SMU football canceled for 1987

By DAVID McNABB / The Dallas Morning News

Editor's note: This story appeared on the front page of The Dallas Morning News on Feb. 26, 1987

The Southern Methodist University football program, the most punished in NCAA history, received the harshest sanctions ever – including suspension for the 1987 season – when the NCAA announced its precedent-setting decision Wednesday.

Citing penalties intended to "eliminate a program that was built on a legacy of wrongdoing, deceit and rule violations," the NCAA Committee on Infractions for the first time barred a school from playing football for an entire season. The committee stopped short of delivering the full "death penalty," under which a program can be disbanded for as long as two seasons if found guilty of major violations twice in five years.

In addition to a ban on games, practice and scholarships for the 1987-88 academic year, the National Collegiate Athletic Association restricted SMU to seven games in 1988 – none of which may be considered a "home" game – and limited its scholarships, coaching positions and television and post-season appearances through the length of the probation, which expires Sept. 1, 1990.

The Committee on Infractions decision – delivered by David Berst, NCAA director of enforcement, to more than 100 reporters from around the nation – was hailed as the culmination of the message NCAA-member institutions sent in June 1985, when they passed the "death penalty"rule by a 427-to-6 vote.

"The Committee on Infractions . . . demanded, as well as the mandate of the membership by the major repeat penalties, that at least the primary or the fundamental elements of the proscribed penalty be applied in this case," Berst said.

SMU's sanctions, the first considered under the "death penalty," will "permit a new beginning" for a program of integrity, the committee wrote in its report, but the ramifications could jeopardize the future of SMU football, the rest of its athletic department and its Southwest Conference membership.

"(It) will have serious implications for our campus community," said Dr. William B. Stallcup, SMU interim president. "Just how serious we do not know, since until now the many unknown factors and variations concerning the penalties precluded forecasts.

"We are concerned with the human dimension, which will include the football players . . . and may include the loss of employees who have not been part of the problem."

The Committee on Infractions report uncovered "stipulated" violations that 13 football players were paid approximately $47,000 during the 1985-86 academic year and that eight student-athletes continued to receive payments from September to December 1986 of about $14,000.

Three players, according to the report, had eligibility remaining at SMU.

As stated in the report and emphasized under questioning of SMU officials, names of staff members or students implicated will not be made public. SMU officials said they promised anonimity to informants to ensure full disclosure.

The report, however, concluded that "the violations specifically indicated that certain key athletics department staff members agreed that promises made to student-athletes prior to the 1984-85 academic year, when they were recruited, would continue to be fulfilled," Berst said.

SMU's history of violations, especially in football, was cited by the Committee on Infractions as one of the biggest factors in its decision. SMU now has been penalized seven times, the most in NCAA history, since 1958.

Nevertheless, some SMU players expressed surprise at the severity of the sanctions.

"We really didn't expect them to do this," said senior defensive back Mark Vincent. "We thought they'd drop the three non-conference games. There's got to be a fairer way than this."

The latest allegations against SMU football surfaced in November, when former player David Stanley told WFAA-TV (Channel 8) that he had received payments of $750 per month from recruiting coordinator Henry Lee Parker. Two days later, The Dallas Morning News reported that senior tight end Albert Reese had been living rent-free in an apartment provided by George W. Owen, one of the boosters banned from any contact with the SMU athletic department in the NCAA sanctions handed down in August 1985.

The NCAA enforcement staff judged the Reese allegation a "secondary violation" and that the institution bore no responsibility, a source close to the investigation said.

SMU's internal investigation, operated in conjunction with the NCAA's, relied primarily on information provided by a person knowledgeable about the organized payoff system, said a source close to the investigation.

"I was deeply disturbed and embarrassed by the scope of our problems," said Lonnie Kliever, SMU's faculty representative to the NCAA, who headed the university's investigation.

In mid-November, SMU President L. Donald Shields resigned, citing ill health. Two weeks later, in early December, Athletic Director Bob Hitch and football coach Bobby Collins resigned. The nine coaches on Collins' staff were informed their contracts would not be renewed in June, and six already have found other coaching jobs.

The sanctions put SMU on a difficult road, pitted with questions. A presidential search committee is six or seven months from naming a successor to Shields, and the search for an athletic director suffered a setback with the severity of these sanctions. The SMU Board of Governors appointed a blue-ribbon committee to study the role of athletics at the university; its report – which will probably be issued by mid-March – is expected to address whether the school wants to maintain the expense of football, a program once profitable but now likely to suffer through several lean years.

Football had been SMU's leading revenue sport, generating an estimated two-thirds of the school's $6 million athletic budget.

Football revenue supported nationally prominent track and field, swimming, tennis and golf teams; without this money, SMU faces difficult financial decisions.

Stallcup, however, said that the sanctions would not create a financial "crisis" and that he was hopeful the university would field a football team in 1988.

After SMU's last sanctions were announced in August 1985, the economic loss forced the university to lay off eight administrative personnel in the athletic department. More reorganization and staff cuts are anticipated.

Several other issues remained unresolved.

Berst said NCAA investigators would try to identify the three players who reportedly received cash payments until December 1986, but Berst said he doubted the players could be identified before their eligibility was completed.

SMU's 52 remaining scholarship players are free to transfer to another institution with immediate eligibility.

The university – which, unlike during its last NCAA investigation, turned from an adversarial stance to intense cooperation – had recommended its "severe sanctions" to the committee, which declined to accept that alternative.

At the Committee on Infractions hearing in Coronado, Calif., 13 days ago, the enforcement staff had recommended that, despite the severity of the violations, SMU not be given the full death penalty.

The committee, in its report, noted that it felt compelled to go beyond those recommendations, as well.

The sanctions eliminate football for 1987 and limit the university to seven "away" games in 1988, with only 15 initial grant-in-aid scholarships. The university will not be allowed to make live television appearances in 1988 or take part in post-season play after that season. The university, already in the second year of a three-year probation, had its probation extended until 1990. The athletic program will have to conduct annual audits of football players during the probationary period to ensure the players can meet their financial obligations without improper assistance.

SMU will be limited to one head coach and no more than five full-time assistants, four less than the NCAA maximum, until Aug. 1, 1989.

"We are disappointed with the outcome of the investigative and juridical process with the NCAA," Stallcup said. "But we accept, therefore, the sanctions which have been placed on us and have no intention of disputing, appealing or contesting the penalties."