Probing USC

Your continued attempts to find something to tarnish USC athletics [May 31] are growing desperate. The latest attempt to make the problem seem bigger than it is is embarrassingly juvenile and falls short of even yellow journalism. I read the story and I read the column cackling “off with their heads” silliness and just don’t see that you have much evidence, if any, of wrongdoing by the university. Uncorroborated, self-serving allegations make up just about all of your “investigation.”

This stuff makes Facebook look reliable.

Glen Mowrer

Santa Barbara

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When was the last time a serious Times reader connected USC team sports with “rules,” “ethics” or “integrity”? Maybe back when Jerry Brown was governor.

Winning programs alone matter. Happy alumni. Bigger donors. More players drafted by the pros. Stronger recruiting classes. Good jobs for the tutors paid to teach the athletes to spell rules, ethics, integrity. Sports Valhalla.

Steve Sample and Mike Garrett, like Captain Renault, must be shocked, shocked that multiple, recurring rule violations happen at USC. Your winnings, sirs.

Lee Moldaver

Santa Barbara

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While I applaud the fact that academics at USC have improved under Steven Sample within his tenure, he and others in the administration forget one important thing: Perception is reality.

Sample dragging his feet with an internal proactive investigation on allegations of lack of institutional control within its athletic department creates a public perception that USC runs a dirty program. Taking a back seat to the ongoing NCAA investigation speaks volumes, and not taking a lead in the matter indicates its own version of “lack of institutional control.” This public perception only hurts his and the university’s reputation athletically and the integrity it has built academically.

Mike Loomis

Monrovia