College football is the one major sport in this land that consistently just can't get things right. Bogged down by hypocrisy, overwhelmed by duplicity and seemingly incapable of seeing that everyone on the outside can actually see them for the unmitigated phonies that they are, the folks who run college football continue to roll along in their own blissful ignorance.

So it should be absolutely no surprise that there is a shameful movement afoot by administrators at the University of Southern California to defrock Reggie Bush of his Heisman Trophy while simultaneously attempting appeals to the NCAA to allow the school to hold onto the ill-gotten 2004 national championship that Bush helped the Trojans win.

It's almost laughable that new athletic director Pat Haden has decided to toss Bush and former basketball star O.J. Mayo under the bus as Haden tries to lessen the impact of massive NCAA sanctions against USC. Last June, the NCAA hit USC with a two-year bowl ban, four years' probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year's games for improper benefits to Bush dating to the Trojans' 2004 national championship. The school was also hit with the dreaded "lack of institutional control" following a four-year investigation that also criticized the Trojan basketball program for alleged improper benefits to Mayo, too.

Everything Haden has done since then has been damage control, making Bush out to be a lone rogue jock who single-handedly wrecked USC's football program, when in fact the NCAA seems to believe that a lot of shortcuts were made during Pete Carroll's time in charge of the scandal-stained championship program. And now there is a report out there from Yahoo! Sports that the Heisman Trust will strip Bush of his 2005 Heisman Trophy, the first time in the 75-year history of the prestigious award that a winner would have his award taken from him.

Either way they try to do it — either by the symbolic nonsense that USC would like to accomplish, or the historic move that the Heisman Trust is contemplating — taking away Bush's Heisman Trophy would be a pointless exercise. As a long-time Heisman voter, I don't see any good in stripping Bush (or anyone else for that matter) of the award for indiscretions that didn't affect his performance on the field.

This isn't like cracking down on drug cheats, who used performance enhancers to win championships, rewrite record books or gain fame and fortune. This is a far more slippery slope that the Heisman Trust would be going down. First of all, the Trust would be assuming that the majority of its voters see things their way. I have been voting for the Heisman off and on since 1981, and I take the privilege very seriously. I care deeply about the honor and don't want my vote nullified, particularly if the only measure for that nullification would be that Bush got special benefits while a student at USC.

Reggie Bush was the best college football player in the country that season, and he didn't do anything illegal to enhance his performance. If the Heisman Trust wants to start issuing retroactive punitive judgments against the members of its exclusive club, it better tread carefully because where does the punishment start and where does it stop?

The walls of the Downtown Athletic Club are covered with portraits of former winners of the Heisman Trophy who also have had scandal attached to their names either directly or indirectly. The most notorious Heisman winner of all, O.J. Simpson, didn't have to return his Heisman. Going to trial for murder apparently is acceptable, but accepting a tricked-out Chevy from an unscrupulous agent is not. Go figure.

Johnny Rodgers, the 1972 Heisman winner, was convicted of a gas station robbery while at Nebraska and in 1987 was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon. Paul Hornung, the 1956 Heisman winner, was suspended by the NFL for gambling. Charles White, the 1979 winner, was an admitted cocaine abuser while in the NFL. Billy Cannon (2½ years in federal prison for counterfeiting) and Mike Garrett (USC athletic director during this latest NCAA scandal) are two more past Heisman winners who have had their names attached to some scandal that is equal to or exceeds Bush's alleged sins.

So here's my point: taking Bush's trophy is a fool's errand. I'm not trying to minimize the creepy behavior that Bush exhibited while at USC. If you read Don Yaeger's book "Tarnished Heisman: Did Reggie Bush Turn His Final College Season Into a Six-Figure Job?" you will see plenty of evidence that he willingly broke the rules.

But I am also willing to bet that he isn't the first Heisman winner who got special favors, and anyone who thinks that he is must be incredibly naïve.

The best thing the Heisman Trust can do is realize that the winner of their prestigious award is nothing more or less than the best college football player for a particular year. Not that they've bothered, but if the good folks at the Heisman Trust ever gets around to asking me what I'd like to do with my 2005 vote, here's what I'd tell them:

I don't want to change my vote.