SMU/Penn. St.

BergHawk7

Well-Known Member
First thing, sorry about another penn. St thread, but I thought this was interesting.

Just finished watching PONEY EXSESS from espn about the death penalty and the simularities to the situation with smu and penn st. stick out like a sore thumb besides the obvious reasons each was penalized. Coaches from all over came to smu to recruit their players once they recieved the DP, some waited in the parking lot. Even Talks about "these players are being punished for someone elses mistake", its has me thinking one thing....

Im 21 years old and I see SMU now only as a crap conf. Usa team that makes no noise and I think nothing of when i see their logo. Most of you were around in the 80s to see smu as a powerhouse and so you remember them better. In 20 yrs from now when a 20 year old looks at that penn st. Logo, what are they going to think?
 
as far as punishments go they are similar, but i think penn state has had a longer stay of success so i think their brand/prestige will be able to stand the punishment better. although how well that is i cant say...they could fall very far just like smu, i just think they have a better shot of getting through it
 
Penn State will rebound MUCH quicker and farther than SMU. SMU was given a one year (or 1.5 year?) death penalty, but they voluntarily chose to make it a full two years with no football. SMU also chose to deemphasize football and make it a much less important part of the SMU experience. They were also in one of the biggest football conferences in the country, the South West Conference, along with Texas, Texas A&M, Arkansas , TCU, etc., but the SWC folded and left SMU out in the cold with only CUSA to fall back on.

Penn State is still in one of the biggest, most lucrative conferences in the country. They still have one of the top 5 largest alumni bases in the country. They still have a 108,000 seat stadium and top of the line facilities. The vibe I am getting makes me believe that their is no desire to deemphasize football in State College, PA. After Penn State has weathered the storm that they are now currently in, they will soon again have plenty of cash, be in a great conference, have a huge fan base, plenty of support and encouragement and should be in a good position to make a comeback.
 
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If you paid close attention to that television program you would have seen the massive structural differences between SMU and PSU.

For instance, SMU - 12,000 students, PSU - 96,000

SMU was more like Boise. The only way they could have that kind of success was to cheat. And, contrary to the other poster's point, the SWC was NOT one of the biggest conferences. It was a bunch of CUSA type programs in Texas and two big Texas schools and Arkansas. Basically, it was a small regional conference that got big pub because of of Texas.
 
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one of the differences is major...what caused the penalties...the smu players (not all but many) brought it on themselves as they accepted gifts to play. i know other schools do it but their boosters were paying kids so much it was incredible. the psu players truely had nothing to do with getting in trouble.
 
If you paid close attention to that television program you would have seen the massive structural differences between SMU and PSU.

For instance, SMU - 12,000 students, PSU - 96,000

SMU was more like Boise. The only way they could have that kind of success was to cheat. And, contrary to the other poster's point, the SWC was NOT one of the biggest conferences. It was a bunch of CUSA type programs in Texas and two big Texas schools and Arkansas. Basically, it was a small regional conference that got big pub because of of Texas.

Six of the nine former SWC member teams (Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor, Texas Tech, Arkansas, TCU) are now currently in BCS conferences (Big 12 and SEC). SWC teams have won multiple national championships and Heisman awards. In its heighth is was basically on the same level as the SEC and Big 8.

Back in the day, ALL conferences were "regional."
 
First thing, sorry about another penn. St thread, but I thought this was interesting.

Just finished watching PONEY EXSESS from espn about the death penalty and the simularities to the situation with smu and penn st. stick out like a sore thumb besides the obvious reasons each was penalized. Coaches from all over came to smu to recruit their players once they recieved the DP, some waited in the parking lot. Even Talks about "these players are being punished for someone elses mistake", its has me thinking one thing....

Im 21 years old and I see SMU now only as a crap conf. Usa team that makes no noise and I think nothing of when i see their logo. Most of you were around in the 80s to see smu as a powerhouse and so you remember them better. In 20 yrs from now when a 20 year old looks at that penn st. Logo, what are they going to think?

Hopefully, they'll think, hey, that's a pretty average ACC team.
 
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