Revisiting SMU and The Death Penalty

With the start of the college football season, and the news of Michigan football receiving scrutiny for alleged violations under coach Rich Rodriguez , lets go back more than twenty years to 1987 and 1988 when Southern Methodist University had no football season to start at all.

SMU had been a long time member of the Southwest Conference (The SWC is now defunct, but was made up of all Texas Universities with the exception of the University of Arkansas). The SWC had a reputation of being like the wild west in terms of recruiting college football players, “anything goes” with many schools continually crossing over ethical lines.

Competing in the SWC was always tough for SMU, despite that fact SMU had a storied history in college football with a National Championship in 1935 and a Heisman Trophy winner in 1949 by the name of Doak Walker. During the years from 1980 to 1985 the Mustangs recorded a record of 55-14-1 with three SWC titles. Needless to say, when a program like SMU suddenly competes with powers like Texas, Arkansas, and Texas A&M, it sometimes causes one to wonder how they are doing it. Well, SMU was competing, but with the help of a slush fund to entice players to go to SMU and then to take care of them while at the school.

What makes this a story to give greater thought to was that in 1985 SMU was placed on three years of probation by the NCAA for recruiting violations. So, when allegations arose in 1986 of payments to players continuing, it set in motion the process that would eventually cost SMU its football program. Most notably, Bill Clements, who was to become Governor of Texas, will always be remembered for his deciding not to stop the under-the- table payments to players because we had, “a payroll to meet”.

Tomorrow:  The NCAA and the Death Penalty