The "Death Penalty"

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The "death penalty" refers to the National Collegiate Athletic Association's (NCAA) power to force United States academic institutions to shut down certain sport programs for up to two years, following repeated violations while on NCAA probation.

[edit] Example

The "death penalty" is the most severe punishment a school can receive and as such has only been implemented once, for football, against Southern Methodist University (SMU) in 1987 and 1988 due to allegations players were receiving money from SMU while the school was on probation. As a result:

  • The 1987 season was completely cancelled
  • All recruits and players were allowed to transfer to other schools without penalty.
  • All home games in 1988 were cancelled, but SMU was allowed to play their regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected. Ultimately, SMU decided to cancel the 1988 season.
  • SMU was banned from bowl games for two years.
  • SMU was banned from television appearances for two years.
  • SMU lost 55 new scholarship positions over 4 years.
  • The team was only allowed to hire 2 assistant coaches, instead of the typical 3.

[edit] Fallout

Before the "death penalty" was instituted SMU was a regular conference and national title contender compiling a 52-19-1 record from 1980 until 1986. Afterwards, players were reluctant to attend a school with a history of such major recruiting violations. Since 1990 SMU has only defeated 2 ranked teams, has only 1 winning season, and is 47-119-3[1]. The death penalty decimated the Southwest Conference's reputation and finances, contributing to the collapse of the entire conference in 1996. One of the most memorable quotes about the death penalty came from former University of Florida President John Lombardi, "SMU taught the committee that the death penalty is too much like the nuclear bomb. It's like what happened after we dropped the (atom) bomb in World War II. The results were so catastrophic that now we'll do anything to avoid dropping another one.” [2]

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://cfbdatawarehouse.com/data/div_ia/conferenceusa/southern_methodist/index.php College Football Data Warehouse. Accessed July 7, 2006.
  2. ^ http://people.smu.edu/adedo/Default.htm SMU and the Death Penalty. Accessesd July 7th, 2006.
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