Watching TCU on CBS CS This Evening, and Noticing What MEN

[MidlandMustang]

Yes, we did cheat and should have been punished, not necessarily with the DP. We were simply the scapegoat. At the time we were handed the DP cheating, of course, was rampant. If I'm not mistaken, this was at a time when a few PAC-10 basketball teams were on probation and several more were under investigation - that's how bad the cheating was back then. In the very late eighties word was that every team in the SWC was being looked into regarding some kind of cheating. I had even heard Rice was being looked at. My two cents, although, I don't know if I added anything of substance.

[SMU_is_bowling]

Saving this for the 800 post . . . TCU sucks!

I know that is groundbreaking stuff!!! Felt good though!

[Deep Purple]

Well, it's certainly not my place to interfere in an internal argument of institutional strategy among SMU fans. Lord knows, we at TCU have plenty of internal arguments over institutional strategy to occupy ourselves. I can only note the following for the record:

I don't know of a single TCU fan who believes SMU was dealt with justly by the NCAA. We're all certain you were hosed as the whipping boy for larger and richer programs who were just as guilty or more so, but programs the NCAA didn't want to cripple for fear of interrupting the money train. So SMU was an easy choice as scapegoat. Our understanding probably derives in part from the fact that TCU, despite self-reporting on first offense, received the second-most severe penalty ever handed down by the NCAA, exceeded only by SMU. In other words,we got hosed too, though not quite as severely as you.

Apart from the over-excessive penalties we both received, the subsequent history of the two programs is only partly due to the NCAA interference. It's equally due to the very different the philosophies subsequently adopted by our respective administrations. SMU chose to come down on athletics -- particularly football -- like a ton of bricks and handcuffed your program for about 15 years or more. Though the handcuffs are now off, you're still dealing with the repercussions and aftermath. You have great alumni fans, but from what I gather (from TCU professors and students who were formerly at SMU), most of your faculty are hostile to the football program and resent every dollar spent there.

We have this problem too, though on a much smaller scale. But first, back to the administrative philosophy. During the 90's, the TCU Board and Administration determined on a policy of rectifying the problems in our program, playing the game squarely on the up-an-up, and institutionally supporting the football program sufficiently to make it a significant player in the college football world. SMU is eventually coming around to the same policy, but in stages, and much, much later.

You were very prompt in righting your program. But SMU decision-makers went overboard in placing restrictions on your football program that no other NCAA D-IA program had to meet, not even such sterling academic institutions as Rice. This excessively handicapped your recruiting, far more than necessary to demonstrate SMU's new-found commitment to the rules. On top of that, SMU failed to adequately support the program financially for many years, partly due to faculty hostility.

TCU adopted a more (forgive me for saying so) common-sense course of implementing policies that still exceeded NCAA requirements, but didn't hobble the football program with self-defeating restrictions. We also significantly upped the ante to the football program as far as salaries, scholarships, and facilities. That eventually allowed us to recruit and field a host of sterling players while maintaining among the highest GPA and graduation rates in NCAA D-IA football.

At the same time, while there were (and are) TCU faculty resentments against money spent on the football program, it doesn't come close to equaling what exists at SMU. I've been at TCU for 15 years and know scores of faculty members. Most have their gripes about TCU spending on football, but just about all of them are also season ticket-holders. They're dual-minded. They support the Frogs, but also resent the money spent on them. I can't reconcile those conflicting sympathies, and neither can they. It's just the reality here.

From what former SMU faculty members now employed at TCU tell me, the SMU faculty is more single-minded. They mostly seem to resent spending a lot of money on football. Perhaps my information is outdated and this is no longer the case. The former SMU faculty I know have been at TCU for at least 7-10 years. What they experienced at SMU may no longer be current or relevant.

But this much is certain: SMU deals with a lot more internal institutional division over the football program than TCU does. Your decision-makers have recently eliminated the previous artificially high restrictions placed on recruiting. They have even recently begun to "pony up" (:wink:) more money for the program, especially in coaching salaries. The commitment in facilities and scholarships may yet come. TCU is enlisting donors to endow scholarships for specific team positions. SMU isn't quite there yet.

But the fact remains that SMU has recently taken several steps in the right direction. It still has a long way to go, but the situation is far from hopeless. It almost seems your administration is finally getting a clue.

As a final note, it's very tempting for uninformed outsiders to view TCU and SMU as mirror images of each other. We all know that's not the case. We are very similar in some respects, but very different in others, especially in institutional culture -- just as Dallas and Fort Worth are very different culturally. That doesn't mean we have to be enemies. Rivals, yes. Hopefully, semi-friendly rivals. But God forbid we be enemies. We are too tied to each other for that to be productive.

[rich59]

Deep Purple, Very insightful post. I have a close friend who is a very important Frog alumnus and he roots for SMU only second to the Frogs. My hat is off to you and the TCU folks. It is easy to be for TCU for me except when they are playing SMU.