With SMU officially joining the ACC on July 1, it should not be forgotten how unique and arduous this journey has been.
In the early 1980s, SMU was one of the powerhouses in college football. From 1981 to 1987, the Ponies lost only five games under head coaches Ron Meyer (1976-1981) and Bobby Collins (1982-1986). SMU went undefeated in 1982, culminating in a victory in the Cotton Bowl. “The Pony Express,” as they called it, was underway.
Then, recruiting violations began to become public. Sean Stopperich, a Pittsburgh recruit, was paid $5,000 to commit to the Mustangs and moved with his family to Texas. But Stopperich hurt his knee, had little impact at SMU, left after just one season and then became a key NCAA witness.
In 1985, SMU was banned from bowl games for two years and lost 45 scholarships over a two-year period. This was considered an incredibly harsh punishment at the time, but the NCAA didn’t stop. After this, the NCAA discussed a new, harsher penalty for cheating: the death penalty. No one believed it would ever be used. The new rule was officially called the “Repeat Offender Rule” and stated that if a school is found guilty of two major violations within a five-year span, it could be barred from competing in the sport for up to two years.
But SMU did not cut off its payments to players immediately. The boosters began a “phasing out” plan in which they would end payments to players they promised money to until they graduated. One player who was receiving these “phase-out” payments, David Stanley, was kicked off the team and lost his scholarship. He later came forward and gave a televised interview to WFAA providing details about the payments he and his family received.
WFAA followed up on this when Dale Hansen interviewed SMU head coach Bobby Collins, SMU athletic director Bob Hitch and recruiting coordinator Henry Lee Parker. What the SMU representatives did not know is that Hansen had a trap set. Hansen was in possession of two envelopes allegedly sent to Stanley’s family with money inside. An envelope was addressed to the family, came from the recruiting office, and had Parker’s initials written on it. The envelope was also postmarked in 1985, which was after SMU was placed on probation, making the Mustangs subject to the punishment of the repeat offender rule.
In the interview, Hansen set the trap for Parker. He first asked Parker if he had ever sent mail to the Stanley family. Parker denied it, prompting Hansen to show the envelopes. Seeing the envelopes, Parker carelessly backed away and the trio of SMU representatives looked noticeably guilty. Hansen later sought out a handwriting expert, who confirmed that Parker’s handwriting matched the writing on the envelope. Watch the moment Hansen handed the envelope to SMU officials below:
Related:ACC’s invitation to SMU is the latest step in a long road to recovery
After these events and several other dominoes, the NCAA gave SMU the harshest penalty it has ever imposed. The death penalty was a devastating blow to SMU that occurred on February 25, 1987. The NCAA canceled SMU’s 1987 season and stripped the program of many of its allotted scholarships.
The impacts of giving SMU football the “death penalty,” as it was called, were so harsh and disruptive to the program that the NCAA did not use it again. NCAA Chief Compliance Officer David Berst made the announcement at a news conference. It was such a shocking announcement that Berst fainted moments after announcing the sentence.
The total amount of the sanctions was high:
- 1987 season cancelled, only conditioning drills allowed in that calendar year
- All home games in 1988 cancelled, but scheduled away games can be played.
- The existing parole was extended until 1990 and the ban on participating in bowl games and live television was extended until 1989.
- 55 new scholarship places were eliminated in four years
- Additional punishment was promised if previously banned reinforcements had contact with the program.
- Only five full-time assistant coaches are allowed instead of the usual nine.
- There was no off-campus recruiting until August 1988, no paid campus visits were made until the beginning of the 1988-89 school year.
Every player on the team was given a full release, giving them the ability to transfer elsewhere without losing eligibility. Most of the players accepted that offer and recruiters from national powers almost immediately flocked to SMU in an effort to add SMU transfers to their rosters.
With SMU’s recruiting efforts effectively closed, combined with most of the roster transferring, it was not plausible that SMU would field a viable team in 1988. Just two months after the NCAA’s announcement, SMU announced it would cancel its season. from 1988. too.
After the return of SMU football in 1989, things were not pleasant. From the program’s return in 1989 until the final year of the Southwest Conference in 1995, SMU won only 13 games. SMU did not win its first conference game after returning until 1992 and the Ponies experienced only one winning season from 1989 to 2008.
After the SWC disbanded, SMU joined the WAC and later found itself in Conference USA. During that time, the Mustangs were consistently one of the worst teams in the country. This included a winless 2003 season and consecutive 1-11 seasons in 2007 and 2008. Things finally changed in 2009 with June Jones as head coach, when SMU went 8-5 and was invited to its first bowl game since 1984.
In 2010, KeynoteUSA released “Pony Excess,” which was part of its “30 for 30” documentary series. The documentary details the entirety of the scandal, from the show’s heyday in the early 1980s, through scandal and death penalty, to its resurrection in 2009.
Related: SMU ACC timeline: How the Mustangs found their way back to a power conference
After the Hawaii Bowl berth in 2009, SMU continued a steady rise in hopes of becoming attractive enough to be invited to a power conference. It was kind of a rollercoaster with some success, some coaching changes, a couple of disastrous seasons, but it finally stabilized with Sonny Dykes and Rhett Lashlee. Dykes left for TCU’s head coaching position after the 2021 season and Lashlee took over prior to the 2022 season. As of 2019, SMU has a record of 43-19 with multiple seasons with double-digit wins and most recently finished the 2023 season with an 11-3 record and won the school’s first conference championship since 1984.
SMU has enjoyed new levels of success since 2019 and has built on that momentum to achieve a $100 million renovation of Gerald J. Ford Stadium and an invitation to the ACC.
While the Mustangs will return to high-level college football in 2024, it should not be forgotten how long the road back to this point has been.
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