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Florida Today: June Jones helps SMU find life after 'death'

PostPosted: Fri Dec 03, 2010 10:50 am
by PonyPride
June Jones helps SMU find life after 'death'
Coach guides severely penalized program to Conference USA title game

BY DAVID JONES
FLORIDA TODAY

In 1987 SMU became the first and -- currently -- only school to have its football program given the NCAA's "death penalty."

The program was terminated over booster payments to athletes. It later came to light that a "slush fund" had been used to pay players as early as the mid-1970s, and athletic officials had known about it as early as 1981.

SMU fell under the penalty because it had been on probation less than five years before the second infraction -- the initial penalty coming in a 1985 charge for recruiting violations.

The program was shut down until 1989 and since then the Mustangs hadn't played in a bowl until last season's 45-10 victory over Nevada in the Hawaii Bowl.

To read the rest of this article, click the following link:
http://www.floridatoday.com/print/artic ... ter-death-