Houston Chronicle: Thad's Documentary 'Pony Excess'

[RGV Pony]

I never knew he played at Texas. Rouge booster or coaching staff cheating does not equal the classic case of lack of institutional control at SMU.

he didnt. Hence the edit and mea culpa.

Since we're having fun, though, it's your position that DuBose and whomever else was at Alabama had no idea any of that stuff was going on?

[RGV Pony]

not within the last 40 years

if you're talking John David Crow's tale(s),I know. I didnt note the chronology of the other info in the book. I just like having fun when folks talk in absolutes, e.g. "...every single recruiting story on illegal recruiting.."

[Stallion]

the distinguishing characteristic in SMU's program from what has gone on at Miami, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska during past periods is SMU didn't really have an unusually high amount of criminal behavior-ESPN couldn't really do a story like that did on Miami with the program out of control with thugs. What distinguishes SMU is we had a bunch of grownups, graduates and school leaders who should have known better but were completely out of control and embarrassed the university. Pony Excess. That's the story that should be told

[MrMustang1965]

I hope Thad's documentary 'names names'.

[RGV Pony]

the distinguishing characteristic in SMU's program from what has gone on at Miami, Colorado, Oklahoma, Nebraska during past periods is SMU didn't really have an unusually high amount of criminal behavior-ESPN couldn't really do a story like that did on Miami with the program out of control with thugs. What distinguishes SMU is we had a bunch of grownups, graduates and school leaders who should have known better but were completely out of control and embarrassed the university. Pony Excess. That's the story that should be told

agree w/ you there.

[Nacho]

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

long and interesting story about the swc from the si vault.

[EastStang]

Look gang, we deserved the penalty we got. Just because the NCAA gave out lighter sentences to other "repeat" offenders, doesn't change that we got what we deserved. Like the reformed prostitute who gets married and starts going to church, we now wish for zero tolerance and wish that the other "whores" out there would get arrested and sent to jail. I, too believe that there a a ton of filth in college recruiting (particularly basketball), and I hope that the NCAA gets the cojones to enforce their rules to the max. Alabama or Kentucky getting the death penalty today would go a long way to sending the proper message. We were too little to provide any deterrent to future rules breakers. But regardless, we deserved what we got and then we punished ourselves for 25 years afterward for no good reason.

[Nacho]

the dp hurt us no doubt but it was the unbelievable overreaction by pye and the powers that were that kept us down for so long. we are only now coming out of that long nightmare chiefly due to pye and his cronies who wanted to kill football.

[Stallion]

One of the angles this documentary reportedly will take is the "cutthroat Dallas newspaper war of that era between the Morning News and the late Dallas Times-Herald." This is one angle on which I'll admit that to a certain extent SMU was singled out. Sympathy decreases with each successive 5 probations in a little over 10 years. I've always said this factor played a huge role in SMU's problems and really the documentary would not be complete without exploring this angle. Don't know if some realize but these two newspapers got SMU(multiple), TCU, OSU, OU, UH, A&M, UT, Texas Tech all on probation in a very short time period. The Paper War helped kill the SWC but I can't really say that such coverage wasn't justified. It wasn't just SMU although I think we did take the brunt from having those newspapers in our backyard. (hope we don't see $kip Bayless-but fear we will)

[Mestengo]

$200.00 bucks says you don’t call him moron to his face.

[EastStang]

I'll bet we'll also see, Dale Hansen (I think I just tasted a little vomit in my mouth).

[Nacho]

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/ ... hesis-here

what are the odds: 0

even if they did they would have to have the dumbest president and school administration in ncaa history for it to have an impact for 20 years.

[ponyte]

http://www.cbssports.com/columns/story/13437930/death-penalty-for-oklahoma-hoops-thats-the-hypothesis-here

what are the odds: 0

even if they did they would have to have the dumbest president and school administration in ncaa history for it to have an impact for 20 years.

Looks like the Uninversity of Northeast West Virgina will get hammered for this.

[shadowman]

One of the angles this documentary reportedly will take is the "cutthroat Dallas newspaper war of that era between the Morning News and the late Dallas Times-Herald." This is one angle on which I'll admit that to a certain extent SMU was singled out. Sympathy decreases with each successive 5 probations in a little over 10 years. I've always said this factor played a huge role in SMU's problems and really the documentary would not be complete without exploring this angle. Don't know if some realize but these two newspapers got SMU(multiple), TCU, OSU, OU, UH, A&M, UT, Texas Tech all on probation in a very short time period. The Paper War helped kill the SWC but I can't really say that such coverage wasn't justified. It wasn't just SMU although I think we did take the brunt from having those newspapers in our backyard. (hope we don't see $kip Bayless-but fear we will)

One way to view it. However, a local paper's job is to cover the local stories, yes, they were probably gung ho and ruthless about it, trying to scoop each other, but there was plenty to find and it really wasn't even hidden that well. I just can't get mad at the local media for doing investigative stories on the local sports team and finding dirt. Plus, we kept it up when we knew we were under the microscope. Kinda like saying too bad for Nixon that the Washington Post was in D.C.

[Junior]

I just have never bought the "lack of institutional control" argument. We had people involved at all levels of the institution. It was total "institutional control"! We might just have misinterpreted the rules...