The NCAA won't take any action against former Washington assistant coach Tosh Lupoi on accusations he paid $4,500 in cash for tutoring services and online classes for a Huskies recruit. That means Lupoi and two separate football programs let out a deep breath on Monday: Steve Sarkisian's former school (Washington) and present school (USC).

New USC coach Steve Sarkisian can officially put the past behind him after the NCAA's latest ruling. Stacy Revere/Getty Images

From the Seattle Times, which broke the story:

Tom Hosty, the NCAA’s Director of Enforcement, notified University of Washington President Michael Young in a formal letter delivered today that the NCAA has “now completed the inquiry into those matters” and that “the enforcement staff does not believe that further action is warranted” in the investigation.

First off, USC: How's it feel to get good news from the NCAA? Weird, huh?

For this is very good news for Sarkisian, ensconced in his new digs at USC. He was Lupoi's head coach at Washington, and the NCAA has new enforcement guidelines that are supposed to hold the head coach more accountable than in the past for the "rogue" actions of his assistants. If the NCAA had found that Lupoi had provided extra benefits to the recruit in question, former Lynnwood (Wash.) High defensive lineman Andrew Basham, Sarkisian could have been exposed to sanction himself.

The same goes for Washington, which is good news for new coach Chris Petersen and his staff.

And, obviously, this is good news for Lupoi, whose college coaching future was on the line. He released a statement on Twitter Monday night.

"I want to thank the NCAA and the UW for their professionalism and thoroughness during this investigation," he wrote. "I stated from the beginning that an honest and thorough investigation would clear my name, and prove these attacks against me were untrue. The results speak for themselves."

So this means all three parties under scrutiny can move on. Lupoi, who took a buyout from Washington and wasn't hired at USC because of these accusations, now needs to find a job. Widely considered an ace recruiter, it will be interesting to see if he's quickly grabbed by another college program or if he opts to seek an NFL job.

The problem for Lupoi, of course, is just getting accused of recruiting violations is often enough to make head coaches -- and athletic directors -- wary of hiring a guy. We shall see.

Then there's the alleged whistleblower Mike Davis, a track coach and advisor to Basham, who made the accusations to the NCAA, LA Times and Seattle Times. He told the newspapers he could document $4,500 in payments from Lupoi.

The Seattle Times reported "Davis and his wife met with a UW official and two NCAA investigators for a combined five hours in Seattle on Dec. 20, two days after the allegations first surfaced in a Los Angeles Times report." It appears, however, that Davis was unable to produce compelling evidence beyond his inflammatory accusation.

So, barring the unlikely event that new evidence is produced, Lupoi, USC and Washington can tip their caps at each other and go their separate ways, (mostly) no worse from the NCAA wear and tear.