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Will we ever let SMU live down its death penalty?
12:19 AM CST on Wednesday, March 10, 2004

By HENRY TATUM / The Dallas Morning News


Southern Methodist University officials must wonder how many more times their school's name and the words "death penalty" will appear in news stories this year.

These are nasty times for colleges' athletic recruiting. Universities are finding new and even more horrific ways to violate the National Collegiate Athletic Association's rules.

Illegal payments and new cars are old hat. Booze-filled sex parties and covered-up allegations of sexual assault are the order of the day.

When Baylor University's basketball program was laid bare by charges that emerged following the murder of a player, the public assumed that the stench surrounding college athletics couldn't get any worse. The public was wrong.

The University of Colorado appears to have raised the bar with seven allegations of rape involving Colorado football players since 1997. As recently as January, football players at the school hired strippers to perform at recruiting parties.

As sports columnists and editorial writers search for a punishment that would fit the level of the offenses, the death penalty inevitably comes to mind. And that invariably leads them back to SMU, the only university that was forced to shut down its football program for repeated NCAA recruiting violations.

SMU has become another one of the victims in this assault on the public's senses. A school that has kept its nose clean for the better part of two decades is having to relive its darkest moments.

Make no mistake. The Mustangs' football program dug its own grave in the 1980s. Nationally ranked high school players who normally would go to Texas, Oklahoma or Southern Cal were signing on the dotted line with SMU.

Suddenly, the private university in the Park Cities was the hottest stop on the recruiting tour. And no one ever bothered to ask why.

At least no one did until other universities that were losing top stars to the Mustangs turned them in to the NCAA. The violations were easy to find. Overzealous alums and SMU fans were providing wheels and paying athletes.

It was the last straw for NCAA officials, who already had placed SMU on probation several times. The NCAA shut down the football program for one year in 1987 – a penalty that the university extended to two years.

That's the easy story for sports writers to recite, as they discuss what needs to happen at Colorado. Lost in the headlines and quick reference is any mention of what SMU did to restore respect to its athletic programs.

Today, the university has some of the toughest entrance requirements anywhere for those receiving athletic scholarships.

SMU turned away one of the nation's top high school basketball players years ago because the university president wasn't convinced the player's entrance exam scores were accurate.

And when an assistant football coach was caught having someone else take a test for a recruit in the only misstep since the death penalty, SMU fired him immediately and imposed tough sanctions on itself.

The price for such vigilance has been a high one for the university. SMU has excelled in some sports but has had only one winning football season since the death penalty. The team lost every game last season.

So there is good reason for SMU officials to feel sensitive about the death penalty references.

The biggest question for me is why this is the only college athletic program to receive such severe punishment. Given what we know about cheating in university sports, it boggles my mind that the ax hasn't fallen on another school since 1987.

Many schools have committed offenses that were worse than those occurring at SMU in the 1980s. But their programs kept chugging along after comparative slaps on the wrist.

NCAA officials made it a point to say the death penalty handed SMU should be fair warning to other universities. But such warnings are meaningless when there is no follow-through.

SMU should feel some bitterness about its past being dredged up amid the current scandals. But the NCAA should feel embarrassed that recruiting violations have become worse since the day that the ultimate punishment was handed down.


Henry Tatum is an assistant editorial page editor of The Dallas Morning News. His e-mail address is [email protected].


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Great Column. The answer will be, whenever someone else gets it. Centenary got the DP in basketball. San Francisco University dropped basketball for a period of time to avoid getting it. But you never hear about them. Only SMU. That is why I secretly hope that some big programs gets tagged. But they won't. It will never happen again. We know it, we're just glad some others are beginning to notice too. We can never go back to cheating. I guess, we will forever be at a competitive disadvantage.

that may be true but SMU's sensitivity to the issue is because SMU has run among the most pathetic Football programs in the country since the DP-definitely in the bottom 5% of all programs since the Death Penalty especially if you judge a program on winning seasons, bowl games, championships and rankings. The Death Penalty is an unerasable mark-our ineptitude is not.

...and so it goes.

