USC Suit Is Settled by Agent : Colleges: Caron agrees to pay the school $50,000, leave its athletes alone and provide records for investigation.

Sports agent Robert Troy Caron agreed Friday to pay USC $50,000 as part of a settlement of the school’s unprecedented lawsuit against him.

Caron also agreed never to offer any USC athlete money or gifts, which would be a violation of NCAA rules.

Although denying wrongdoing, Caron, 37, of Ventura, said he is accepting USC’s demands to help end the controversy surrounding his alleged dealings with the fifth-ranked Trojans and so he could avoid a protracted legal battle that might have cost $500,000.

Caron agreed to pay the settlement money within three months. He also turned over records the school had requested to complete its investigation into allegations that players had received money and other benefits from him. USC filed the suit a week ago.

“Basically, we have been able to get what we wanted within the first week of the lawsuit,” said Scott A. Edelman, USC’s attorney.

Caron said he was relieved it was over.

“But I still feel like I got beat up a bit,” he said. “If I have to say who won, I’d definitely have to say USC, because they took very decisive action, got what they wanted from the very beginning.”

Russ Sauer, Caron’s Los Angeles attorney, said the settlement benefited all parties by allowing USC to make a strong statement and having Caron agree to “not do things he wasn’t going to do anyway.”

USC will use the $50,000 for the Neighborhood Academic Initiative, which provides non-athletic scholarships and academic support for promising students at high schools near the campus.

Caron also gave school officials financial information, none of which showed that NCAA rules were broken.

In what experts said was a first-of-its-kind suit, USC claimed that Caron and his company, Pro Manage, had interfered with the school’s contractual relations with its athletes and had interfered with prospective business advantages for the university.

Caron’s attorney had planned to answer those allegations by attacking the NCAA’s strict control of athletes as a violation of antitrust laws.

Caron, a personal-injury lawyer and owner of the year-old sports agency, was not a well-known agent three weeks ago when NCAA and Pacific 10 Conference investigators went to USC with documents linking him to four Trojan players.

Three of the players--running back Shawn Walters, defensive end Israel Ifeanyi and linebacker Errick Herrin--were suspended Sept. 28. The fourth, tight end Johnny McWilliams, was cleared.

School officials are hopeful that Ifeanyi, a Nigerian national, and Herrin will be cleared to play by next week’s game at Notre Dame. Robert Lane, USC general counsel, said the school expects to petition the NCAA on Monday to restore Herrin’s eligibility.

Ifeanyi’s case could be decided early next week but is complicated by his having accepted money from fellow Nigerians in the Los Angeles area. Ifeanyi already has been suspended for three games for his involvement with Caron.

Walters, who allegedly received $15,900 in benefits from Caron, is considering leaving school to play in the Canadian Football League.

Caron, a football star in Ventura County in the 1970s, said he could not say much because of a possible criminal investigation. The Times reported earlier this week that the FBI is trying to determine whether Caron violated mail or wire fraud laws while allegedly giving money and other benefits to college athletes so he could sign them as clients when they turn professional.

USC alleged that Caron funneled the money through agent recruiters who posed as friends of the players without mentioning that they worked for Pro Manage. USC sued and was awarded a temporary restraining order, prohibiting Caron from contacting the school’s athletes. The suit was seeking a permanent injunction against Caron.

“Looking back and reflecting, there were indiscretions that shouldn’t been done, but hindsight is always 20-20,” Caron said. “Before I was an agent there was nothing wrong with me feeding a hungry kid or helping him over a rough spot in his life. But becoming an agent changed that and I need to pay closer attention to that fact.

“I spent the last 12 years doing all kinds of things for athletes and now that I’m an agent I can’t.”

Caron is not sure whether he will continue operating Pro Manage as a side business to his law practice.

“It’s safe to say the publicity will probably set them back some, but I think he intends to go forward with the business,” Sauer said, adding that Caron was prepared to close Pro Manage if that meant the athletes would not be punished.