Monday marked the end of former USC running back Reggie Bush’s forced disassociation with the school as sanctioned by the NCAA. The organization found in 2010 that Bush and other USC athletes, including basketball star O.J. Mayo, had received impermissible gifts from agents while playing for the team. His disassociation was one of many punishments handed down to the school and the players involved, but Bush’s was the highest-profile case because of his transcendent ability.

The disassociation was initially permanent, but the NCAA’s Committee on Infractions later passed a rule change that reduced any disassociation to 10 years. So the university jumped at the chance to reassociate with one of its program’s defining stars.

But the term “disassociation” can be confusing for those who aren’t aware of the NCAA’s specific bylaws on the topic. What did the sanctions really represent over the last decade, and what does the end of this ugly chapter in USC’s history mean for the university’s relationship with Bush moving forward?

A Vacant Spot in History

A school disassociating from an athlete essentially means it has to do the same thing the NCAA does in reference to that person: act like he never existed as a player. USC was required to wipe Bush’s name and likeness from official records and its campus, just like the NCAA revoked his Heisman Trophy.

That included forfeiting wins in all games Bush participated in from December 2004 through the 2005 season, including the 2004 national championship.

The school wasn’t allowed to post his photo or highlights on social media, reference him in any accounts of the team’s history or acknowledge that Bush had been a student athlete at USC. It certainly couldn’t use him and the admiration so many young athletes had for him as a recruiting tool, as many schools do with their famous alums (including USC in other cases).

There were some areas where the school came into close contact with Bush. The university worked with Fox and the NCAA to make sure Bush, a game analyst for Fox, could cover the Trojans’ game against Utah last season in Bush’s first appearance at the Coliseum since his dissociation while complying with the sanctions.

In addition, school officials could still mention him, as evidenced by references to Bush’s disassociation made by Sports Information Director Tim Tessalone and multiple athletic directors since the punishment began. Most of those mentions carried the connotation of wanting to end the disassociation and appreciation for Bush’s importance to USC football — for example, Tessalone has said that the university has wanted to bring Bush back to campus and appealed the permanent disassociation on multiple occasions.

And therein lied the truth of the matter: Bush would always be linked to USC, whether it was officially recognized or not.

Moving Forward

It’s impossible to know how Bush and the university truly feel toward one another — that’s the inherent problem when one side is forced to mostly act like it never had a relationship with the other. It’s hard to imagine that Bush would be able to just jump right back into the culture of the program after being separated from it for a decade.

However, most indications suggest that both sides are fond of the other. Along with Tessalone’s statement about the university’s wish to reassociate, athletic director Mike Bohn told The Athletic in February that the people around him have spoken highly of the former Trojan tailback.

Bush, on the other hand, maintained he had “great love” for USC shortly after the punishments came down, but has not said much about his relationship with the school in recent years, which makes sense given the disassociation. However, if his response to Markese Stepp’s touchdown against Utah is any indication, Bush still has love for his alma mater.

Both sides will essentially have to build from the ground up in terms of how they actually interact with each other, but no amount of sanctions could truly separate USC and Reggie Bush. After a decade spent apart, official sanctions no longer stand in the way of the two making up for lost time.