Joe McKnight infamously wrote “I Need” and “$” into his eye black at USC. Apparently, someone at the Los Angeles County assessor’s office listened. A corruption investigation has revealed emails indicating former appraiser Scott Schenter provided improper benefits to McKnight and former USC basketball player Davon Jefferson.

The NCAA investigated McKnight’s relationship with Schenter in 2009 – when McKnight was seen driving Schenter’s $27,000 Land Rover – and found no wrongdoing. The emails reveal another car, a Chevy Monte Carlo, registered to Schenter in McKnight’s possession and a receipt for a $625 flight from LA to McKnight’s home town of New Orleans with “Joe McKnight” listed as the passenger.

Whether the NCAA opts to respect its own rules is always an open question, though the potential violations would fall within the organization’s four-year statute of limitations and USC would be a “repeat violator” in both sports. USC AD Pat Hayden has pledged to “thoroughly investigate” and “take any and all necessary actions.”

[Photo via Presswire]