Southern New Hampshire University homework and coursework

Southern New Hampshire University homework and coursework

Southern Mehodist University Football Scandel

In 1987 the National Collegiate Athletic Association (N. C. A. A. ) placed its harshest football punishment in history on Southern Methodist University (S. M. U. ). The repeat violator rule, also known as the “death penalty,” banned the college from playing football for all of the 1987 and only allowed to play seven games in its 1988 season. They used S. M. U. as an example of what could happen when a college excessively violates N. C. A. A. regulations. The death penalty was the last option for the university because they were already on probation for past major violations with N. Don’t use plagiarized sources

C. A. A. (“SMU Football Gets,” 1987, p. 1C). The only thing left of S. M. U. after receiving ‘death’ was pick up the pieces and they are still trying to put the sport back together after so many years. To fully understand the 1987 “death penalty” and the Southern Methodist University football scandal, you have to start back in 1981. That year was the rise of the city of Dallas, Texas and the oil industry in the surrounding area.

It became the melting pot for Texas alumni and many started to brag to each other about where they went and how their football team was there.

Football was as important as the weather at that time in the south and the alumni’s decided that they would just “buy” players to play at their colleges to create a winning team. S. M. U. started paying players the most money to come to their college and their head coach Ron Meyer was the first to personally recruit the top players (Matula, 2010). One of the people Meyer personally recruited was Eric Dickerson, a running back and the most sought out player in Texas. Another was Craig James, a tailback, who was also high on the most wanted player list.

The two would come together and later be called the “Pony Express” (Pomerantz, 1982, p. D4). When signing day was over the college had the best recruiting class in all of S. M. U. history (Matula, 2010). At the time in Texas, the Texas State Longhorns was the ultimate power in college football. They had been undefeated for years and were known for it. The day that S. M. U. and Texas played their game is an important event for many reasons; the game ended the forever long winning streak for the Texas Longhorns. It was also the start of S. M.

U. ’s launch in becoming the best football team for the upcoming years, and was the game that got the N. C. A. A. taking a closer look at S. M. U. ’s football program (Matula, 2010). By the time the N. C. A. A. was done looking into S. M. U. they had found twenty nine violations to the N. C. A. A. constitution and bylaws. They were put on probation in 1981 and could not be on a televised air cast or participate in any bowl games. Meyers, knowing that this was just the start of the findings that the N. C. A. A. would uncover, left the S. M. U. ootball program to coach for the New England Patriots in 1982. Bobby Collins would become the new head coach for the Mustangs. When all the old coaches and boosters left and new ones came in there was more information coming out to the public and buying players became even more outrageous. Sherwood Blout, a wealth realtor and S. M. U. alumni, became a main booster and bought players heavily and brashly (Matula, 2010). In 1982 the Mustangs dominated college football. Even though they were on probation and not allowed to participate in the Cotton Bowl they still won the title from their conference.

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The papers awarded Penn State the National Championship even though S. M. U. was undefeated at the time so they dubbed themselves national champions. Little did they know that bringing news attention would put them right in the middle of a paper war between Dallas Times Herald and The Dallas Morning News. The papers started digging for dirt on the college to bring in more readers and it put S. M. U. in a difficult situation. Not only were they getting heat from the press but also the N. C. A. A. was breathing down their back from other colleges calling to have them investigated again.

There were a total of thirteen reports from outside and inside the institutions south west conference once S. M. U. started spreading their recruiting outside their state (Matula, 2010). Sean Stopperich was a S. M. U. recruit from Pittsburg Pennsylvania. He did not want to play at the institution but the money the booster was offering was enough to help out his family in their time of financial crisis. The booster preyed on Stopperich’s family’s financial problem to get him to sign what was essentially a professional contract with S. M. U.

The booster gave Stopperich $5,000 for signing, moved his family to Dallas in a rent free apartment, and found his step-dad a job because he had recently lost one. Even with all these perks Stopperich was miserable and homesick. He finally decided enough was enough and he and his family moved back Pittsburg. Feeling something not right about this, the N. C. A. A. followed Stopperich back to Pittsburg and questioned the young adult. He told the truth and the many violations from his recruitment and family’s movement (Matula, 2010). With the N. C. A. A. lose to a death grip on the university in 1985, governor-elect and chairman of the university board Bill Clements, who was aware of the illegal payments for years, called for a secret meeting to try to put an end to the crisis and have boosters stop the money flow. The boosters said that they would stop but that they had to continue paying some of the players because their contracts were not up yet. At the same meeting to try to through off the N. C. A. A. since the boosters would not completely stop the flow of money, Clements banned nine boosters from the university and blamed them for the corruption of the sport.

