First, the NCAA threatened. But the violations escalated. Finally, they made good the threat, on SMU. It really WAS a kind of "death", took a generation plus for the Mustangs to make it back to the land of the "living", competitively-speaking. That was deemed just too extreme, too drastic a penalty for one corrupt regime among many. After a while, folks got the idea that they'd never do it again--"Everybody said". So in time it got out of control again, this time WAY far gone, multiple extreme violations everywhere, just a question of degree...by now there are a number of big time programs that have broken the most fundamental rules many times, been caught doing it and are in the process of being exposed publicly. This time there are too MANY "bad guys". How do they "make an example" of all of them? The NCAA is trapped by its own inconsistency and failure to follow its own "rules". In so doing, they have made themselves irrelevant--the rest of the "big time" programs MUST be coming to realize that now. Hopefully, they'll face it full square, seize their own future (our future) withOUT the NCAA, reorganize and move on.