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The most serious violation was the maintenance of a slush fund used for under the table payments to players from the mid 1970s through 1986, 13 players had been paid a total of $61,000 from a slush fund provided by a booster. Payments ranged from $50 to $725 per month and had started only a month after SMU had been handed probation. This add to the NCAA handing down the death penalty by canceling SMU's entire 1987 schedule. Eight of those players were paid an additional $14,000 from September to December 1986. The slush fund was due to be discontinued when the 13 players had all left the school. These payments were made with the full knowledge and approval of athletic department staff. SMU was allowed to return for an abbreviated 1988 season, but opted to sit that season out as well after school officials determined it would be impossible to field a viable team. The severity of the penalty left the SMU football program at a standstill. The 1987 season was canceled; only conditioning drills were permitted during the 1987 calendar year, all home games in 1988 were canceled. SMU was allowed to play their seven regularly scheduled away games so that other institutions would not be financially affected. The team's existing probation was extended until …show more content…
The officials union said that all of its demands amounted to a $3.2 million annual cost to the NFL, roughly four hundredths of a percent of the $9 billion in revenue generated by the league. The issue behind the dispute was the retirement plan. Under the previous contract, NFL referees received a defined benefit plan, where retired workers would be guaranteed a fixed amount of income based on the length of their employment. The league wanted to switch to a defined contribution 401k plan, under which benefits would depend on the performance of the plan's investments, and would not be guaranteed. The Officials union was also upset with salaries as well under the previous labor agreement, referees were paid from a shared pool of $18 million per year, which works out to an average of about $149,000 per employee for each of the 121 referees. The league claimed it was offering to increase average salaries from $149,000 to $189,000 by 2018, with average annual increases of between five and 11 percent. On June 4, 2012, the NFL began hiring replacement officials for the start of the 2012 season, most of whom were officials from high schools or lower college divisions. On September 26, 2012, an agreement was reached between the NFL and the NFL Referees Association to end the lockout after mounting criticism of the NFL and the performance of the replacement officials. The new eight-year agreement covers the 2012 to the 2019 seasons and states