Reggie Bush was 18 inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame

Reggie Bush, whose 2005 Heisman Trophy win at Southern California was vacated due to NCAA violations, is among 18 players in the latest College Football Hall of Fame class announced Monday.

Florida quarterback Tim Tebow, who won the Heisman in 2007, was also inducted into the Hall by the National Football Foundation along with Syracuse’s Dwight Freeney; Luke Kuechly of Boston College; LaMichael James of Oregon; and Michael Bishop of Kansas State.

Bush played on two national championship teams with USC in 2003 and 2004 and led the Trojans to another title in 2005, rushing for 1,740 yards, an 8.7-perg average and 19 touchdowns.

He became the second overall pick in the NFL Draft by the New Orleans Saints after a college career in which he rushed for 3,169 yards over three seasons, averaging 7.3 yards per carry and scoring 42 touchdowns.

The NCAA later investigated USC and Bush and determined that he and his family had received unauthorized benefits from a marketing agent while playing for the Trojans.

USC was heavily penalized by the NCAA in 2010, and the Heisman Trust later vacated Bush’s Heisman win and asked him to return his trophy.

Among the NCAA penalties, USC suspended Bush for 10 years. That punishment was overturned in 2020, and the school welcomed Bush back.

The Heisman win will be vacated and will only be reinstated if the NCAA reconsiders the penalties against Bush. The NCAA has said it will not re-evaluate the old violations, despite requests to do so in light of today’s less restrictive rules governing compensation for athlete endorsement deals.

Although Bush is still not a Heisman winner in the official record books, he will be a Hall of Famer.

The National Football Foundation, which runs College Hall, has been more lenient in recent years with players and coaches caught up in NCAA scandals.

Former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel was selected in 2015. The school he led was forced to vacate the national championship in 2011 after misleading NCAA investigators.

SMU coach Eric Dickerson waited decades before being inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2021. Dickerson was never found to have violated NCAA rules, but his association with the program, which was shut down in the mid-1980s for violations that extended beyond his tenure. school was enough to keep him away.

The remainder of the most recent College Hall of Famers class are: Eric Berry of Tennessee; Robert Gallery of Iowa; Derrick Johnson of Texas; Bill Kollar of Montana State; Jeremy Maclin of Missouri; Terance Mathis of New Mexico; Bryant McKinnie of Miami; Corey Moore of Virginia Tech; Michael Stonebreaker of Notre Dame; Troy Vincent of Wisconsin; Brian Westbrook of Villanova; and DeAngelo Williams of Memphis.

The four coaches who will be inducted into the Hall of Fame in December are Monte Cater of Shepherd; Roy Kramer, the Central Michigan coach turned Southeastern Conference commissioner; Mark Richt, who coached Georgia and Miami; and triple-option guru Paul Johnson, who had stints at Georgia Southern, Navy and Georgia Tech.