ROSE BOWL NOTEBOOK : Rumors of NFL Salary Cap Create Problems

In the weeks leading up to Monday’s Rose Bowl game, reporters have approached Trojans Mark Carrier and Junior Seau to talk, ostensibly, about the game, injuries or strategy.

It has been somewhat of a diversionary tactic.

Sooner or later, the reporters manage to steer the conversation around to The Question: Will the pair, having enjoyed excellent, high-profile seasons, turn their backs on their final season of eligibility and opt for the NFL draft?

Carrier seems to have shut the door on that option. Seau has hung a sign on the door that reads: See me after the Rose Bowl.

Their coach, Larry Smith, is not so evasive. He has a few questions of his own and he wants them answered now, but not by Seau, the linebacker named Pacific 10 defensive player of the year, nor by Carrier, an All-American defensive back.

Smith’s target is the NFL. His biggest concern is the rumor of a salary cap that could be instituted by the league next year. Since it would limit the amount first-year players could be offered, there is added pressure on players such as Carrier and Seau to sign now.

“That is a real festering problem,” Smith said, “this talk of a salary cap. Nobody has really come out and said it’s going to be or it’s not going to be. I had a pro scout tell me as many as 50 juniors were going to think about turning pro if they put in a salary cap. Then, you’ve got agents out here who are telling everything in the book to try to get guys to change.

“If you have 40 to 50 juniors come out this year, there’ll be 10 or 15 sophomores next year. I think the NFL has got to do something. If they want to continue their relationship with college football, they had better get their heads out of the sand and take a stand. They have dumped it in our lap, and I don’t think that’s fair. We have cooperated with them in every way possible. We basically have been a farm system for them.

“There have to be some guidelines set. I would much rather have (the NFL) say, OK, juniors can be drafted. Just like they do in baseball. If they can sign them, then they sign them. If they can’t, then (the juniors) come back and play their last year, finish their degree and all that kind of stuff. That way, there would be something set.”

At best, that’s not in the immediate future. The careers of Carrier and Seau are. So where does Smith think they stand?

“We haven’t tried to make a decision,” Smith said. “When the bowl is over, we (he and Carrier and Seau) will try to get the facts and do what’s best for the players. I don’t know if the NFL can give us the facts or if they even know.”

According to Carrier, it doesn’t matter.

“I’m just learning about the NFL,” he said. “I haven’t talked to any agents or picked one. My decision is, I will be back in school. There’s not enough job security for me (in the NFL). By getting my degree, at least, I’ll know that is something they can’t take away from me in case of bodily injury.”

Carrier, however, wouldn’t totally shut the door.

“If there’s a re-evaluation,” he said, meaning perhaps the prospect of becoming a high first-round pick, “I would sit down and talk it over with my family.”

Seau said: “I’m a USC Trojan come Jan. 1, and we’ll see from there on, but I’m leaning on coming back to school. They can say all they want, but they don’t know the truth. The truth is, once you put your name in the draft, whoever gets you will give you as much as they want to give you. I want to have more control on that than I do this year, more of a background and a base as a player, a person and a mature young man coming out.

“A big factor for me to stay is to help lead our team. That’s why I came to USC, to lead. I feel I have leadership qualities to help some of the people who have helped me.”

But among those people who have helped him is his father, Tiaina, who has a heart problem. And there’s the matter of four brothers and two sisters. A big contract would be significant for the family.

“I could wait,” Seau said. “My father could wait. Everyone is throwing everything at us at once and it’s looking good, but I know it’s just a picture for now.”

A picture that remains fuzzy at best.

USC will put its first-string defense on the field Monday for the first time this season.

Don Gibson, No. 1 on the depth chart at nose guard, tore knee ligaments during practice in August and didn’t play a down all season.

He has continued his rehabilitation program, is practicing and is expected to play against Michigan.

Times staff writer Mal Florence contributed to this story.