He served as the head men's basketball coach at Oklahoma, Southern Methodist, New Mexico, and Baylor of the NCAA Division I, as well as Southwestern Christian of the NAIA.
One of Bliss's most successful players while at SMU was Jon Koncak, who was the fifth overall pick in the 1985 NBA draft by the Atlanta Hawks and gold medalist on the 1984 U.S. Olympic basketball team coached by Knight.
The memo reported that Koncak had illegally received the money during his junior and senior years from boosters as well as Bliss.
Bliss left SMU after the 1988 season to take over as head coach at the University of New Mexico, largely due to the violations surrounding the Mustangs football program.
During his second season (2000–2001), Baylor made the National Invitation Tournament, where they lost in the first round to Bliss's old team, New Mexico.
After a memorial service for Dennehy in San Jose, California, Bliss asked to meet with school investigators.
It also emerged that Bliss and his staff knew about rampant marijuana and alcohol abuse among Baylor players, but did not follow procedures for reporting failed drug tests.
[7] After Bliss resigned, it emerged that he had told players to make up a story about Dennehy being a drug dealer in order to pay for his tuition.
He also admitted to telling assistant coaches to file false expense reports and lie to Baylor investigators.
Another assistant, Rodney Belcher, was hit with a seven-year show-cause order for lying about recruiting violations committed in the course of bringing Dennehy to Baylor.
[9] In May 2010, Bliss became dean of students, athletic director and head men's basketball coach at Allen Academy, a college preparatory school in Bryan, Texas.
Allen Academy eventually joined the Texas Christian Athletic League (TCAL) and won the boys' basketball state title in Bliss' first season.
The SMU Athletic Department received two separate citations for a lack of institutional control during Bliss' tenure as head coach of the Mustangs.
KBTX reported that Bliss had broken TAPPS rules by illegally recruiting potential players from other schools, including two senior transfers from Houston currently on the team.
Bliss resigned from Southwestern Christian on April 3, 2017,[12] following the airing of the Showtime documentary Disgraced, which chronicled the cover-up at Baylor.