NCAA President Mark Emmert announced today a set of punishments against Penn State University in light of the Jerry Sandusky conviction for sexual assaults on a number of little boys. The university, according to the recent Freeh Report, was complicit in concealing the assistant coach’s vile actions, which directly led to the penalties listed today. According to Emmert, Penn State signed a consent order so no appeals are anticipated.
Photo be Nathaniel Sheetz
The penalties placed upon the university are:
• The university is fined $60 million. Although massive, the university has one of the largest endowments of any public university in the nation. Penn State had previously announced that no moneys used for tuition would pay any fine.
• The university also receives a 4 year ban on going to bowls. Bowl games are a method colleges use to amass alumni bequests; without these, it can affect the amount that PSU has to spend on buildings, professors, or ancillary spending.
• All football victories between 1998 and 2011 have been vacated. This penalty is clearly directed at the legacy of Joe Paterno, who until this morning had the most wins of any NCAA football coach.
• All returning and incoming football players are permitted to leave the university, play for another program, without the typical one year waiting period. This kills the football program for the next 7 or 8 years. Other football programs can be expected to begin vulturizing players who they need, or want. Already, PSU’s best recruit has announced that he will not go to Penn State.
• Players who are currently on scholarship will be permitted to stay on scholarship, even if they choose to not play football any longer.
The reason for these extensive penalties is that the Freeh Report provided evidence of a lack of institutional control over the program. Advocates for Penn State are already complaining that these punishments are worse than the ‘death penalty’, which would shut down the football program. I assume, though, that the university had and still has the option of taking the death penalty, so this is not realistic. As we know, SMU did receive the death penalty a number of years ago; their program has never recovered.
Let me just add this: although I’m from that part of the country, I’m a Pitt fan. Few of you will recall the 1970s, when Pitt had built a powerhouse football program, under Coach Jackie Sherrill. Joe Paterno, on one of his many trips to Pittsburgh, told powerful Pitt alumni that Sherrill was a disgrace; the university soon let him leave. The program has never recovered. Paterno famously told a reporter that a reason he stayed in college football was that otherwise, it would leave college football in the hands of the Jackie Sherrills and the Barry Switzers. This arrogance and holier than thou attitude led him to conceal Sandusky’s disgusting behavior. Paterno’s power in the university caused other authoritative university officials to cower before him.
UPDATE: Also, this morning, the Big 10 Conference announced that it was levying additional penalties against Penn State. These penalties include a $13 million fine, a ban from appearing from the conference championship game for 4 years, and censuring PSU. The fine is intended to be Penn State’s share of what other conference temas from bowl games. The censure means that PSU will not be permitted to vote on league matters.
July 24th, 2012 at 4:44 am
I think the NCAA sanctions are adequate. The vacating of wins was the best part of it. Between the fines and lost revenue from the NCAA ruling, and future civil suits, Penn State is going to be bankrupt.
July 24th, 2012 at 10:28 am
I cant get the picture of that fat fck slappin skin with some poor kid in that shower out of my mind.
I want a settlement or I’ll sue.
Blow up the showers, which means the stadium goes too, and I’ll be happy
July 24th, 2012 at 1:06 pm
I think the sanctions are over the top. Making an entire state accountable for the actions of one villain and a fuddy duddy old coach seems too much.
The huge fine amounts to a tax by a private organization (the NCAA) levied on the state of Pennsylvania given PS is a publicly funded school, which seems to me a higly extra-constitutional action.
July 24th, 2012 at 1:43 pm
Penn State has an endowment fund with a current value of $1.725 billion.
July 24th, 2012 at 1:49 pm
Courtesy of Eric at Tygrr Express”
The horrors inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on innocent children should not give the NCAA the right to simply eradicate legitimately earned achievements from history. The players did not cheat. There was no academic scandal or anything crooked involving sports agents. There were no drug scandals. The players won those games honestly and Coach Paterno coached those games honestly.”
Theres your nutshell.
Another example of authority thinking it can instill morals and ethics.
This “league’ of punishments was designed to bring Penn State to a better/newer recognition in academia and serve as an example to other institutions in the future who might consider turning a blind eye to similar horrors. (I wish I could remember where I heard it)
This will not stop pedophiles, which is the true problem.
If Paterno did in fact turn a blind eye , the statue comes down.
@ Patrick
Excellent point.
July 24th, 2012 at 2:04 pm
To McCain’s point: PSU, an alumnus recently told me, has the largest endowment of any public university in the US. That’s where the $ will come, mostly. Politicians across the state have said that PSU will not receive additional funding to pay for this.
After a day of ruminating about this, I’m guessing that the NCAA and Big 10 told PSU that they wanted to give it the death penalty; when PSU rejected the option, both wanted to make sure that the school would end up in the same place.
PSU, in a few years, will be another Northwestern in the league.