If SMU, then why not Baylor...

[RonaldRaygun]

I dont understand why when SMU comitts the crime of handing money under the table they get the death penalty while schools like Alabama and now Baylor who are MORE than guilty of much more than SMU EVER did get probation... We don't even know how far this thing with baylor goes. IMO they deserve death.. If you guys got it so should they. I can only hope that they remove them from the conference, I am an Aggie myself and cannot stand baylor.. Good luck this year Stangs... I wish nothing but good for guys as what the NCAA did to you should never had been done.. The death penalty should be used for programs like Alabama who violate violate violate and never stop. OR schools that have SERIOUS infractions like i believe will come out of the baylor controversy...

[Charleston Pony]

you must b a very young Aggie, because it doesn't appear you are aware that A$M was also death penalty eligible in the years since SMU got nailed with that penalty.

The bottom line is that the NCAA has pretty much acknowledged they underestimated the severity of that penalty and they will go out of their way to avoid handing it down again. It's the same old story, i.e., the school cooperated and is making every effort to correct the errors of their ways.

In the year since SMU went down, we could have seen the death penalty at places like A$M, Florida, Clemson, Alabama and several other big time programs. Things woud have to be pretty outrageous for it to happen.

Look at how easily the most recent Notre Dame scandal was swept under the rug. They basically had a woman who was employed by a huge ND supporter who "accompanied" players on nice vacation type trips...they had her take the fall and insulated the booster and the program. The bottom line is that the NCAA doesn't want the Golden Dome tarnished. I don't think they will do anything to hurt the Big XII, either. Banning Baylor from post-season amounts to what???

[Sam I Am]

Nobody should ever want the death penalty in college sports to be used again except in really extreme circumstances, and Baylor is not such a case. The Aggies under Jackie Sherril were so dirty that it took years of bland R.C. Slocum for people to forget the harm that had been done.

[EastStang]

By all accounts Baylor is "cooperating", SMU did not cooperate and that's why we had the book thrown at us. However, Baylor is "death penalty eligible" in that they were on probation for tennis violations in 2000. I think that the self-sanctions will be accepted, just as the NCAA accepted Maryland's self-sanctions unless more violations surface in other programs.

[ponyte]

And just this spring Arkansas got a very light slap on the wrist for a potential death penalty scenario.

The NCAA will not hit a BCS school with the death penalty but heaven help a Centenary College if they get caught. Nobody has heard of Centenary and nobody cares and that would make Centenary a perfect death penalty candidate. Then the NCAA could pound its chest like Tarzan and claim what a ferocious organization it is.

One other consideration, when Congress has its hearings about the BCS, some Congressman (woman) could ask the NCAA some embarrassing questions about its standards of enforcement. I doubt it but it could happen.

[Guest]

In light of the after-effects the DP had at SMU (nobody thought the program would be crippled as much as it was), the DP never will get handed down again.

[Stampede]

EastStang, you are wrong ....SMU did cooperate with the NCAA and did, in fact, turn over all evidence to NCAA (including booster involvement) The aggies, under Sherrill, provided a 500+ page document which provided such detail as what "Revilee", their mascot eats for dinner. Total stonewall at aTm while SMU banned the boosters and offered some most evidence to the NCAA. TCU copperated also and it did not help with their sentence in that case either.

[EastStang]

That's not what I heard. I heard that it was only after we were in the soup we cooperated. Until then Clement & Co. stonewalled them every chance they could. We got what we deserved at the time. I agree that Sherrill was probably worse (and the NCAA didn't have the stones to whack the Aggies), but I think that Baylor at this point has been more forthcoming early than we were, but if more facts dribble out that could change. We were the NCAA guinea pig on their failed get tough experiment. The other thing to keep in mind is that the NCAA has thrown out the death penalty several times in basketball. Tulane(point-shaving/self-imposed), Manhatten (recruiting) and Centenary (recruiting) come to mind.

[bhop]

Well, I don't remember SMU doing much "cooperating" until Bobby Collins was literally confronted on TV with direct evidence of payouts to players. I remember SMU's attitude towards the whole enforcement process as being more of a negotiation, rather than accepting responsibility for our actions. Frankly, having been on probation twice in the 1980s, by 1986-1987 the NCAA was rightly fed up with our bull****.

That being said, a $65,000 slush fund to pay numerous players over a period of several years is certainly not as bad as a $110,000 payout to a single high school coach to obtain the services of one player (Alabama). But, the enforcement process goes through peaks and valleys. The effect the DP had on us I think caused the NCAA to go light on schools for a good 15 years. Now, however, with the recent rash of MAJOR violations at several schools, we may see an upswing in the severity of penalties.

[No Cal Pony]

Yea, we'll see a change in penalizing big programs the day monkeys fly out of my butt. ncaa is a joke. We just have to take care of ourselves.

Go Ponies!

[Mike Damone]

Agreed, it will never happen again. Alabama paid $200,000 to a high schol coach and got the only serious probabtion I've see in years - no post season play. The last school I remember that was banned from TV was the undefeated Auburn team around ten years ago.

But to be quite honest, if SMU got caught today doing what we did 15-20 years ago, I don't believe we'd get the death penalty. They saw what happened to our program will never make that choice again. I read that something around 22 programs have been eligible for the death penalty since we received it and none have gotten it. Not even close.

[Southland]

RonaldRaygun...

Mr. President, the networks built in rights reductions in the early 1990s if conference members lose (through probation) the capability of television exposure.

That is why no one loses TV anymore.

[EastStang]

Remember also, the NCAA doesn't control the TV contract anymore, the conference do through the BCS. So the NCAA can't take away television anymore.

[GoRedGoBlue]

oh yes they can, but won't