Warning, Be sure to have a cup of coffee close, because this is somewhat long, but its good for Monday morning discussion.


I find the SMU Death Penalty story from the 1980s fascinating, and for those of you thinking The Cheaters Up North (TCUN) will NOT receive the DP from the NCAA in 2017, I wouldn?t be so sure. While reading about the Pony Express, several other DP cases came to light that while I was aware of, I had somewhat forgotten about.


Morehouse College, 2003
In 2003, the soccer team of Morehouse College in Atlanta was given the Death Penalty by the NCAA while having NOT been previously placed on probation or penalized for infractions. The USA Today article from 2003 (Steve Wieberg, 11/13/2003) quotes the NCAA?s Kay Hawes as saying ?It?s a situation where the committee found there was a complete failure to have a program comply with NCAA rules and that?s not something you see very often.?


Baylor, 2005
Research regarding the Baylor men?s basketball team?s 2004 demise over the murder of a former player, Eric Dotson, (which led Lawrence Roberts to MSU) led to numerous other NCAA violations being uncovered and warranted Death Penalty consideration by the NCAA. With the head coach complicit in the cover-up of Dotson, additional violations included:

(1) paying for player?s tuition;
(2) coaching staff paying for meals, clothing, lodging, transportation;
(3) recruiting violations relating to illegal tryouts;
(4) head coach encouraging boosters to donate to foundation tied to basketball team that
included prospective Baylor recruits (Network anyone???);
(5) failure to report positive drug tests by athletes;
(6) failure by entire coaching staff to ?exercise institutional control over basketball program;?


According to Wikipedia, ?In its final report, the NCAA called the violations at Baylor as serious as those which occurred at SMU almost 20 years earlier. Indeed, Baylor was eligible for the "death penalty" since its men's tennis program was on probation for major violations; the NCAA can hand down the death penalty for a second major violation within five years, even if it occurs in a different sport. However, it praised Baylor for taking prompt action once the violations came to light (in marked contrast to SMU, where there was evidence that administrators knew about the violations and did nothing).?


Several things can be taken from the last paragraph:

First, Baylor WAS eligible for the DP because the tennis team was already on probation. Regarding TCUN, with WBB and men?s track being placed on probation in late October, 2016, they are eligible to be hit with the DP, especially since they may very well have been caught during this last recruiting cycle in late November or December (2016) violating the NCAA rules (AGAIN!!!).

Second, the Baylor administration proactively attacked these problems by firing the head coach and canceling out-of-conference games for the upcoming season. The Cheaters Up North have practically done the exact opposite in terms of taking prompt action. In fact, if rumors are true that the Network continued their act while the NCAA?s investigation was ongoing, woe be unto them!!!

Third, regarding Morehouse? DP ? are we not seeing a complete failure by TCUN to comply with NCAA rules? How so, you might ask?

2013 Tunsil (cash payments from coaches via NFL draft night, loaner cars on 3 or 4 occasions in NOA #1, rumors of housing for parents)

2014 Austin Gohlson (Auburn transfer with rumored immunity for Network info)

2015 Bo Scarborough (Bama RB with rumored immunity for Network info)

2016 Leo Lewis (MSU LB with rumored immunity for Network info)

2016 Greg Little (mother?s recent admission of receiving payment to attend school in Oxford and then backtracking)

2017 Willie Gay (MSU LB rumored to have turned over Network info to NCAA)


Surely lack of institutional control is on the horizon and given that these violations are spanning such a long time-frame and are coming from so many different players, and given what the NCAA did to Morehouse a little more than a decade ago in 2003 (?where there was a complete failure to have a program comply with NCAA rules?) and what they said regarding Baylor in 2005, the argument that the Death Penalty is definitely on the table can definitely be made.

After all, when you?ve been told to shut down improprieties (ie, ongoing investigation since 2013) and continue to violate the governing rules (from 2010 - present), should any one be surprised when it all gets taken away?