The NCAA has informed the University of Southern California that the school will receive a two-year bowl ban and the loss of over 20 scholarships as part of sanctions levied against the university after a four-year investigation into allegations made against their football and basketball programs.

Current New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush and Memphis Grizzlies guard O.J. Mayo were at the center of the investigations.

USC has not had an official comment on the sanctions, and won't until the NCAA formally announces them, which is expected to occur at some point on Thursday.

It's hard to be surprised when hearing that USC violated NCAA rules, and are about to be hammered for it. There have been whispers throughout the last five, six years that there were some shady dealings going on inside that program, particularly in respect to Bush, just as there are shady dealings in and around most major college football and basketball programs in the country.

Until these athletes are compensated more in line with the revenue they're generating for the NCAA, the schools, shoe companies, and coaches, none of that is going to change.

As for USC, the suddenness in which coach Pete Carroll bolted a cushy college gig to turn around a Seattle Seahawks franchise that had gone 9-23 the past two years was a sign that something was about to go down. That Seahawks Senior Vice-President Lance Lopes is the brother of Steve Lopes, USC's Senior Associate Athletic Director, and that Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke is the brother of Tim Leiweke, President and CEO of Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment giant AEG, likely are not mere coincidences, either. Carroll, and the many former USC staffers who have followed him up I-5, knew this day was coming.

And we knew that they knew this day was coming the moment Carroll was hired to coach the Seahawks.