Southern California was slapped with a two-year bowl ban last month. Now North Carolina, South Carolina and Florida are acknowledging that the NCAA has taken a look at their athletic departments.

All four situations appear to involve possible wrongdoing involving athletes and agents.

Is the NCAA suddenly cracking down on this sometimes-seamy side of college athletics?

Rachel Newman-Baker, director of agent, gambling and amateurism activities for the NCAA, won't go that far. But she said the organization believes it is making progress.

"I think people are kind of tired of sitting around and watching some of these abuses, and so I think you're starting to see that there's more and more people that are willing to talk," she said.

The NCAA clearly welcomes help from would-be whistle-blowers, in part because relationships between agents and college athletes are so difficult to police.

The NCAA bars players from striking agreements with agents if they want to retain amateur status, and there are strict guidelines against accepting benefits — well-known rules mostly because they're the ones broken in such high-profile fashion.

USC's penalties stemmed from improper benefits given to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush by fledgling sports marketers. Then, in just the last week, reports have surfaced that North Carolina and Florida's football programs were being looked at in connection with possibly improper contact with agents — and a South Carolina player was being questioned in connection with the North Carolina probe.

On Tuesday, ESPN.com reported that defending BCS champion Alabama is investigating whether a player broke NCAA rules by attending an agent's party in Miami this summer.

The USC case sent a message that there may be little leniency when it comes to these issues, outside experts say.

"We'll see what kind of evidence the NCAA is able to dig up," said Darren Heitner, CEO of Dynasty Athlete Representation. "If there's a lot of chatter and nothing gets done about it, then there will be real issues with the NCAA being a legitimate institution. They have to take this seriously."

And with the NCAA taking it seriously, schools have extra incentive to make sure their houses are in order. Southeastern Conference commissioner Mike Slive says his league brought in consultant Joe Mendes to meet with officials at all 12 schools, and several have retained him in an effort to help athletes avoid violations.