The biggest college football scandals

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Shapiro in Miami. Bush at USC. Tattoos and fat checks in Ohio.

Scandals have reemerged in college football over the last year (as if it had ever cleaned up). Read on to see if any of the three embarrassments above make the list of the 10 worst scandals in college football history.

10. West Point Cheaters

After World War II, the Army Black Knights were the biggest football team in America. The NFL was irrelevant at the time and going into the 1951 season, the Black Knights were supposed to field another great team. Instead, they were pounded by an underwhelming Navy Midshipmen squad 14-2. Shortly after the game, a report filed by cadets on the football team stated that fellow members of the football team and other cadets were cheating on exams. An investigation ensued, and a massive cheating ring was uncovered.

In total 83 cadets, including 37 lettering football players (one of which was the coach’s son), were expelled from West Point. The team was almost entirely dismantled. Army Football was so dominant in those days that only two years later they were named the best team in the East and were awarded the Lambert-Meadowlands Trophy.

9. Lee Dyke’s Confessions

Hart Lee Dykes was a prototype wide receiver in the mid-’80s and was heavily recruited by Illinois, Texas A&M, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State. They all wanted him badly–badly enough to offer him whopping amounts of cash. He ended up going to OSU and had an extremely good career. When the NCAA came crashing down on him just a couple years later, he accepted partial immunity and ratted out everybody.

He admitted to receiving a $5,000 “signing bonus” when he chose the Cowboys and over two years he accepted at least $23,000 dollars in benefits. He told investigators about the “bidding wars” between the four schools that courted him and in the end the NCAA reprimanded all four schools, but brought the hammer down on OSU to the tune of: 4-year probation, 3-year Bowl ban, 2-year TV ban, loss of 35 recruiting visits and 15 scholarships.

 

8. Charley and Danny Buy Some Wins

From 1978 to 1982, the Clemson Tigers were involved in giving a number of benefits to prospective recruits. From T-shirts to tennis shoes, dental bills to ankle examinations, plane rides to car rides, it’s all in the report. Coach Charley Pell bailed for Florida while the payments were taking place and left Danny Ford to man the scandal ship. And that he did. Ford  continued to allow payments until the NCAA came knocking.

The NCAA claimed Pell allowed benefits to be given and Ford’s coaches continued the benefits. However, Clemson was allowed to keep their ‘78 and ’81 ACC titles, as well as their ’81 national championship. The NCAA punished Clemson with a 2-year Bowl ban, 2-year TV ban, 2 years of probation and the loss of 20 scholarships.

7. Gamecocks on Steroids

In October 1988, Sports Illustrated published a story titled “The Nightmare of Steroids,” written by Tommy Chaikin and Rick Telander. Tommy Chaikin was a USC defensive lineman that faced intense suicidal thoughts and actions as a result of steroid use. The story not only showed how the steroids affected him, but also suggested that coaches knew about and possibly distributed steroids to players. According to Chaikin, over half of the team was using steroids, though that was never proven.

The article sent shockwaves through USC and led to a joint state and federal probe. Defensive Coordinator Tom Gadd was eventually acquitted of charges a year later, but tight ends coach Tom Kurucz plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of distributing steroids to players and a felony charge of lying to a grand jury. Defensive line coach James Washburn, strength and conditioning coach Keith Kephart and John L. Carter of Bethesda, Md., were all found guilty of lesser charges. South Carolina escaped sanctions when the NCAA declared they found no serious rule violations.

6. Logan Young Empties His Pockets

Memphis businessman Logan Young was an Alabama football fan and booster. He loved the Tide so much that he agreed to pay Lynn Lang, a head football coach of a Memphis high school, $150,000 to convince defensive lineman Albert Means to commit to Alabama. Means committed, but his return on the field would not be worth the investment. Not at all. Means transferred to Memphis after only one season. Young then used $20,000 to entice recruit Kenny Smith to come to Alabama.

In 2002, Young was found guilty of conspiracy to commit racketeering (by breaking state bribery laws), crossing state lines to commit racketeering and arranging bank withdrawals to cover up a crime. He was sentenced to six months in prison and six months home confinement after his release. Lang and one of his assistant coaches plead guilty to racketeering conspiracy to avoid jail time as the lead witnesses against Young. Alabama had just come off probation, so when the NCAA found 11 major violations and 5 minor ones, they considered the death penalty. In the end, Alabama received 5 years probation, a 2-year Bowl ban and the loss of 21 scholarships.

5. Reggie Bush Gets Paid to Play

The 2005 NCAA probe of Reggie Bush centered around the relationship between Bush and an agent. The allegations were that Bush’s mother and stepfather were provided a San Diego-area home in exchange for Bush signing on with the owner of the house, a would-be agent, as a client. The agent, and several others, claim to have given Bush and his parents something to the tune of $300,000 cash as well. They are now allegedly building cases against Bush and his parents in civil court to get back their investments.

