ABC

[Junior]

congrats, bro.

[Stallion]

The reason this story was picked up by ESPN was because it was the most egregious, brazen abuse of institutional control over an athletic department in modern sports history-I have little doubt this story will demonstrate quite clearly how poorly our "leaders" handled the entire situation. There are no comparable institutional failures.

[HB Pony Dad]

The reason this story was picked up by ESPN was because it was the most egregious, brazen abuse of institutional control over an athletic department in modern sports history-I have little doubt this story will demonstrate quite clearly how poorly our "leaders" handled the entire situation. There are no comparable institutional failures.

That is total speculation not based in fact!

ESPN is in the business to sell advertising and keep eyeballs on their product.

They obviously picked up the piece because it is a compelling story not to denigrate our "leaders".

Do you really believe ESPN would carry the story after the Heisman award, and then follow it up with an additional replay on their over the air broadcast mother network ABC, just to point out how naughty SMU was/is?

Sometimes I really do believe you have an anti-SMU bias which I can't quite understand.
The story of collegiate cheating is so contemporary that ABC/ESPN know a good story and where to place it without your input!

Do you really think my "Trojans" are going to look pretty and are not a comparable institutional failure after the airing?

I guess we shall all find out soon enough!

[RednBlue11]

Do you really believe ESPN would carry the story after the Heisman award, and then follow it up with an additional replay on their over the air broadcast mother network ABC, just to point out how naughty SMU was/is?

such is the delusion of those stewing in this mire for 20+ years

[Stallion]

What part of the title"Pony Excess" confuses you-think it refers to two too many Ponies?
My description pretty much aligns with ESPN's description

PONY EXCESS
From 1981-1984, a small private school in Dallas owned the best record in college football. The Mustangs of Southern Methodist University (SMU) were riding high on the backs of the vaunted "Pony Express" backfield. But as the middle of the decade approached, the program was coming apart at the seams. Wins became the only thing that mattered as the University increasingly ceded power of the football program to the city's oil barons and real estate tycoons and flagrant and frequent NCAA violations became the norm. On February 25, 1987, the school and the sport were rocked, as the NCAA meted out "the death penalty" on a college football program for the first and only time in its history. SMU would be without football for two years, and the fan base would be without an identity for 20 more until the Mustangs' win in the 2009 Hawaii Bowl. This is the story of Dallas in the 1980's and the greed, power, and corruption that spilled from the oil fields onto the football field and all the way to the Governor's Mansion. Director Thaddeus D. Matula, a product of the SMU film school, chronicles the rise, fall, and rebirth of this once mighty team.

[ponyscott]

I must say, that ESPN leadin is a pretty succinct and precise description of what occured here at the hilltop.

[ponyte]

The excess in Pony Excess refers to the excessive penalty the NCAA leveled against SMU.

[NickSMU17]

Stallion = loser = go away

[Wuba]

The reason this story was picked up by ESPN was because it was the most egregious, brazen abuse of institutional control over an athletic department in modern sports history-I have little doubt this story will demonstrate quite clearly how poorly our "leaders" handled the entire situation. There are no comparable institutional failures.

Next time you should add something like "Besides ESPN thinking that Thad made an awesome movie, the reason..." that way you avoid sounding like such an arrogant jerk. Just a thought.

[leopold]

That is total speculation not based in fact!

ESPN is in the business to sell advertising and keep eyeballs on their product.

They obviously picked up the piece because it is a compelling story not to denigrate our "leaders".

Do you really believe ESPN would carry the story after the Heisman award, and then follow it up with an additional replay on their over the air broadcast mother network ABC, just to point out how naughty SMU was/is?

Hell yes! It's 'compelling' because sex (and money and football and lying, cheating, Texans driving Caddies in big 'ole cowboy hats) sells, baby!

That picture on ESPN tells it all! That dude with the cowboy hat in front of the team may be nothing more than a photographer, but it looks like a character out of a Dan Jenkins novel rousing the team by telling 'em what their Christmas Bonus was gonna be when they knocked Dan Marino outta the game - it's like the College Football version of 'Watergate'.

You betcher Aunt Fanny that's 'Compelling!'

Woo hoo! We bought 'em and sold 'em and lied our rich, priveleged, redneck, oil drenched [deleted] off and I'm gonna put on my Ropers, fix me a margarita and sit my happy butt down and watch us run over the SWC! Go get 'em Thad!

[SMU2007]

that way you avoid sounding like such an arrogant jerk. Just a thought.

he's a lawyer so he is an arrogant jerk.

[jtstang]

I resemble that remark

[mrydel]

I resemble that remark

But your nerdiness developed in your engineer schooling offsets some of the jerkiness in your specific case.

[Dooby]

The reason this is going to be on national network TV has everything to do with the quality of the work and the talent of the people involved.

[EastStang]

I have mixed feelings about this. One, its like a continuous scab being pulled off. Every time some team commits a violation, SMU's death penalty is mentioned. And now there's a documentary airing about it 23 years later. I'm hoping its cathartic, but I doubt that it will be. It no doubt will be well done. I am not advocating ever cheating again. But part of me does think that we ought to embrace our rich kid elitist image from now on. I liked the idea of Peruna in a Bentley. Fix up an old clunker Bentley or Rolls and bring Peruna into the stadium in that. It would be a great project for our future engineers. And it would be in part like saying, yeah we're rich NTTAWWT. And it would in some respects embrace our past without going back to cheating. SMU where there is life after football, as many on this Board can attest.