SMU Faculty Club Gets a Big 'F'

[HB Pony Dad]

From Jarrett Bell, USA TODAY

Road to Super Bowl 45 ends in… Dallas. This is like a homecoming, going back to the place where I spent the first nine years of my career after leaving Michigan State. It's always special. I still have some great friendships in Big D. Earlier this week, a few more memories came rushing back while watching ESPN's excellent documentary, Pony Excess, about the scandal at SMU during the 1980s — featuring soundbites from several former colleagues at the now-defunct Dallas Times Herald and my favorite local TV sports anchor, Channel 8's irrepressible Dale Hansen, who broke the story that resulted in SMU getting the "Death Penalty."

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football ... -cba_N.htm

Perhaps Dale owes The Thadsta a big hug for his renewed notoriety.

[Longtime]

own the heritage, it's all of ours. i for one am proud of how good we used to be, it was painful to see the fall but it has made this comeback that much sweeter...and guess what? lots other people see that too.

Again, I agree. Seeing how great we were back in the 1980s was the main positive of Pony Excess. It was powerful, visual evidence of SMU being a real college football power. Yes, we broke rules, but we also had a lot going for us besides cheating. As Pony Excess showed, other schools were cheating, too, and still couldn't win. Everyone, especially recruits, needed to be reminded there was Life Before Death.

But that's a completely different issue than what I'm talking about. It's OK to own the heritage, but there's no need to advertise the bad parts. Our detractors do that enough.

I just would like SMU to get back to being known as a school with a great football team, rather than The Only School To Get The Death Penalty. The kids and coaches who are turning this thing around don't deserve to be saddled with that stigma.

This ties into the other conversation going on in this thread. June Jones doesn't deserve to be saddled with admissions restrictions that are a lingering byproduct of our overreaction to the death penalty. The NCAA stopped punishing us years ago. Whether it's recruiting restrictions or reminding people of the death penalty, how much longer are we going to punish ourselves?