Ruling on Williams Is Right on the Money

As a die-hard Trojan fan until they lose, I couldn’t be happier with the NCAA’s decision to give USC student Mike Williams all the time he will need this semester for homework, library study and class projects.

Everyone wins with this decision:

* UCLA no longer has to worry about USC scoring in triple figures.

* Williams stays in school and takes a course on how to manage the millions the NFL will be giving him after next year’s draft; he already has the experience of taking money from an agent and can start doing so again today -- if not last night; he stays healthy and probably gets a new car to get himself to class on time; he improves his strength and conditioning the way the NFL likes it, which gives him a chance to go higher in the draft; and he doesn’t have to play college football every Saturday and fake that he’s excited to be there when we know he’d rather be playing on Sunday.

* Coach Pete Carroll can appear upset, telling his players, “You see what I mean, everyone is out to get us this year; each one of you is now going to have to play that much better to make up for this loss.” He also can continue to coach real college players; he hasn’t always been at his best working with the pros, which might explain why he told Williams a few weeks ago not to bother coming to practice anymore. Williams wasn’t even reporting to practice as a cheerleader, or as an interested teammate. I have a feeling Trojan fans cared more about his return than he did.

* USC can devote all of its Heisman Trophy campaign to Matt Leinart now without worrying about a split vote.

* If USC gets upset, everyone can blame it on the NCAA.

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IN THURSDAY’S Times, Williams said he has been going to classes, and “actually, it’s more fun than you would ever imagine.”

Had I stopped reading right there, I’d have taken it for granted that USC is so good and UCLA stinks, because UCLA’s student athletes go to class, and USC’s athletes don’t, but Williams added: “It’s cool, because you get up and you go to class and don’t have this big chunk of your day taken from you because of football.”

I’m still not sure if that tells us whether USC athletes are going to classes or not, but what do I care as long as they’re crushing everyone come the weekend.

Williams made it clear he’d rather be playing football, just as he made it clear earlier he’d rather be playing football and getting paid for it, but he said going to class without football interruption is “definitely a new experience. It’s cool.”

It will be interesting to see whether he shows up for class today, but whatever happens, it’s only a brief respite before he’s working full time and making millions. And isn’t that why everyone goes to college?

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NIGHTMARE ALERT! You know that front-page story about the NFL talking to Anaheim about building a stadium? Well, here’s what wasn’t mentioned in that story. Alex Spanos, the elder Goof who owns the Chargers, served as campaign chairman and reportedly funded Curt Pringle’s losing campaign for state treasurer several years back for $450,000. He also contributed to Pringle’s successful campaign to become mayor of where? Anaheim.

I don’t know Pringle, but I know the Spanos Goofs, and if Pringle welcomes the opportunity to spend quality time with them, yikes!

The Chargers have worked out a new deal with San Diego allowing them to move after the 2008 season. If they’re unable to remain in San Diego, a move to Anaheim would give them the opportunity to fool themselves into thinking (the two) Charger fans who live in San Diego’s affluent North County might follow. Scary stuff.

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HERE’S SOME scary news: NFL executives have apparently told groups here that the NFL will finance the construction of a stadium anywhere in the L.A. area or cover the cost of construction to get it started.

In the past the league offered a $150-million loan toward construction, but the league is saying now that it will cover the cost of stadium construction, which could be as much as $500 million. I wonder whether that’s news to NFL owners, who as far as I know have not voted on such league policy. (You can bet Al Davis will be reading The Times this morning. Hi, Al, how does it feel to be trapped in Oakland?)

If it’s true, and the NFL is going to fund the whole thing, then the NFL will own the stadium here, and more than ever, try to dictate the terms of surrender to L.A. on where, when and how football returns to L.A.

And if that’s true, I don’t think the NFL will make its initial return in Anaheim. The Coliseum still leads the pack, and although it’s ludicrous to believe the NFL when it says two teams might move here, it only makes sense if a team moves to the Coliseum first for the 2008 season, and then a second team follows to Anaheim, which brings us back to the Spanos Goofs, who will be free after 2008.

Georgia Frontiere followed by the Goofs; the only thing to top it all off would be Donald Sterling finally making the move to the Arrowhead Pond.

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MORE SCARY stuff: We haven’t seen the last of all these tedious NFL stories in the newspaper.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from John Dunn:

“As you know, the Bruins are picked by the media to finish at the bottom of the Pac-10. Do you concur with this assessment? If the Chargers were in the Pac-10, where do you think they would finish?”

I believe Coach Karl Dullard’s rallying cry this year should be: “Let’s try to win more games than the Chargers.” (Four ought to do it.)

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T.J. Simers can be reached at [email protected]. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.