Watch 30 For 30 - Pony Excess (Thaddeus D. Matula)

Description: From 1981-1984, a small private school in Dallas, the Mustangs of Southern Methodist University (SMU), had the best record in college football. But as the middle of the decade approached, the program began disintegrating. The University increasingly ceded power of the football program to the city's oil barons and real estate tycoons and flagrant and frequent NCAA violations became the norm. On February 25, 1987 the NCAA meted out "the death penalty" on a college football program for the first and only time in its history. SMU would be without football for two years, and the fan base would be without an identity for 20 more until the Mustangs' win in the 2009 Hawaii Bowl. More