Five schools, including 'Bama, Gators, illegally contacted USC freshman

According to a series of tweets from ESPN.com's Joe Schad, Baxter informed his school's compliance department, that five schools illegally contacted him on June 10. The same day USC was slapped with heavy NCAA sanctions, incidentally.

The five schools are Fresno State, Oregon, Washington and Alabama and Florida.

Bryan Fischer of USC's Rivals.com site reports that, when a player from a school under a bowl ban is looking to transfer, "the athlete's institution must be notified of the recruitment and may establish reasonable restrictions." Fischer notes that the permission does not need to be in writing but needs to be made in some form, and that could be the issue in this situation.

USC has asked the Pac-10 to contact those schools accused of allegedly illegally contacting Baxter.

Shortly after the Schad's report came out, a Florida spokesperson denied any impropriety to the Orlando Sentinel. Neither Alabama nor any of the other schools named have issued denials as of this posting.