SMU death penalty: Revisiting Mustang football's NCAA recruiting violations in 1980s

SMU football has shown no rookie fatigue in its first season in the Atlantic Coast Conference.

At 11-1 overall on the season, the No. 7 Mustangs played for their first ACC title on Saturday against one of the conference's powerhouse programs, No. 17 Clemson, at Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, North Carolina.

While Clemson ultimately won to claim the ACC title, with SMU's win over Cal at the end of November, the Mustangs became the first team since 1978 to jump into a "power" conference from a Group of Five and go 8-0 in conference play.

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The Mustangs' successes this season — including a rise into the top 10 of the US LBM Coaches Poll and earning a spot in the College Football Playoff — is made all the more impressive considering SMU has dealt with penalties unlike any other college football program in history.

Here's a look back at SMU receiving the "death penalty" in the 1980s as the Mustangs head up to Happy Valley to take on Penn State in the first round of the College Football Playoffs.

SMU-NCAA death penalty, explained

The NCAA defines the "death penalty" as the suspension of an NCAA membership program for at least one year if it is found guilty of being a repeated violator of a major NCAA violation in a span of five years.

The death penalty can be leveled upon a program if the following criteria are met within five years of its first violation:

• Following the announcement of a major case, a major violation occurs and

• The second violation occurred within five years of the starting date of the penalty assessed in the first case. The second major case does not have to be in the same sport as the previous case to affect the second sport.

• Penalties for repeat violators of legislation, subject to exemptions authorized by the committee on the basis of specifically stated reasons, may include any of the following:

  • The prohibition of some or all outside competition in the sport involved in the latest major violation for one or two sport seasons and the prohibition of all coaching staff members in that sport from involvement (directly or indirectly) in any coaching activities at the institution during that period

  • The elimination of all initial grants-in-aid and recruiting activities in the sport involved in the latest major violation in question for a two-year period.

  • The requirement that all institutional staff member serving on the NCAA Board of Directors; Leadership, Legislative, Presidents or Management Councils; Executive Committee or other Association governance bodies resign their positions. All institutional representatives shall be ineligible to serve on any NCAA committee for a period of four years and

  • The requirement that the institution relinquish its Association voting privileges for a four-year period.

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Why was SMU handed the death penalty by the NCAA?

SMU was handed the death penalty by the NCAA for paying recruits to play for the Mustangs — a punishment that seems antiquated in college football's modern era of name, image and likeness (NIL).

"We don't embrace the mistakes of our past but we do embrace the history of our past," SMU coach Rhett Lashlee told ESPN in September.

SMU hired Ron Meyer as its coach in 1976 looking for a jolt as it competed against several other Southwest Conference members. The Mustangs had been put on probation by the NCAA several times for paying players under Meyer and his successor, Bobby Collins.

The NCAA began an investigation into SMU following its historic win over No. 2 Texas in 1980, a win that ended a 13-game losing skid to the Longhorns for the Mustangs.

"The reason was that SMU shouldn't be a good football team," Meyer said in the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary "Pony Express" on the reason for the NCAA's investigation.

"In Ron Meyer's speech to me, which was highly convincing, was, 'You don't think that kid deserves to get some money for playing big-time college football? And that kid who is a poor kid from inner-city Houston, you don't think he deserves to get a little money here?'" TV personality Skip Bayless — who covered the scandal for the Dallas Morning News and Dallas Times Herald — said in the ESPN documentary.

In 1985, two years before being handed the death penalty by the NCAA, SMU was hit with a two-year bowl probation and lost 45 scholarships during that same span for its recruiting violations.

Following its sanctions in 1985, Texas Gov. Bill Clements told the NCAA committee that the payments would stop and order would be restored. However, that wasn't entirely true, as SMU began to "phase out" the money. The reason was there were players still on the roster who were owed money, and SMU didn't want them to go to the NCAA for further discoveries.

After being kicked off the team and losing his scholarship, former Mustang David Stanley went and interviewed with WFAA, a local ABC affiliate in Dallas, disclosing he and his family received payments. WFAA's Dale Hansen then interviewed SMU recruiting coordinator Henry Lee Parker, among others, inquiring about the payments. It was Hansen who caught SMU and allowed the NCAA to hit the Mustangs with the death penalty when he showed Parker the envelopes sent to Stanley and his family during his interview.

On Feb. 25, 1987, the Mustangs were hit with the death penalty by the NCAA in a news conference held by its director of enforcement, David Berst. In the news conference, Berst announced that 13 SMU players were still being paid from 1985 through 1987 for a total of $61,000.

SMU's football program was shut down for the 1987 season.

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SMU-NCAA death penalty repercussions, penalties

As noted by the Dallas Morning News, on top of having their program shut down in 1987 the Mustangs were hit with a lengthy list of sanctions and penalties by the NCAA that spanned into the 1990 season.

Here is a full list of penalties SMU was handed per the Dallas Morning News:

• 1987 season canceled; only conditioning drills permitted in that calendar year

• All home games in 1988 canceled, but were able to play scheduled away games

• Existing probation extended to 1990 and ban from bowl games and live television extended to 1989

• 55 new scholarship positions over four years were eliminated

• Further punishment was promised if previously banned boosters had contact with the program

• Only allowed five full-time assistant coaches instead of the usual nine

• No off-campus recruiting until August 1988, no paid visits made to campus until start of 1988-89 school year

How long was SMU death penalty?

SMU's death penalty lasted the 1987 season, though the Mustangs were able to play scheduled away games in 1988. The team opted to cancel the season, however, due to concerns it wouldn't be able to field a competitive team. The Mustangs program returned in 1989, a season in which SMU went 2-9 and 0-8 in SWC play.

That said, it could be argued the repercussions of the death penalty were felt well after the punishment.

SMU did not have a winning season until 1997, when the Mustangs went 6-5. Its first bowl season after the fact came in 2009, when it went 8-5 and won the Hawaii Bowl. SMU's first 10-win season since the death penalty came in 2019, when it went 10-3.

It later went on to win 11 games in both 2023 and 2024, making the team's first 11-win seasons since going 11-0-1 in 1982 under Collins.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SMU death penalty, explained: Mustangs' recruiting violations in 1980s