An NCAA attorney said Monday that former USC assistant football coach Todd McNair’s long-running defamation lawsuit against the organization is in its “infancy.”
“We’re probably years away from a trial,” Laura Ann Wytsma told the three-justice panel in California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal.
McNair sued in 2011 after the NCAA sanctioned him — along with USC — in the aftermath of the extra-benefits investigation focused on former Trojans running back Reggie Bush.
The latest detour in the case revolves around Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Frederick Shaller. The NCAA successfully moved in May to disqualify Shaller from overseeing the case, saying in court filings the “public perceives potential judicial bias” because the judge graduated from USC.