SMU Is Hit Hard by NCAA Penalties

The NCAA, citing Southern Methodist University’s “history of involvement” in rule violations, placed a three-year probation on the Mustang football program Friday that includes an unprecedented reduction of 45 scholarships.

A lengthy list of penalties accompanying the Southwest Conference school’s fourth probation in 11 years also calls for sanctions prohibiting television and bowl appearances and punishment of certain unnamed staff members.

Most critically, SMU will not be allowed to give any football scholarships next season and only 15 the following year. This is in line with a resolution adopted this year by the American Football Coaches Assn. urging the NCAA to make greater use of scholarship cuts in punishing rule-breakers.

In a statement issued in Dallas just after the NCAA announcement, SMU President L. Donald Shields said: “SMU acknowledges with great embarrassment and regret the violations of NCAA rules which have occurred in the intercollegiate football program.”

Shields said he has “initiated a variety of corrective actions . . . against a number of boosters and have dissociated several permanently from future involvement in any of the university intercollegiate programs.”

He did not name any of those boosters, and two boosters contacted by the Associated Press Friday night in Dallas declined comment.

The case marks the fourth time in 11 years that SMU has been put on NCAA probation, “and these cases have included findings that the university has been involved in violations during 11 of the last 14 years,” Wilford Bailey, NCAA secretary-treasurer, said in a statement.

“Based upon the serious violations in this case, as well as the university’s history of involvement in previous infractions cases, the (NCAA) believed that the severe penalties proposed by the Committee on Infractions in this case were appropriate, including severe grant-in-aid limitations.”

In what was previously thought to be the most severe scholarship cut, Florida last year was stripped of a total of 30 grants over a two-year period. Clemson, less than a year after winning the 1982 national championship, was stripped of 20 grants over two years.

NCAA rules allow a maximum of 30 football scholarships each year and a total of 95 in all sports.

The NCAA release included four pages of single-spaced listings of alleged violations from 1981 through 1984. Violations included giving $5,000 in cash to the family of a prospect and promising the young man a $300 monthly cash allowance during his SMU career; paying the cost of repairing players’ cars; giving cash amounts up to $2,000 to family members of other players being recruited, and providing improper transportation, lodging and entertainment expenses to recruits and their family members.

Specifically, the probation:

--Prohibits SMU, expected to be among the most powerful teams in the nation this year, from playing in postseason bowl games after the 1985 and 1986 seasons.

--Prohibits the school from having its games on any live telecasts during the 1986 season.

--Orders that during the probation period of three years, effective on Friday, SMU “shall make every reasonable effort to ensure that outside representatives of the university’s athletic interests are not engaged in any activities related to the recruitment of prospective student-athletes in the sport of football on behalf of the institution. . . .”

--Orders that one assistant coach, who was not named, be placed on probation and not be allowed to recruit until May 1, 1986, and that his salary be reduced 15%.

--Orders that one unnamed athletic department staff member be given a written notice that action may be taken against him if he is involved in more violations.

The NCAA said a number of SMU boosters had already been disassociated from the athletic program.

The sanctions do not include the so-called death-penalty measures adopted in June at a special NCAA convention. However, it puts the Mustangs in danger of having their program suspended for as long as two years if they are convicted of another major violation before Aug 16, 1990.

The NCAA release said the policy-making NCAA Council, in its meetings in Boston this week, flatly rejected an appeal from SMU to have the sanctions watered down. SMU spokesmen have said during the highly publicized case that they may sue the NCAA.

Bobby Collins replaced Ron Meyer as head coach at SMU after the 1981 season and has led the Mustangs to a 31-4-1 record for a winning percentage of .875.

The NCAA release said that four SMU boosters have been permanently barred from helping the school recruit and from associating with any SMU recruit or enrolled athlete. Another unnamed “outside representative” was suspended for three years from having “any personal relationship” with a prospective or enrolled student-athlete of the university.

Two “outside representatives” were prohibited for at least three years from helping the school recruit.

“The flagrant violations by outside representatives who participated in the university’s recruiting process with the knowledge of the football coaching staff clearly warrants action to discourage the university from relying on such individuals in the recruitment of football team members,” the NCAA’s Bailey was quoted as saying.

He added that he hopes by not using outside representatives in recruiting for three years that SMU can develop a “more balanced perspective among supporters of a football program.”

Shields said in his statement that SMU officials will discuss the matter at a press conference Monday on the school’s Dallas campus.