OT cartoon for Bevo manure-sniffers!!

[PK]

PK, as my old man used to tell me, and I'm sure yours did too, if everybody jumped of a cliff would you do it too?

Whatever everybody else was doing is not why we got the death penalty. What we were doing got us the death penalty. And frankly, nobody has ever been able to demonstrate the kind of instutional corruption that SMU had in the '80s, were the payments were approved by the Republican governor hisself. Just saying....

I in no way said or implied that SMU did not deserve what it got...just saying that there were plenty of others in our conference at the same point in time that deserved some kind of punitive treatment from the NCAA, but did not even get a wrist slap. I'm not saying they deserved our fate, but really TCU is the only other one that got any thing done to them that I recall.

[PK]

jt...considering the recent goings on at Alabama and the actions of the NCAA in response to those things, do you think that back in 1986 if Texas had been found to have been doing what we were doing that they would have received the DP?

[jtstang]

If UT was paying players for years through a slush fund with the full knowledge and endorsement of the university president, the AD, the coach, the board of regents and the the highest elected official in the state, and had just come off several successive probations as a repeat offender, and had represented to the NCAA that checks and balances to control boosters were being implemented in response to the immediately prior probation in exchange for a lighter sanction (which was an outright lie by SMU and probably the proverbial straw), and was stupid enough to [deleted] off the most unstable beneficiary of the slush fund to the extent that he decided to bring his story to the media as an exclusive expose'...then, yes, I think UT might have gotten the death penalty as well.

We have no evidence that under those circumstances the NCAA would have looked the other way for ANY prgram, because frankly, those circumstances have only been present once.

[Come and Take It]

Like how Tom hicks signed Ricky Williams to a minor league contract and a year later he commits to Texas. It is funny how all this works

Didn't happen that way. Ricky was drafted out of high school by the Philadelphia Phillies, and they paid for him to go to school. Same thing happend with Cedric Benson. He was drafted by the Dodgers and they paid his tuition for at least the first year.

I'm not saying that Tom Hicks signing Ricky wasn't some sort of pay back, but it didn't happen the way you are suggesting.

I hate the University of Texas for plenty of reasons. However, I don't blame them for giving SMU the death penalty. We're they cheating at the same time? Absolutely. The thing is that our school got caught (more than once), continued to do it, and lied about it. That's the bottom line.

[Stallion]

same thing happened to Richard Bartel at SMU. Bennie Thomas at SMU. Kevin Murray at A&M, the great Rice HB James Casey last year. Texas Tech has an Offensive Lineman who did same thing. it has happened hundreds of times. This is an embarrassing weak argument by someone who must not follow college football much.

[soccermom]

O.k. I have to add opinion about this topic---I am truly convinced, and have been for the past 25 years, that we wouldn't have received the DP if it were not for texas and a&m---but mostly texas. A small, private school is just not suppose to beat them at their own game and that is exactly what was happening. Yes, we paid players and got caught---A&M players have had sugar daddies for a lot longer than we paid players and I honestly can't understand how a true SMU fan can even consider defending texas on this site. There have been so many times, over MANY years, where their players were paid w/taxpayer money for summer jobs when the players never showed up and the list can go on and on. I absolutely HATE burnt orange, bevo and all things connected to texas---in fact, I resent the fact that our state flag is demoralized (not sure this is the word I really want) every time "they" use it!
GO MUSTANGS!!!! Texas Bites!!!!

[mr. pony]

O.k. I have to add opinion about this topic---I am truly convinced, and have been for the past 25 years, that we wouldn't have received the DP if it were not for texas and a&m---but mostly texas. A small, private school is just not suppose to beat them at their own game and that is exactly what was happening. ....

You nailed it. Former players from the 60s and 70s say the exact same thing.

[mrydel]

O.k. I have to add opinion about this topic---I am truly convinced, and have been for the past 25 years, that we wouldn't have received the DP if it were not for texas and a&m---but mostly texas. A small, private school is just not suppose to beat them at their own game and that is exactly what was happening. ....

You nailed it. Former players from the 60s and 70s say the exact same thing.

I am a former player from the 60s-70s. A statement like this might have some credibility if we had not had the worst, not one of the worst, but THE worst violating team in the nation. It was not even close, and to top it off, after we were caught the umpteenth time and still allowed to survive, the Board of Regents votes to continue cheating, and we got caught umpteen + 1. Come on folks, yes, everyone was cheating, but not to the extent that we were. Let's move on. We cheated, we got caught x's 10, and we were punished in a manner that will never be done again. At least it gives Thad a good story and the rest can thank us for the sacrifice.

I posted about 4 years ago that we would know that we were back when any media person could talk about the football team without saying "the only team to suffer the death penalty" as part of our intro. Well this year we have made a step forward toward the return of good football and I for one am ready top stop talking about it the past. It is not like we can change it by doing so.

[mr. pony]

Here's one from the 80s, Jerry Ball, from cusa-fans.com:

“It happened,” he said, “but we have to control what we do and not let the media or anyone make us feel like we owe them any more explanation. When you killed the program, just like if someone had committed a crime and he goes to jail, we say, ‘You’ve done the time? OK, well that’s over.’ So, we paid that price.”

“I’m not going to apologize to you for that. And, really, I feel that it became an issue because we were kicking the big schools’ asses.”

“The local media and schools did more damage against us than the NCAA.”

“Now, am I saying we were all right? Probably not. But I don’t feel that we were any different than other universities. Because, remember: we were recruited by the other universities. So, trust me.”

[mr. pony]

O.k. I have to add opinion about this topic---I am truly convinced, and have been for the past 25 years, that we wouldn't have received the DP if it were not for texas and a&m---but mostly texas. A small, private school is just not suppose to beat them at their own game and that is exactly what was happening. ....

You nailed it. Former players from the 60s and 70s say the exact same thing.

I am a former player from the 60s-70s. A statement like this might have some credibility if we had not had the worst, not one of the worst, but THE worst violating team in the nation. It was not even close, and to top it off, after we were caught the umpteenth time and still allowed to survive, the Board of Regents votes to continue cheating, and we got caught umpteen + 1. Come on folks, yes, everyone was cheating, but not to the extent that we were. Let's move on. We cheated, we got caught x's 10, and we were punished in a manner that will never be done again. At least it gives Thad a good story and the rest can thank us for the sacrifice.

I certainly appreciate your perspective, but we'll never really know the extent of cheating that went on at UT and A&M will we? And that's the point.


I posted about 4 years ago that we would know that we were back when any media person could talk about the football team without saying "the only team to suffer the death penalty" as part of our intro. Well this year we have made a step forward toward the return of good football and I for one am ready top stop talking about it the past. It is not like we can change it by doing so.