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I was watching Wake and Tech (exciting, I know) and they showed a graphic listing the teams that didn't have a rusher with over 400 yards and their records....Wake had the best record at 10-2, but SMU was second with our 6-6 record. Everyone else was pretty bad. Just thought I'd share. I don't think I've seen SMU mentioned this much since we were 0-12.

I can't believe we didn't have a rusher w/ over 400 yards. I guess thats what we get with Willis running for his life every other play and rotating 4 RBs throughout the year, not to mention having to throw a lot because we were usually playing from behind. Any press is good press.

I saw that too and my first thought was "wonder how long it will take for that to get posted to ponyfans."

Whatever, I beat you all to it.. 1:18pm... what do I win?

SMU was also mentioned on ESPN College Gameday (radio version). When asked about what (good) change has occurred in college football in recent years, Dinardo said there is not as much cheating going on in recruiting - thanks to SMU and the death penalty

Charleston Pony wrote:SMU was also mentioned on ESPN College Gameday (radio version). When asked about what (good) change has occurred in college football in recent years, Dinardo said there is not as much cheating going on in recruiting - thanks to SMU and the death penalty

The death penalty just made institutions smarter, except for SMU. I will give you an example. I know where Cedric Benson lived in Midland, Texas. When he showed up at the UT with a new SUV, Cadillac Escalade, I knew something was going on. There is another player out of Midland, Tx playing at aTm, whose brother was quoted in the newspaper saying, that they take care of my brother real good with money and everthing? Mack Brown is one of the worst coaches I have ever seen, but I could coach that team. Bottom line, schools still pay players to play, the death penatly just made the boosters and coaches smarter. The money changes hands so many times now, it is hard to track. Bomar was stupid. All he had to do was go to work and sit on his but. You cannot get paid for working when you do not work. I turned the sprinkler system on and off at the college I went to and earned 250 buck a week in 1980. That was a lot of money for doing nothing. And it happens still today. You really think all those athletes go to those big schools for nothing, when some of them never get to play. We could use some of the second teamers at some of these schools, but we will not get them because they are COMFORTABLE where they are at!

The problem is that you do not understand that the DP was not just for paying players. It was for doing so with the knowledge of the Adminisrtration, The Board of Regents, and The Governor of the State of Texas. And more so after having been caught, pled gulity and promising to stop, continued with the blessings of all of those above. Now either give us evidence that is happening elsewhere or stop this belly aching over "everyone does it" because everyone does not so that. This is an oh so ridiculous arguement that does nothing but flame the stereotype of SMU as cheaters.

mrydel wrote:The problem is that you do not understand that the DP was not just for paying players. It was for doing so with the knowledge of the Adminisrtration, The Board of Regents, and The Governor of the State of Texas. And more so after having been caught, pled gulity and promising to stop, continued with the blessings of all of those above. Now either give us evidence that is happening elsewhere or stop this belly aching over "everyone does it" because everyone does not so that. This is an oh so ridiculous arguement that does nothing but flame the stereotype of SMU as cheaters.

You are totally correct in regards to the reasons for our DP penalty. However, the statement by bigdaddy08091, "I know where Cedric Benson lived in Midland, Texas. When he showed up at the UT with a new SUV, Cadillac Escalade..." may not qualify as the "evidence" you want to see, but it certainly raises the question. No one on this board is an NCAA investigator and as such will never have the "evidence", but surely you don't believe no one is cheating in today's college football scene. I'm not posting this as an excuse for SMU's past behavior, there is none, but only to point out that our DP didn't do much in the way of curtailing the cheating in general.

mrydel wrote:The problem is that you do not understand that the DP was not just for paying players. It was for doing so with the knowledge of the Adminisrtration, The Board of Regents, and The Governor of the State of Texas. And more so after having been caught, pled gulity and promising to stop, continued with the blessings of all of those above. Now either give us evidence that is happening elsewhere or stop this belly aching over "everyone does it" because everyone does not so that. This is an oh so ridiculous arguement that does nothing but flame the stereotype of SMU as cheaters.

