The Lasting Impact of NCAA Sanctions: SMU and the Death Penalty Kerianne Lawson∗ West Virginia University John Chambers College of Business and Economics Department of Economics Abstract In 1987, the Southern Methodist University (SMU) football program received the NCAA's harsh- est penalty, also known as the death penalty. SMU was caught committing two or more major violations of NCAA rules in less than five years. Therefore, under the repeat offender clause, their football program was terminated for the 1987-1988 school year, and they chose to take the next season off as well. Before this unprecedented and highly publicized scandal, SMU was a nationally ranked and competitive team. In the years following the death penalty, the team struggled to find success. Using the synthetic control method, this article measures the cost of the death penalty in terms of athletic success and the university's finances. JEL codes: Z20, Z23, I22 ∗
[email protected] 1 1 Introduction The Southern Methodist University (SMU) football team received the NCAA's \death penalty" in 1987. This is the harshest punishment that the NCAA can give to an athletic program, and SMU is the only collegiate football program to received the death penalty.1 The punishment was handed down under the repeat offender clause, which NCAA to shut down an athletic program if the schools has two or more violations of NCAA policies within five years. In SMU's case, the violations were related to compensating players. The NCAA discovered SMU continued to pay players despite already being on probation for a previous offense.