More Problems for St. John's???

What does everyone think? This isn't necessarily a good thing for us either. If SJU gets the death penalty, which seems unlikely, but possible, that may be enough to divide the football and non-football schools of the NBE even further.

The death penalty isn't for grevious offenses as much as it was a penalty for what the NCAA at the time called "repeat violators".

In 1987, SMU was on its sixth probation and fourth since 1974. Students wore it almost as a badge of honor--I remember the T-shirts worn by sorority girls in that era which read "Ponies, Polos, Porsches and Probation--Nowhere But SMU!"

The 21 players being paid were paid during the probation, and the knowledge of these payments not went through just a booster but, as reported, with the coach, the AD, the school president, and the then-governor of the state, who was chairman of its board of trustees. Things got so bad that, according to one report, two players stole the monthly payment out of someone's desk- and it's not like the school was going to call someone to report it!

Contrary to popular lore, the death penalty doesn't hang over SMU inasmuch as they've never recovered from it institutionally. The Mustangs wera 11-0-1 in 1983, defeated Dan Marino in the Cotton Bowl, and were a late Penn State rally short of the national title. They dropped FB in 1987 and 1988 and since 1989 has posted 15 straight losing seasons.

Its basketball team, one point short of upsetting Georgetown in the 1984 NCAA's and ranked #3 at one point the following year, suffered too. Its young up-and-coming coach named Dave Bliss left SMU for New Mexico in 1988, it brought in John Shumate, he played in one NCAA game and the team hasn't been back since.
It dropped track, which produced a slew of Olympians. Next year's move to Conference USA is its third conference affiliation since 1994.

Academically, SMU suffered in this era for its claim as a nationally elite school. Kenneth Pye (a Georgetown law grad and the then-provost at Duke) was assailed for deemphasizing athletics in the wake of the scandal, but he also sought to raise SMU's national academic stature, and ultimately did not suceeed. At the time, SMU considered its academic peers to be Rice, Duke, Vanderbilt, and Tulane. Today, US News ranks SMU 71st, tied with Michigan State and Indiana, just behind Fordham.

Had it not been for the generosity of an alumnus who helped build the 30,000 seat Ford Stadium back on campus (one of the single best stadiums of its kind in the nation), one wonders where SMU football would be at all today. But were it not for 1987, SMU would likely be in the Big 12 today, with people comparing its traditions (to Southern Cal instead of to Rice and Tulsa.