Sptspage: The Pizza Papers and TCU's 1985 football scandal

[BleedNPurple]

I was traveling home on Friday and hadn’t seen the news - was basking in the glow of being #13 in the nation when the guy next to me said haven’t you heard?? I found a USA Today and threw up. Thing is TCU being too honest conducted an investigation of benefits for players back to Day one of the university. Some of it was a suit to wear on the train for a road trip to a steak dinner to money to do laundry.

I remember Gil wrote it up the day the NCAA threw the book at us - TCU reported every little anything and every university in the country was hoping the NCAA would go light which would give every major rule breaking school a reason to also come forward, come clean, and start their programs going the right direction. Gil wrote when the NCAA punished us for our honesty you could every door in the halls of NCAA college athletics slam shut.

 

[Eight]

I was traveling home on Friday and hadn’t seen the news - was basking in the glow of being #13 in the nation when the guy next to me said haven’t you heard?? I found a USA Today and threw up. Thing is TCU being too honest conducted an investigation of benefits for players back to Day one of the university. Some of it was a suit to wear on the train for a road trip to a steak dinner to money to do laundry.

I remember Gill wrote it up the day the NCAA three the book at us - TCU reported every little anything and every university in the country was hoping the NCAA would go light which would give every major rule breaking school a reason to also come forward, come clean, and start their programs going the right direction. Gill wrote when the NCAA punished us for our honesty you could every door in the halls of NCAA college athletics slam shut.

i think this gets lost when people talk about the frogs get caught cheating in the 80's and how we got punished much more than the bigger schools.

the mo at that time was not to co-operate with the ncaa. ou was the first i believe to retain a law firm out of kc and basically defy the ncaa to prove the violations.

frogs not only suspended the players involved, but gave the ncaa everything, had players talk, hell had tyrone talk and in the end we paid for being honest.

not sure if that was the administration of wacker, but that is one big reason why i could not believe the press conference and the dog and pony show with fwpd with the "drug bust' a few years back

 

[BleedNPurple]

i think this gets lost when people talk about the frogs get caught cheating in the 80's and how we got punished much more than the bigger schools.

the mo at that type was not to co-operate with the ncaa. ou was the first i believe to retain a law firm out of kc and basically defy the ncaa to prove the violations.

frogs not only suspended the players involved, but gave the ncaa everything, had players talk, hell had tyrone talk and in the end we paid for being honest.

not sure if that was the administration of wacker, but that is one big reason why i could not believe the press conference and the dog and pony show with fwpd with the "drug bust' a few years back

After they gave us the living death penalty Chancellor Tucker said the NCAA from now on will have to do all of their own investigating and we will not be helping them on anything going forward. No coaches are to talk to the press about any NCAA issues nor speak to the NCAA without going through the Administration first.

Wacker went to the Star Telegram and turned us in before talking to the administration I believe. That was a mistake but he was trying to be brutally honest and start cleaning things up immediately - big mistake for that day and age.

 

[BleedNPurple]

Wish there was a freaking edit button but this version of software for a fan site was written by a 7th grader.

 

[BrewingFrog]

I seem to remember TCU dealing with the Living Death Penalty, and the very same year, Dale Hansen showing up in College Station with the paperwork from a Trans Am that some booster bought for the A&M QB. "Is this your signature?"

Nothing happened to A&M of course. Nothing ever happens to the likes of them.

 

[Zubaz]

I seem to remember TCU dealing with the Living Death Penalty, and the very same year, Dale Hansen showing up in College Station with the paperwork from a Trans Am that some booster bought for the A&M QB. "Is this your signature?"

Nothing happened to A&M of course. Nothing ever happens to the likes of them.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't A&M get hit with sanctions shortly after we did, including 2 years probation and a 1 year bowl ban (1988)? I thought that was what ultimately led to Jackie Sherrill's departure from College Station.

Then the same year they got off probation, they went back to it almost immediately, getting hit with 5 years of probation and a 1994 postseason ban that ultimately cost them a conference title, and very well could have cost them a national title if Nebraska wasn't a thing.

 

[BrewingFrog]

Probation. Yep, that showed 'em.

 

[Hoosierfrog]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't A&M get hit with sanctions shortly after we did, including 2 years probation and a 1 year bowl ban (1988)? I thought that was what ultimately led to Jackie Sherrill's departure from College Station.

Then the same year they got off probation, they went back to it almost immediately, getting hit with 5 years of probation and a 1994 postseason ban that ultimately cost them a conference title, and very well could have cost them a national title if Nebraska wasn't a thing.

https://mobile.nytimes.com/1988/09/10/sports/texas-a-m-penalized.html

 

[Zubaz]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/1988/09/10/sports/texas-a-m-penalized.html

What's the biggest difference between ours and their's, the extra year and the scholarship reductions?

 

[Eight]

What's the biggest difference between ours and their's, the extra year and the scholarship reductions?

guess the only other difference was jackie shortly left atm and wacker stayed on at tcu.

will say it again, atm did not turn over the evidence to the ncaa and aid their investigation. in fact, the ncaa really has no investigative authority so when a company like big red auto in norman told the ncaa they had somehow lost all the payroll records the ncaa could do nothing beyond bomar and the other player

the tcu case looked worse than damn near everyone other than smu because we were one of the few that the ncaa actually had a idea of what all was happening and tcu gave that to the ncaa

 

[watchfrog]

Probation. Yep, that showed 'em.

