NCAA penalties could leave Sooners with a winless 2005 football season
By Scott Wright
Published: July 12, 2007
NORMAN — In 113 years, the tradition-rich Oklahoma football program had only one season without a victory.
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On Wednesday, the NCAA made it two.
As part of the punishment for the transgressions of former players Rhett Bomar, J.D. Quinn and Jermaine Hardison, the Sooners were required to vacate all eight wins for the 2005 football season — a piece of the NCAA ruling that OU plans to challenge — including the Holiday Bowl victory over Oregon.
So the official record book will read 0-4 for the Sooners in 2005, a unique twist in the NCAA's decision. In several cases, the NCAA has required teams to forfeit games, thus making each game count as a loss. But the Sooners are required only to vacate the wins.
Perhaps the most notable case of victories lost because of NCAA violations goes back to Michigan's Fab Five basketball teams, led by Chris Webber.
After it was determined Webber and three other Michigan players had taken money from a booster, the Wolverines had to vacate records from all or part of six seasons in the 1990s.
Also among those penalties, a 1992 Final Four banner had to be taken down.
Minnesota experienced similar penalties in the 1990s, also vacating a Final Four appearance.
This isn't OU's first run-in with such a penalty.
The 1972 Sooner football team forfeited three games for using an ineligible player, dropping an 11-1 mark to 8-4.
Most recently, Georgia Tech and Colorado have been hit with similar penalties for using ineligible players. Alabama got hit in 1993, forfeiting nine games.
The only person in the current OU program directly affected by this ruling is head coach Bob Stoops, who now owns a career coaching record of 78-19, rather than 86-19.
OU's only other season without a victory was 1895, the school's first season of football.
But that season was far less dramatic than what will be remembered of 2005.
The Sooners of 1895 played only one game.
The NCAA's Committee on Infractions issued its finding Wednesday on major rules violations in the University of Oklahoma football program. Here are the penalties handed down:
•Public reprimand and censure.
• Adding two years to OU's current probation status through May 23, 2010. OU was already on probation through May 23, 2008, for violations in the men's basketball program.
• Reduction of two football scholarships through the 2009-2010 school year. OU had self-imposed the penalty through the 2007-08 school year after dismissing Rhett Bomar and J.D. Quinn from the program. OU is limited to 83 scholarships during the period.
• Vacation of all wins in the 2005 football season. OU finished 8-4 with a win in the Holiday Bowl. The school's official record will now reflect an 0-4 season. Coach Bob Stoops' coaching record will also reflect the 0-4 season, meaning his overall record is now 78-19 (rather than 86-19).
• Erasure of "any public reference” to the 2005 wins, including the Holiday Bowl, from OU publications, banners "and any other forum in which they may appear.”
• Vacation of individual records of Bomar and Quinn from 2005.
• Formal disassociation of former Big Red Sports and Imports general manager Brad McRae for at least five years. OU had already taken this step as part of its self-imposed penalties.
• OU must reduce the number of football coaches who can recruit off-campus by one during fall 2007. OU had already self-imposed this penalty.
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