Sports WI: SMU Skirts the Death Penalty

Something that came up in conversation with my fraternity brothers a few days ago when talking about Miami's recent troubles. The only reason, claimed one of them, that Miami isn't getting the death penalty is because it irreversibly destroyed SMU's program back in the '80s and nobody at the NCAA wants to be responsible for killing another historic program. Whether or not that's true, it does bring up an interesting point. SMU in the 1980s was a powerhouse program that routinely made rankings and bowl games.

Obviously, 30-odd years of butterflies can do a lot with a collegiate program but if the NCAA had opted to just boot some coaches, ban players, or any number of other lesser penalties is it possible that SMU could continue to be a regular top-25 appearance?
 
I think you might have to avoid SMU getting in trouble for a while to avoid Penalties altogether... they'd probably have to lose out on getting Sean Stopperich and/or not have to kick David Stanley off the team, so that they avoid sanctions for a few years - long enough to avoid the death penalty anyways, and (hopefully for SMU) someone else gets it and finds their program utterly destroyed, so that the NCAA doesn't go after them with it when they do get caught. Dunno who would get it though; that 30-for-30 on SMU made it seem like while SMU wasn't the only program cheating like this even in the SWC, they were probably the worst and the one that the NCAA didn't feel too guilty for trying it on.
 
SMU had a decent tradition in football, and in the 1980's they had cheated themselves into a dominant (but not necessarily the permantly dominant) position in the old Southwest Conference. As a "big city private school" even a cheating SMU would ultimately have trouble keeping up with the Texases, Texas A&Ms, Oklahomas, and Arkansases around.

Here's a guess though. If SMU had not gotten the death penalty and remained a quasi-powerhouse with normal NCAA sanctions, it's more likely that the old Southwest Conference would have survived or, when it fell apart, SMU and not Baylor would have gone with Texas, A&M, and Texas Tech into the Big 12. That would have kept the Mustangs around as one of those teams that gain stature simply because of the conference it's in, even if the other NCAA penalties made them a weaker program for many years. Seriously, I doubt that SMU would ever return to the level they were at in the 1980's, but they might get to and stay at the Texas Tech or Oklahoma State level (decent most years but rarely a real contender). However, college football is quite a bit different now with all the college realignment being talked about. SMU will always be second fiddle in its own home town to the Dallas Cowboys (not to mention the Mavs, Rangers, and Rangers). If they joined the Big 12 and it falls apart as looks likely, I doubt even a pretty good SMU would be a highly sought-after team for another conference.
 
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