Volmeister
Junior Member
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2004
- Messages
- 72
- Likes
- 174
Gov. Bill remained perfectly in character when SMU, his alma mater, landed on NCAA probation for football violations. Some programs get caught speeding. SMU was rocketing like an S-class BMW down the Munich-to-Frankfurt autobahn.
Along with the usual cash, cars and other considerations, SMU had been setting up trust funds for top recruits. They paid to relocate the entire family of one player from Pennsylvania, found a job for his unemployed father and set them all up in swanky digs.
When this ungrateful player became disillusioned and blew the whistle, the NCAAwhich somehow had failed to connect the smoke belching from SMU's program with the insight that there might be a firecame down like a big dog. Not long after receiving official sanctions, the school's board of governors sat down to discuss strategy.
"Boys," said Gov. Bill, "the way I see it, we made an obligation to these young men when we paid them to play football for us. And I don't want us to become known as scumbags who don't fulfill their obligations."
Not many people could have persuaded a governing boardeven one as road-lizard crazy as SMU'sthat continuing to cheat while on probation was morally the right thing to do. Of course, it was precisely this scofflaw act that left the bug-eyed enforcers from the NCAA with little choice but to slap SMU with the first football "death penalty" in history.
Along with the usual cash, cars and other considerations, SMU had been setting up trust funds for top recruits. They paid to relocate the entire family of one player from Pennsylvania, found a job for his unemployed father and set them all up in swanky digs.
When this ungrateful player became disillusioned and blew the whistle, the NCAAwhich somehow had failed to connect the smoke belching from SMU's program with the insight that there might be a firecame down like a big dog. Not long after receiving official sanctions, the school's board of governors sat down to discuss strategy.
"Boys," said Gov. Bill, "the way I see it, we made an obligation to these young men when we paid them to play football for us. And I don't want us to become known as scumbags who don't fulfill their obligations."
Not many people could have persuaded a governing boardeven one as road-lizard crazy as SMU'sthat continuing to cheat while on probation was morally the right thing to do. Of course, it was precisely this scofflaw act that left the bug-eyed enforcers from the NCAA with little choice but to slap SMU with the first football "death penalty" in history.