The newspapers dubbed them the “Naughty Nine” (Matula, 2010). For the N. C. A. A. Cl ements betrayal was too little too late. They had Stopperich’s confession of living rent free and signing bonus, along with many other violations and were ready to give S. M. U. another round of their severest penalties yet (Matula, 2010). The university was not allowed to give out any scholarships for a year and then was only able to give fifteen the next. They were not allowed to be on television and were also not allowed to participate in any bowl games (“SMU Football Gets,” 1987, p. 1C). The N. C. A. A. alled an emergency conference to try to tighten the grip on colleges who cheat. They created a new rule called repeat violator rule (Matula, 2010). Also known as the “death penalty,” this can be imposed when a school already on probation for major violations is found guilty for any other kind of violation within five years (Asher, 1987, p. A1). S. M. U. met the end of its rope in 1986 when David Stanley said that he and his mother were paid $52,000 by university officials in a forty-five minute interview on local television (Hayes, 1986, p. 1. 17). Stanley was one of the line back recruits in 1983.

He admitted to having a recreational drug problem that turned into addiction his sophomore year when he didn’t get to play as much. The university found out about Stanley’s drug problem and sent him to a rehab center. Once he was clean he tried to come back to S. M. U. to play football but Coach Collins used that opportunity to get rid of him. After that he went to the university to try to just finish getting his degree because he was so close to finishing it. The university denied his request to come back and in retaliation Stanley blew the top to the long scandal (Matula, 2010). Stanley stated in the interview that he received $25,000 or signing with S. M. U. and then he and his mother were then paid $750 a month additional through December 1985 (four months after the N. C. A. A. but its probation rules on the football program) (Hayes, 1986, p. 1. 17). The television station then showed envelopes with S. M. U. insignia and the initials of assistant athletic director, Henry Lee Parker, which supposedly contained money from the university. A handwriting expert matched the writing on the envelope dated December 1895, four months after they received their probation, to a note that Parker wrote and confirmed that they were a match.

Parker denied the allegation (Hayes, 1986, p. 1. 17). After the interview was broadcasted, N. C. A. A. went back to S. M. U. and found a long list of players that were being paid to play. The “death penalty” was officially put to action against Southern Methodist University on February 25, 1987 (Matula, 2010). S. M. U. President L. Donald Shields retired for what he said was health reasons, and football coach Collins and Athletic Director Bob Hitch resigned under the pressure (Asher, 1987, p. A1). S. M. U. s “death penalty” canceled their 1897 football season and limited their 1988 season to just seven games, none of them played on their home campus. The punishment was the hardest punishment in N. C. A. A. history. S. M. U. had fifteen days to appeal their punishment but told press that they will accept it without rancor or plans of an appeal (“SMU Football Gets,” 1987, p. 1C). The names of the boosters who gave the illegal money were not given out to the public. This made many of the students and teacher mad that were on the campus and a lot of protesting had taken place for the name of the conspiring few to be released.

As for the players of the football team, some stayed on campus to their degrees but others were at the campus just to play football and started to be eyed out by other colleges and left the university (Matula, 2010). S. M. U. did not have a football team the season of 1987 and when 1988 came around the university decided to not play the seven games they could have participated in and had cancelled another season as well. They started back up in 1989 but needed a coach that had a backbone and was up for the test.

The university decided to have former Green Bay Packer coach Forrest Gregg to be the one who put the team back together under the new straight-edged guidelines that the university had put in place. The problem was that they could not recruit many of the big, star players and had a small and not to talented team (Matula, 2010). Between the years of 1989 and 2008, the Mustangs had one winning season and were currently looking for its fifth head coach. When the new Athletics Director Steve Orsini came in 2006 he got together with Eric Dickerson and together they worked on putting the football team back together.

They got the alumni and their families in the stands, allowed them to go to practices and help and hired football renowned June Jones to be head coach. Jones was known to turn teams with no talent into something to watch and with his directing he helped undo the “death penalty” and bring S. M. U. to its first bowl game in decades (Matula, 2010).

References

Asher, M. (1987, February 26). NCAA Cancels SMU’s 1987 Football. The Washington Post, p. A1. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database. Hayes, T. C. (1986, November 15). S. M. U. Football May Face 2-Year Ban. The New York Times, p. 1. 17.

Retrieved from The New York Times database. Matula, T. D. (Director). (2010). Pony Express [Television series episode]. In DLP Entertainment, ESPN Films, & TEN100 (Producer), ESPN: 30 for 30. ESPN Plaza, 935 Middle St. Bristol CT 06010: Entertainment and Sports Programming Network. Pomerantz, G. (1982, October 20). Dickerson: One-Half of ‘Pony Express’ in Full Gallop to Heisman. The Washington Post, p. D4. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database. SMU football gets ‘death’// NCAA cancels ’87 season. (1987, February 26). St. Petersburg Times, p. 1C. Retrieved from LexisNexis Academic database.