Pete Thamel gives additional details on tampering accusation against USC with Jordan Addison

While speaking on the Paul Finebaum Show on Monday, analyst Pete Thamel broke down the concerns Pitt has with potential tampering by USC. Reports emerged over the weekend that star receiver Jordan Addison was possibly signing an NIL deal in Los Angeles as part of alleged recruitment from USC. While Pitt coach Pat Narduzzi has not filed any official complaint yet, the coach allegedly reached out to USC coach Lincoln Riley and expressed his displeasure with their program.

Over the past week or so, there have been rumors surfacing that Pittsburgh standout wide receiver Jordan Addison is going to soon enter his name into the NCAA Transfer Portal – and there have reportedly been plenty of schools contacting him in an effort to try and get him to commit to them. After Addison put up 1,593 yards and 17 touchdowns last season, it makes complete sense why he would be such a hot name in the portal.

The problem is — coaches cannot reach out to players in recruiting efforts until their entry into the portal. The deadline for requesting entry into the portal was 11:59 ET on May 1, but schools have two business days of time to enter the athlete into the portal.

Pitt believes tampering occurred with USC

“Multiple phone calls from Pat Narduzzi to Lincoln Riley regarding this Jordan Addison situation,” explained Thamel. “And the general notion at Pitt is that some type of tampering has occurred. To my knowledge there’s been no specific evidence of that yet. There’s a whole complicated underworld that is now kinda overworld a little bit. Likely the mechanics of all this went through all that. It is a complex situation, there’s a lot of moving parts. I’m not in any position to predict the outcome right now.”

Finebaum asked Thamel if this possible allegation by Pitt and Narduzzi was going to result in anything happening to USC, questioning the NCAA’s willingness to hand down any punishments if evidence is presented. Finebaum himself came out as critical of the NCAA’s handling of the new NIL and transfer portal recruiting, stating that the NCAA has “legalized cheating” earlier on Monday.

“Clearly the NCAA couldn’t do anything with wiretaps, right,” joked Thamel. “It has to be a helpless feeling for Narduzzi to feel like something’s happened because there’s decades of history of NCAA enforcement coming up short.”