So true, they were so humbled they made this ring to always remember

https://m.ebay.com/itm/1994-Texas-a...-football-ring-/263764290596?oid=263730550869

 

[Zubaz]

I'm always interested by undefeated seasons during probation. 1994 A&M and 2012 Ohio State come to mind. Do their fans view that as a success in spite of sanctions, or as a real kick in the jimmer jammer that they went undefeated in a season where they were ineligible for the national title?

Then again, we know a thing or two about an undefeated season not getting a shot at the title...

 

[Frog-in-law1995]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't A&M get hit with sanctions shortly after we did, including 2 years probation and a 1 year bowl ban (1988)? I thought that was what ultimately led to Jackie Sherrill's departure from College Station.

Then the same year they got off probation, they went back to it almost immediately, getting hit with 5 years of probation and a 1994 postseason ban that ultimately cost them a conference title, and very well could have cost them a national title if Nebraska wasn't a thing.

That was during my Aggie time and trust me, if they got anywhere a near a natty back then, they’d have choked.

 

[Casey T]

https://mobile.nytimes.com/1988/09/10/sports/texas-a-m-penalized.html

The Failing New York Times!

 

[Big Frog II]

Yes, the Aggies got away with murder. We on the other hand got murdered by coming clean. The NCAA proved that lies and cover ups work.

 

[BleedNPurple]

guess the only other difference was jackie shortly left atm and wacker stayed on at tcu.

will say it again, atm did not turn over the evidence to the ncaa and aid their investigation. in fact, the ncaa really has no investigative authority so when a company like big red auto in norman told the ncaa they had somehow lost all the payroll records the ncaa could do nothing beyond bomar and the other player

the tcu case looked worse than damn near everyone other than smu because we were one of the few that the ncaa actually had a idea of what all was happening and tcu gave that to the ncaa

A$M got a slap on the wrist. We gave back our bowl $$ from the Bluebonnet bowl and previous years television revenues and lost 35 Scholly’s over a two year period.

https://www.ocregister.com/2010/12/30/it-has-been-a-long-road-back-for-tcu/

 

[Eight]

A$M got a slap on the wrist. We gave back our bowl $$ from the Bluebonnet bowl and previous years television revenues and lost 35 Scholly’s over a two year period.

https://www.ocregister.com/2010/12/30/it-has-been-a-long-road-back-for-tcu/

damn some of you want to play the martyr card on this.

if the police bring you in to talk and you confess to a string of robberies and not only give them the name of your crew, but have your crew confess and give details do you get charged w lesser crimes for making the investigation easier for the police?

TCU screwed itself by not only punishing itself, but giving an organization w no investigation authority all the details. seriously, go find another school that brought their courier back to talk to the NCAA because TCU did w Tyrone

why do you think tom perry has said if he had to do it again he would have told kenneth to stay quiet instead of telling coach wacker.

 

[denverfrog]

damn some of you want to play the martyr card on this.

if the police bring you in to talk and you confess to a string of robberies and not only give them the name of your crew, but have your crew confess and give details do you get charged w lesser crimes for making the investigation easier for the police?

TCU screwed itself by not only punishing itself, but giving an organization w no investigation authority all the details. seriously, go find another school that brought their courier back to talk to the NCAA because TCU did w Tyrone

why do you think tom perry has said if he had to do it again he would have told kenneth to stay quiet instead of telling coach wacker.

Seem to remember that a certain strength coach left TCU for a job at SMU, knew the whole story of what we were doing, SMU called gave us the choice of coming clean publicly or having the story released. Wacker chose to release. For the record, we were minor league compared to other schools, and until the very end we had a nasty habit of paying high school studs that morphed into College busts.

 

[denverfrog]

Seem to remember that a certain strength coach left TCU for a job at SMU, knew the whole story of what we were doing, SMU called gave us the choice of coming clean publicly or having the story released. Wacker chose to release. For the record, we were minor league compared to other schools, and until the very end we had a nasty habit of paying high school studs that morphed into College busts.

When we finally paid and got the right players, we drew attention and got exposed. The idea of Wacker not knowing the situation when he got here is crazy. He just wanted it to stop

 

[BrewingFrog]

SMU had a "dirt file" not only on us, but on every other SWC program. The reason the NCAA lowered the boom on SMU was that they were 1.) Flagrantly guilty, and 2.) As an group of petty "Enforcers" the NCAA needed to make an example of somebody, and they chose SMU to do it. They certainly weren't going to lower the Death Penalty on A&M, even though they were far more flagrantly guilty than SMU, because they were A&M! Nor were they going to smack UT dead for the same reasons. SMU was a fine "gettable" program. Crushing them would allow the Name Brand Programs to regain the top spots and restore the proper order of things.

Wacker was faced with an array of bad options, and chose the one which he considered the best based on his trust that the NCAA actually believed in it's stated goals and purpose. As events showed, the NCAA is not interested in any of that, and cannot be trusted. Not much has changed in 30-odd years...