Editor’s note: A version of this story originally ran on Sept. 6. The story has been updated ahead of SMU’s playoff game with Penn State.

IN THE 1980s, SMU and Dallas became synonymous with free-flowing money in college football, a small school in a big city that turned into a playground for rich boosters who would spare no expense to make sure their team became a major player. It worked, albeit not for long. The Mustangs became pariahs, ultimately getting crushed by the NCAA’s “death penalty” in 1987. SMU was the only program in history considered so corrupt that it had to be shut down.

If only those boos...