Take the blinders off. Have I seen money exchange hands, of course not? Who has seen it. This is why they do not get caught. I promise you at those other universities, the admin, board of regents and anybody else of importance knows, but the money for winning games and going to BCS bowl games is too huge to stop it! We have kids in school on full rides across the country whose parents make 50k to 60k a year together, and the kid is driving an Escalade, living in a appartment off campus that makes mine and your house look like a rats nest. C'mon man. Keep it real? It is bigger than the both of us and bigger than college football! It is all about the money! Where SMU screwed up was getting the politics involved. It was election time my friend?

I'd credit that stat as the number one reason we are not bowling this year.

Cedric Benson signed a big signing bonus out of high school to play professional baseball. He had other sources of income that make that story very doubtful.

Stallion wrote:Cedric Benson signed a big signing bonus out of high school to play professional baseball. He had other sources of income that make that story very doubtful.

He never played, so the signing bonus was voided. Just remembe Ricky Williams had to pay his back and he was actually on the team?

yes he did play in the summer.

yes he did play in the summer. He had an NCAA approved agreement to play professional baseball during the summer in the Los Angeles Dodgers minor league system which he did for at least 2 years.

the point here was that because the death penalty was handed to SMU, there is LESS cheating than had been going on at the time. I'm not naiive enough to think everyone is suddenly running "clean" programs. I'm sure you can find plenty of violations at nearly every top 10, if not top 25 program even today. It's just not as blatant as it was in the past. I know my Aggie buddies have shared some great stories about how they manage to "take care" of several of their guys, but nobody will ever be able to prove anything because it is very much "in house". As long as there are aulumni with egos, the cheating will never stop

bigdaddy08091 wrote:

mrydel wrote:The problem is that you do not understand that the DP was not just for paying players. It was for doing so with the knowledge of the Adminisrtration, The Board of Regents, and The Governor of the State of Texas. And more so after having been caught, pled gulity and promising to stop, continued with the blessings of all of those above. Now either give us evidence that is happening elsewhere or stop this belly aching over "everyone does it" because everyone does not so that. This is an oh so ridiculous arguement that does nothing but flame the stereotype of SMU as cheaters.

Take the blinders off. Have I seen money exchange hands, of course not? Who has seen it. This is why they do not get caught. I promise you at those other universities, the admin, board of regents and anybody else of importance knows, but the money for winning games and going to BCS bowl games is too huge to stop it! We have kids in school on full rides across the country whose parents make 50k to 60k a year together, and the kid is driving an Escalade, living in a appartment off campus that makes mine and your house look like a rats nest. C'mon man. Keep it real? It is bigger than the both of us and bigger than college football! It is all about the money! Where SMU screwed up was getting the politics involved. It was election time my friend?

Please read my post before you make the same whiney response. Of course there is, was, and will be cheating going on. I saw players at SMU get money in the 60's and 70's. I played with high school players that were subsequently paid at the University of Arkansas. I am sure a lot goes on still today and I would not be surprised if some does not go on at SMU. The difference is the fact it was accepted at SMU openly by the Administration, and the Board of Regents, and the coaching staff. When confronted, they apologized, said they would take care of it and then went on and continued what they were doing. They became beligerent with the NCAA and threatened to sue them and fought them all the way. Guess what. SMU lost. I have not seen a single reference on this board or anywhere else that outlines similar activity at any other school. Not to mention, at the time this was going on, SMU was already the most penalized team in the history of the NCAA. Please quit blaming our inefficiencies on the death penalty. It is a cop out and holds no sense of common reason. We changed our standards of operation to a manner that did not allow us to be competitive, and then because we were not competitive, we were left out of the BCS shuffle. Now we are on the outside looking in and have a long way to go to get any semblance of dignity back into the program.

Again, yes others cheat, yes SMU did cheat (and maybe some is going on we do not know about), but the comparision of any UT athlete getting money today, yesterday, or tomorrow with the DP violations is just senseless.