Championship Stripped from USC

The Bowl Championship Series announced Monday it has stripped Southern California of its football national championship in 2004, the final act in a saga tied to the ineligibility of former Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush.

This marks the first time a football or men's basketball championship has been vacated in major college sports since the polls began.

The Trojans beat Oklahoma 55-19 in the 2005 Orange Bowl to claim the title that season. Bush carried six times for 75 and had two receptions for 31 yards in victory.

Bush was later found by the NCAA to have received impermissible benefits during his playing career. Last summer, USC was banned from a bowl game for two years and given scholarship reductions as a result of the finding.

The BCS title for the 2004 season will remain vacant.

"It leaves a real void, and there is always a question of whether someone deserved that trophy," said Grant Teaff, executive director of the American Football Coaches Association, which gives its national championship to the BCS title game winner. "

And the simple answer is this is a trophy that goes to the winner of the BCS championship, and as of today, there was no winner of that ballgame."

The Associated Press said it would not change its decision on crowning Southern California national champ after the 2004 season with its news media poll.

"We'll still say it was a national championship season," USC athletics director Pat Haden said recently.

The BCS, which had said it would make no decision until the NCAA process played out, waited until the school's appeal was denied last month before its presidential oversight committee acted.

The oversight committee is chaired by Penn State's Graham Spanier and includes presidents from the 12 major conferences and Notre Dame.