Southern Mehodist University Football Scandel
Abstract
In 1987 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A.) placed its harshest football punishment in history on Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.). The repeat violator rule, also known as the “death penalty,” banned the college from playing football for all of the 1987 and only allowed to play seven games in its 1988 season. They used S.M.U. as an example of what could happen when a college excessively violates N.C.A.A. regulations. The death penalty was the last option for the university because they were already on probation for past major violations with N.C.A.A. ("SMU Football Gets," 1987, p. 1C). The only thing left of S.M.U. after receiving ‘death’ was pick up the pieces and they are still trying to put the sport back together after so many years.
To fully understand the 1987 “death penalty” and the Southern Methodist University football scandal, you have to start back in 1981. That year was the rise of the city of Dallas, Texas and the oil industry in the surrounding area. It became the melting pot for Texas alumni and many started to brag to each other about where they went and how their football team was there. Football was as important as the weather at that time in the south and the alumni’s decided that they would just “buy” players to play at their colleges to create a winning team. S.M.U. started paying players the most money to come to their college and their head coach Ron Meyer was the first to personally recruit the top players (Matula, 2010).
One of the people Meyer personally recruited was Eric Dickerson, a running back and the most sought out player in Texas. Another was Craig James, a tailback, who was also high on the most wanted player list. The two would come together and later be called the “Pony Express” (Pomerantz, 1982, p. D4). When signing day was over the college had the best recruiting class in all of S.M.U. history (Matula, 2010).
At the time in Texas, the Texas State Longhorns was the ultimate
In 1987 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N.C.A.A.) placed its harshest football punishment in history on Southern Methodist University (S.M.U.). The repeat violator rule, also known as the “death penalty,” banned the college from playing football for all of the 1987 and only allowed to play seven games in its 1988 season. They used S.M.U. as an example of what could happen when a college excessively violates N.C.A.A. regulations. The death penalty was the last option for the university because they were already on probation for past major violations with N.C.A.A. ("SMU Football Gets," 1987, p. 1C). The only thing left of S.M.U. after receiving ‘death’ was pick up the pieces and they are still trying to put the sport back together after so many years.
To fully understand the 1987 “death penalty” and the Southern Methodist University football scandal, you have to start back in 1981. That year was the rise of the city of Dallas, Texas and the oil industry in the surrounding area. It became the melting pot for Texas alumni and many started to brag to each other about where they went and how their football team was there. Football was as important as the weather at that time in the south and the alumni’s decided that they would just “buy” players to play at their colleges to create a winning team. S.M.U. started paying players the most money to come to their college and their head coach Ron Meyer was the first to personally recruit the top players (Matula, 2010).
One of the people Meyer personally recruited was Eric Dickerson, a running back and the most sought out player in Texas. Another was Craig James, a tailback, who was also high on the most wanted player list. The two would come together and later be called the “Pony Express” (Pomerantz, 1982, p. D4). When signing day was over the college had the best recruiting class in all of S.M.U. history (Matula, 2010).
At the time in Texas, the Texas State Longhorns was the ultimate