God's Gift to USC? Now Div I Ballin' [Lil'] Romeo Miller

Is Romeo Miller God's Gift to USC?

Maybe it shouldn't be surprising that South Central's own SC has officially cornered the market on the rapper-baller.

The artist formerly known as Lil' Romeo is officially going to be a Trojan come fall of 2008.

Dude. It's hard to decide whether this was a better *business* decision on the part of USC sports or for Romeo/his genius dad Master P. In USC's court, can you imagine what this is going to do for ticket sales? Merchandise sales? Half-time shows? Team after-parties?

Like Jay-Z, Master P (& maybe his prodigy Romeo, too) is not a businessssssman, he's [they're] a BUSINESS, ... MAN.

Not only does Romeo get a full athletic scholarship (like he needed the $$???) and a chance to "focus on his studies & basketball rather than music/Hollywood".... he also gets the opportunity to:
- slam dunk the perfect PR set-up for the May 22 release of his upcoming album Gumbo Station, which maybe not so coincidentally is reported to feature Dr. Dre production, as well as high profile guest spots from people like Rihanna & Lil Wayne
- sub in four years of true-South-Central street cred for his Beverly Hills High past, and
- hedge his music/balling bets with an education from the best film school in the country.

I don't know....my bro-in-law Geoff, a die-hard SC alum & fan, is skeptical about how Romeo's skills will hold up on the Div I courts. Forgetting about revenue benefits for a moment, did USC's NCAA tourney hopes for those 4 years just get stuffed by Master P & Romeo? Or will SC have the last laugh, as upon closer reading of the press coverage, it seems Romeo came in a package with his best friend Comptonite Demar Derozan, #46 in Scout.com's top 100 of the recruiting class of 2008? Geoff predicts that, overall, this SC news will help make him a repeat winner of Peter's NCAA pool in the years to come!