The Great Debate: It’s long past due for Reggie Bush to get his Heisman back


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You may have heard in the headlines last week that former Trojan and two-time consensus All-American Reggie Bush was named to the 2023 College Football Hall of Fame Class, becoming the 35th Trojan to receive the honor.

While this should be a time for rejoicing and celebrating Bush’s storied career, one can not help but recall his infamous vacated Heisman. What a shame it is that in the lead of this story, Bush officially can’t be described as a Heisman Trophy winner because of the fact his win was taken away. Bush forfeited his trophy in 2010 before the NCAA and the Heisman Trophy Trust could officially take the award away from him.

Now, nearly 13 years since the award was stripped away and 18 years after he initially won the honor, it’s long overdue to give Bush back the trophy he rightfully deserved and wrongfully had revoked.

If you weren’t aware, Bush’s Heisman induction was nullified because the NCAA and the Pac-12 were investigating him and his family for possible rules Bush may have broken. According to the NCAA’s rules at the time, a player was not allowed to receive gifts of any kind from the school or anyone else and a player was not allowed to sign with an agent. There are many misconceptions that USC was involved in giving out these gifts, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

What happened was that an agent, Lloyd Lake, was attempting to court Bush’s family to sign with him as an agent for when Bush went to the NFL. The sports agent provided Bush’s stepfather with a house and what is reported as close to $300,000 in benefits. All of this information became public when Bush decided to sign with another agent.

The rules have changed drastically since then, and now it’s commonplace in college football for athletes to receive large amounts of money, currently riding at an average of $3,400 a month. With name, image and likeness, athletes can now do what many other athletes before them were punished for doing. 

Now obviously, Bush and his family still broke the rules that were in place at the time, no matter how inept they were. Bush’s stepfather seemed to be reaping most of the benefits from the deal with the potential agent. It’s hard to imagine that Bush wasn’t reaping at least some of the benefits, but it’s clear he did not orchestrate the whole thing.

Years later, Bush is calling for his Heisman to be returned, as are many others. When you read about Bush’s recounting of the investigation and how it happened, it seemed the NCAA had already made up its mind about taking away his Heisman. Bush says the NCAA “didn’t do their homework” in the investigation into the circumstances surrounding the gifts to his stepfather.

Whether or not the NCAA did a proper investigation is subjective, depending on whose side you take, but it shouldn’t matter either way. The Heisman Trophy is given to the player who was the most outstanding player in all of college football for a given season. And that’s exactly what Bush was in 2005, and that was reflected in the votes when he received 88% of first-place votes.

The award has never been about what the player is like or does off the field. When balloters vote for the Heisman, they account for what they did on the field. Bush had one of the greatest college football seasons of all time. He shouldn’t have the greatest college football award stripped away because of his stepfather’s misdealings with a potential agent.

Bush will now forever be enshrined in the College Football Hall of Fame as one of the sport’s greatest players. One organization recognized his greatness in college aside from the off-the-field stuff, and the NCAA should follow suit. The things the NCAA punished Bush for are no longer against the rules, so they should take that into account and correct past wrongs.

The Heisman Trophy Trust, which is entirely separate from the NCAA, said they’d restore Bush’s Heisman but only if the NCAA restores his vacated records. Once again, putting all the power in the NCAA’s hands. Mind you, the NCAA is the same organization that pushed for their athletes to be labeled as “student-athletes” so that if a college athlete ever got injured and applied for workers’ compensation, they wouldn’t get it. So will the NCAA make the correct decision and give Bush back his Heisman in a move that would favor an athlete? Sadly, probably not. Most recently in 2021, a spokesperson for the NCAA said even with the NIL rules in place, his Heisman and records won’t be considered for reinstatement.

Bush’s dominance should be respected with one of sport’s greatest honors always next to his name. It should be “Reggie Bush, Heisman Trophy winner,” not “Reggie Bush, the man who won the Heisman in 2005 before it was taken away.” 

Stefano Fendrich is a sophomore writing about his opinions on some of sport’s biggest debates in his column “The Great Debate.” He is also the Daily Trojan’s sports editor.