•Pony Excess. College football has a long history of scandal, but nothing has ever compared to the blatant NCAA rules violations at Southern Methodist University in the early 1980s. Led by the Pony Express backfield of Eric Dickerson and Craig James, they were one of the best teams in the nation. In less than 10 years, SMU's football program would be the first and only one to received the "death penalty" from the NCAA.