The NCAA cracked down hard on USC, not only because of Bush, but because of hiring infractions on the football team, basketball violations and, of course, women‘s tennis violations. The NCAA combined their probe of Bush with that of O.J. Mayo and hit both programs hard when the verdict came in. Here’s what they slapped the football team with: 4 years’ probation, 2-year Bowl ban, vacated regular and post season wins and the loss of 30 scholarships.

4. Pell’s Back at It

Charley Pell left Clemson amidst scandal in 1979 only to go to the University of Florida and bring his corrupt ways to The Swamp. His record of 8-4 in 1980 was the biggest win improvement in NCAA history (the team went 0-10-1 his first year). It would be a feel-good story had he not been cheating the entire time.

In 1985 the NCAA charged Florida with 107 rules violations including allegations of a slush fund, paying players and spying on opponent’s practices. The 107 violations is still a record. The most damning part of the investigation was when Pell lied about the slush fund. He originally asked to resign, but when the 107 violations were reported, he was immediately ousted as head coach three games into the season. The result: 2 years’ probation, 2-year Bowl ban, 2-year TV ban and loss of 20 scholarships.

3. Miami’s Pell Grant Fiasco

Academic advising isn’t the University of Miami’s strong suit. Just ask Tony Russell. Russell was an academic adviser at the U and from ’89 to ’91 he falsified Pell Grants to the tune of $212,969 being kicked back to student athletes, many of whom were football players. On top of that, $412,000 was accessed by improperly calculating off-campus room and board. In total, it was confirmed 85 athletes received improper benefits.

The numbers are staggering. What makes it worse is that it is money that is meant for students who actually need it to get an education. It was the first ever case of Federal-student aid fraud that involved an athletic department at a major university.The NCAA also concluded that the football program was unable to follow its own drug testing policy.

Russell was sentenced to three years in federal prison and the NCAA heavily considered the death penalty for the ‘Canes. In the end this was just another step in Miami Football’s very short and dirty past. Miami got off the hook relatively light: a 1-year Bowl ban and the loss of 31 scholarships.

2. The Colorado Sex Scandal

In 2001, University of Colorado student Lisa Simpson filed a police report claiming she was raped by Colorado football players and recruits. A month later former Colorado kicker Katie Hnida, the first female to play and score in NCAA Division-1 A Football,  told Sports Illustrated that she had been raped by a teammate in 1999 and sexually abused by others. In the following weeks, more women came forward and claimed to be raped and/or sexually abused by Colorado football players and recruits. The claims were shocking and horrifying. Eight women eventually brought accusations against the football program.

The only thing more horrifying than the rape allegations was the way head coach Gary Barnett handled the situation. After the SI story ran, Barnett criticized Hnida, who was kicking for New Mexico at the time, and said the players at the time didn’t respect her because she was “awful” and “couldn’t kick it through the uprights”. He went on to speak foolishly for months.  Barnett was eventually fired, but not before he, his players and recruits soiled the program forever.

1. SMU Sentenced to Death

Probation? Who cares? Not SMU. In the middle of a probationary period, SMU continued to break nearly every rule in the book, especially the one that states that you are not allowed to pay players. A giant slush fund was put together by boosters, including Bill Clements, who was on the SMU Board of Governors and later became governor of  Texas in the midst of this scandal.

In 1986 the NCAA revealed that a slush fund had been maintained by boosters for the football team since the mid ’70s. SMU was paying players anywhere from $50 to $725 dollars a week, paid players’ rent and provided many players large lump sums as “signing bonuses”. Eric Dickerson was famously in question about recruiting benefits when he began driving a new Pontiac Trans-Am his senior year of high school. He has since hinted that he got a hefty present to go to SMU.

They may have gotten away with it had Clements and boosters not decided that, even though they were on probation, they had an obligation to pay the 13 remaining players on the slush list their promised amounts. He’s a man of his word.

The SMU story has everything in the list rolled into one, which is why SMU got what no other program has received: The death penalty.

The result?

The 1987 season was canceled; only conditioning drills were permitted during the 1987 calendar year. All home games in 1988 were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected. The existing ban from Bowls and TV was extended 3 more years and their probation was extended 4 years. They lost 55 scholarships and 4 assistant coaching positions. SMU did not field a team for two years and have had only three winning seasons since the death penalty, 2009 and 2010 being two of them.

Will any other school knock off SMU from the top of this list? Cynics would say it’s only a matter of time.

Sources: Not in Order

2. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1021059/index.htm
3.http://www.chron.com/CDA/archives/archive.mpl/1989_595502/oklahoma-st-gets-4-year-probation.html
4. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1067916/index.htm
5.http://articles.latimes.com/1989-08-11/sports/sp-143_1_south-carolina-coaches-sentenced
6. http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/06/10/usc-trojans-get-black-eye-over-reggie-bush-scandal/
7.http://www.sptimes.com/News/053001/Sports/Coaching_at_all_costs.shtml
8.http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58965-2005Feb2.html
9.http://www.people.com/people/archive/article/0,,20149501,00.html
10.http://blog.chron.com/sportsmedia/2011/05/remembering-bill-clements-and-the-smu-death-penalty/

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