I sure hope someone with the SMU Athletic Media Relations Office has called the DMN to ask: "What was the point of this column?" Isn't this writer (Henry Tatum) perpetuating what he's just criticized?

Stallion: When Jim Copeland leaves The Hilltop, I expect to see you apply for his job. If you don't, I'll be extremely disappointed.

What disappoints me most about this is that the DMN runs it on the first day of good athletic news we have had in a long time. Could they not have waited until we were knocked out of the tourney and then there could have at least been a tie in with our losing BB season. I would have liked to have celebrated 24 hours on the Tulsa victory before being reminded again how low our school has fallen. I agree that there is no reason why we could not have overcome the DP stigma by now with proper leadership, but right now I am looking for any positive I can find in order to help instill confidence in both players of all of our remaining sports and our dwindling fan base.

I'll be damned if I sit around and root for someone else to get the DP. That's weak. And will make us look even more pathetic when/if one of the big time programs did get the DP and RECOVERED within a few years.

And maybe we can cheat again and get off for time already served. Just kidding about that part.

MrMustang1965 wrote:...and so it goes.

I sure hope someone with the SMU Athletic Media Relations Office has called the DMN to ask: "What was the point of this column?" Isn't this writer (Henry Tatum) perpetuating what he's just criticized?

Mr. Mustang, you hit the nail on the head. That was what I felt upon reading the story. Another writer using a cheap headline to write a wandering story where the point was what exactly? Some hypocritical self-righteous drivel to look like the good guy, giving SMU some nice comments but perpetuating the same injustice he decries.

This article ran in the Op-ed section of the paper with other editorials and I think it was good. He was pointing out to the Dallas area that SMU basically has been screwed for almost two decades because we are always pointed out to be the only ones to receive the DP as if no one else deserved it. He made a point to say that there have been plenty of opportunities since then for the NCAA to give the DP to other programs even more deserving than we were. He also made the point that we have a very clean program...even to the point of hurting ourselves. I was glad to see someone finally say all this to the general public in a prominent forum.

ok pk...i wasn't going to read this ^%%$$# b/c its the same old thing but now that u said that - i'll go ahead & read it...u better be right!

Yeah PK, it was an editorial but it got attention because the headline was "SMU" and "death penalty." He did say some good things about us and our situation but he had already sold his soul to the DP sensationalist devil,as far as I am concerned.

What I would like to see more of in the future is "SMU" and the "Ford Stadium era" or the like.

It's kind of hard to talk about it without saying DP, but I thought it was a good effort to clear the air and say enough is enough. Maybe now people will start talking about "SMU and the Ford Stadium era"...especially if we can start WINNING.

i'll always believe this but WE JUST GOT CAUGHT with what everyone else was doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so yes - journalists are hypocritical!

END OF STORY!!!!!!!!!!

I was listening to talk radio in TN the other day and some guy was rambling about how Alabama had the book thrown at them and had been given the death penalty 3 years ago. I can't tell you how quickly my hand was at my phone to call in and give my two cents. It was surprising that these schools think they have been so wronged by the NCAA. Anyway, it really ticked me off and its amazing how these sports radio guys throw around the term whenever anyone gets any sort of punishment. Oh well, guess that's what you get being in SEC country. I must admit, I wouldn't wish the death penalty on any school, but given what a few schools have done recently (colorado, etc.) I won't say they don't deserve it.

'D' - you're exactly right - i lived in tennessee for 6 years in the 80's...its a damn different culture altogether.

^$R$##!!!!!!!!!!! its a different country there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I guess my view is similar to that of the recently chaste lady. I look at horror at what EVERYONE else is doing and wonder why they are not locked up for it. My view is that unless the DP is thrown at a major state program the cesspool that is college athletics will continue to stink. We took fall that has not changed behavior (gee sort of like the real death penalty). Deterrance is not there anymore. Academic rules don't exist for most schools. We have put ourselves into a situation where competing with other schools will always be very difficult. We cannot go back to cheating, so I have no problem wishing the DP on a major state program. (I don't wish it on a Baylor, a Fresno State, or other mid-majors. I only wish it on schools like Alabama, Kentucky, Georgia, Arkansas.