Pete Carroll: NCAA made 'terrible error' in USC sanctions

Pete Carroll had a 83-19 record in nine seasons as head coach at Southern California. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll ripped the NCAA for the way it sanctioned USC's football and basketball programs, saying the organization made a "terrible error" in punishing the school.

USC was hit with a two-year bowl ban and lost 30 scholarships over a three-year period because of extra benefits received by former running back Reggie Bush (and his family) and former basketball player O.J. Mayo.

Carroll, who coached the Trojans from 2001 to 2009, spoke at an event at the USC campus on Wednesday night and went all in on his feelings about the NCAA.

“We made some mistakes along the way but I don’t think it was dealt with properly,” he said, via the Los Angeles Times. “I thought it was dealt with poorly and very irrationally and done with way too much emotion instead of facts.”

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Carroll left USC after the 2010 season after leading the Trojans to two national championships and seven BCS bowl appearances.

“I just think it was not handled well," he added of the NCAA. "I sat in the meetings. I listened to the people talk. I listened to the venom that they had for our program," Carroll said. "They didn’t understand a thing about what we were all about….They never were here.  And they didn’t want to hear it. They never even got close to hearing what we're all about…. “They tried to make it out like it was something else. They made a terrible error.”