles-based events promoter Rodney Guillory provided the USC guard with a flat-screen television, cellphone service, cash, meals, clothes and other benefits while Mayo played for USC. (Guillory was connected to the suspension of former USC player Jeff Trepagnier in 2000-01. The school held Trepagnier out of games for a month, in part because he had accepted complimentary airline tickets, but the NCAA later cleared the player of wrongdoing.) Johnson says Guillory was acting as a representative for Bill Duffy Associates Sports Management, the agency Mayo at first signs with to represent him as a pro.

•Mayo leaves BDA and hires another agent.

June 2008

•USC officials and investigators from the NCAA and Pac-10 meet with Johnson to discuss his allegations. A Johnson attorney says hotel bills, credit card receipts and cellphone statements would soon be forwarded to the FBI.

April 2009

•The NCAA combines the Bush and Mayo investigations into one probe of the Trojans athletic program, according to Johnson’s attorneys.

May 2009

•Johnson says USC basketball Coach Tim Floyd met Guillory outside a stretch of Beverly Hills cafes on Valentine’s Day in 2007, and gave him at least $1,000 cash.

June 2009

•In a one-paragraph letter to Athletic Director Mike Garrett, Floyd resigns.

•Responding to criticism that it has failed to independently investigate or publicly address allegations that led to the NCAA probe of its athletic program, USC posts on its website video statements from Garrett and Todd Dickey, USC’s senior vice president for administration.

• Kevin O’Neill is hired to replace Floyd as USC’s basketball coach..

December 2009

•Floyd, in Los Angeles as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Hornets, says he thought Garrett abandoned him in July 2008 when an NCAA investigator advised Floyd to retain an attorney. “At that point,” Floyd said, “all support stopped. It was a bitter pill to swallow. Mike’s reputation took precedence over the truth. All loyalty, all support stopped.”

January 2010

•Because of violations related to Mayo, USC announces it will penalize its basketball team by forfeiting victories and money, forgoing postseason play in the 2009-10 season and curtailing recruiting. “When we’ve done something wrong, we have an obligation to do something about it, and that is exactly what we are doing here,” Garrett says.

•Mayo’s agent says his client did not accept gifts or money while being recruited by USC, or while playing there.

February 2010

•A USC contingent that includes President Steven Sample, Athletic Director Mike Garrett, school compliance officials, former football coach Pete Carroll and running backs coach Todd McNair and his attorney appears before the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions in Tempe, Ariz. Former basketball coach Tim Floyd also appears at the three-day hearing. David Price, the NCAA’s vice president of enforcement services, said the hearing was “the longest in my 11 years.”

March 2010

•Texas El Paso hires Floyd as basketball coach. During his introductory news conference, Floyd again denies breaking NCAA rules and adds that he left USC “because of lack of support.” ESPN.com, citing anonymous sources, reports that UTEP officials were assured before hiring Floyd that he was not facing NCAA sanctions. Floyd’s attorney, Jim Darnell, tells The Times, “We do not have any official or unofficial word from the NCAA.”

April 2010

•With depositions in Lake’s civil suit against Bush finally set to begin, an out-of-court settlement is reached. Lake was suing Bush for nearly $300,000 he alleged he gave Bush in cash and benefits while the Heisman Trophy winner was playing for the Trojans in 2004 and 2005. No details of the settlement are made public.

June 2010

The NCAA announces sweeping sanctions against USC, including a two-year ban on football bowl appearances and the reduction of 30 scholarships over three years. The Trojans are stripped of their last two victories from the 2004 season and all 12 victories from 2005. The entire athletic program is placed on four years’ probation, with the NCAA adopting penalties in men’s basketball and women’s tennis that USC had already self-imposed.

-- Gary Klein and Mike Hiserman