Most NCAA Infractions: The Record No Team Wants To Hold

In the wake of the USC/Reggie Bush scandal, one can't help but wonder which teams and conferences have had the most sanctions and what were the reasons for them. There are many teams who have committed major infractions, and there have been almost as many types of punishments as there have been rule breakers. Below you will find the list of the teams with the most infractions,details of both the well known and lesser known scandals and their fallouts, and I will name the dirtiest coach in football as well.

1.Southern Methodist (SMU):Eight, all football.

2.Arizona State:Eight, mostly baseball.

3.Auburn:Seven, mixed bag of violations, biggest were football.

4.Florida State: Seven academic scandals mostly involving all sports. Most publicized were football related.

5.Oklahoma:Seven, five were football related.

6-10:Memphis, Texas A&M, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Wichita State also all had seven violations but none as big as the mentioned before.

Perhaps both the best and least well known example of rules violation and punishment is the 1986 case against SMU. From 1974-1985 the SMU Mustangs were caught for five major NCAA violations (for a grand total of seven), averaging a major infraction about every other year. Many of the violations concerned the payment of players, or a slush fund made available to them. After an NCAA investigation found that over $61,000 was made available to a player, the NCAA handed down what was known as the death penalty. SMU's 1987 season would be cancelled along with all 1988 home games.

They would lose 55 scholarships over the next four years and be barred from off-campus recruiting. Most all the team transferred, resulting in them having to cancel the partial 1988 season as well. From 1980-1986 SMU's record was 52-19-1, and since their record is 64-158-3. 

Auburn has had seven violations for various causes, the worst of which consisted of boosters paying players for performance. Players got paid to play and received "bonuses" for forced fumbles, touchdowns, interceptions etc. This happened while Pat Dye was the head coach, and reports indicate that Pat Dye himself was directly involved with helping players secure illegal loans from banks.

Oklahoma had five football-related violations, from various times in program history. The most well known of these was the Rhett Bomar scandal, where quarterback Bomar received money (in the form of a weekly paychecks for a total of about $7,000) from a booster for a job he never did. OU only lost four scholarships

Former coach, and current ESPN analyst Lou Holtz who was responsible for getting four of his teams put on NCAA probation for major violations, wins the dirtiest coach award.

Dirtiest Conferences:
1. Big 12:39 football related major violations

2. SEC (Surely Everyone's Cheating) 32 football related major violations

3.Pac-10: 26 football related major violations

4. Big 10: 19 football related major violations

5.ACC: 17 football related major violations

Note: Big East was next with 9.