College Football: Why the Death Penalty Is Wrong

No, I am not about to give a social commentary about capital punishment.

However, I will gladly write about the history of the NCAA’s worst punishment and the injustice that accompanies it.

Before you continuing reading, you should understand that I am not a Miami Hurricanes fan and that I am a Florida State fan coming to the aid of my rivals.

Everyone knows the history of the NCAA’s death penalty against football programs; or should I say program?

In the 1980s, the NCAA used its harshest punishment on the Southern Methodist University Mustangs, effectively knocking the wheels off the Pony Express.

The punishment was levied because boosters payed players and gave other benefits out of a slush fund, which was deemed unlawful by NCAA regulations.

It ranks as one of the worst NCAA scandals in history, along with one of the biggest embarrassments in college athletics.

The Pony Express was to cease and desist all football operations, other than light practices, for one year, which eventually turned into two because SMU deemed they could not field a team worthy to compete.

Over the next 20 years, SMU did not have a single bowl game appearance until coach June Jones led them to a Hawaii Bowl win in 2009 over Nevada.

The lesson the NCAA should have learned from carrying out the death penalty is that the punishment carries too harsh a consequence.

A comparison between the death penalty and a nuclear weapon has been made multiple times in that the NCAA will do nearly anything to keep the punishment from being used because of its overt harshness.

Apparently the governing body of college athletics didn’t learn the lesson from SMU and is considering bringing back the death penalty for another tour.

I don’t believe the death penalty is a fair punishment as it hurts those who are not truly guilty.

It's like in elementary school where the teacher punished the class for your lost Pokémon cards, when it was actually the kid in the back who was just thinking up new ways to take take them.  The innocent will be punished the same as the guilty parties.

When the penalty was used against SMU in the ‘80s, the program was crippled and is just now getting back on its feet over two decades later.

If Miami is issued a death penalty they could recover slightly quicker, but it will be a long road back for them.  The innocent players will suffer the consequences more than the players who are guilty.

After the incident at SMU, it was the players who stayed and immediately after that suffered the indignity.

Looking closer at the ‘Canes’ program, it would be unfair to the newly hired coaches Al Golden and Jim Larranaga, who were not guilty or aware of any violations, to be forced to deal with someone else’s iniquities.

The effect will be felt beyond Coral Gables and other programs will also be victims of Miami’s indecency.

Another possible victim of this ruling could be FSU, as I wrote in a previous article, by losing the competition from their top in-conference rival.

The ACC is also on the hit list if the Hurricanes get decimated by a death penalty ruling. If the ACC loses a team for competition, that is eight games off the ACC schedule. That is also eight games that won’t bring in revenue for the conference and its teams.

The death penalty not only killed SMU football years ago, it also killed the Southwest Conference. This move effectively eliminated an athletic conference and hurt the athletic programs affiliated with the conference.

It is unlikely that the ACC with fall into the abyss in the case the ‘Canes receive the death penalty, but it would definitely take a serious hit.

It is my hope that the Miami Hurricanes are not dealt the severest of penalties because it will devastate one of the most historic college football programs.

I do believe there should be a harsh punishment handed down to the Miami program, but not the death penalty because of its unfair and unnecessary nature.