Albert Reese, a tight end at Southern...

Albert Reese, a tight end at Southern Methodist, won’t be allowed to play today against Texas Tech, so that SMU officials can study allegations that he stayed in a rent-free apartment supplied by a school booster, Athletic Director Bob Hitch said.

The Dallas Morning News reported Friday that former and current employees of Dallas developer George Owen said Owen’s office told them to provide apartments for Reese and David Stanley, the former SMU player who says school officials gave him $25,000 in 1983 to play at SMU.

The Reese development followed Stanley’s revelations Wednesday in a television interview about the $25,000, plus $750 in monthly payments that he said he continued to get even after SMU was placed on National Collegiate Athletic Assn. probation last year.

Athletic department officials have denied it, but if Stanley is correct, the university could lose its football program for two years under the NCAA’s “death penalty” rule.