Penn State got its sanctions reduced midway through its punishment and Miami got a fairly light penalty given the widespread cheating it was caught with, so USC is left wondering how they have been left out.

According to USA Today University of Southern California athletic director Pat Haden said the school felt from the beginning their penalties were too harsh. He also said the sanctions handed down to the University of Miami backed up his point of view.

"We have always felt that our penalties were too harsh," USC Athletic Director Pat Haden said in a statement Tuesday. "This decision (on Miami) only bolsters that view. Beyond that, we have no further comment."

USC was penalized for football running back Reggie Bush and basketball guard O.J. Mayo receiving improper benefits from an agent while still students. Additionally, the women's tennis team was also found at fault for similar violations.

USC football was forced to vacate their wins from all of 2005 and their final two wins of the 2004 national championship season. The team was also banned from playing in any bowl games in 2010 and 2011. Lastly, the team was docked 30 scholarships over three years. The basketball team had to vacate all its wins in the 2007-2008 season and was forced to sit out postseason play in 2010.

While a member of the New Orleans Saints, Bush had to forfeit his Heisman Trophy, which the award's trustees decided to leave vacant for that year. The Football Writers Association of America even went so far as to not recognize USC as the 2004 national champion and, in June 2011, the BCS stripped the team of that very title.

Yahoo Sports writer Charles Robinson brought the improper benefits scandal at the University of Miami to light in Aug. 2011. He reported that Nevin Shapiro, a former booster for the Hurricanes football team, provided benefits for players on the team including cash, prostitutes, access to his mansions and yacht, trips to five-star dinners and nightclubs, bounties for on-field play and others.

The New York Times reported that the NCAA recently concluded its own investigation and announced the sanctions Tuesday. They found the program to have participated in illegal activity for ten years but only placed them on probation for three years, took away nine scholarships and did not ban the team from any bowl games.

Haden had previously expressed his displeasure with the NCAA when it lessened Penn State's sanction for the Jerry Sandusky scandal and declined to do the same for USC. Now with most of their sanctions out of the way, the only thing that can be restored are wins and accolades. But the NCAA seems to have no intention of doing so for the Trojans.

"We don't do a great deal of comparative analysis," Britton Banowsky, chairman of the NCAA's infractions committee, told USA Today.