The NCAA is going to announce Penn State’s punishment in a press conference in the morning. Details have been leaking out all day. If what I’m hearing is correct, I think I am going to approve of their solution. My idea was that the NCAA should aim to punish the guilty, set a severe example for other sports programs, and do their best not to create a bunch of collateral damage. Rather than destroying the football program, which would punish kids who did nothing wrong, fans who did nothing wrong, and schools on Penn State’s schedule that did nothing wrong, why not just take all their money away for a really, really long time? I would have fined them a sum equal to their expected profits from football for the next five years, while banning them for participating in bowls for five years, and stripping them of all football scholarships for two years.
They could keep playing football under those circumstances, but they couldn’t profit from it, and they’d have to recruit student athletes. Their team would suck for quite a while, but the kids who are already there would have a chance to show their stuff to the NFL scouts. No other teams would lose revenues through no fault of their own. And Penn State football fans would at least have a team to root for, even if they didn’t win a single game. And this would definitely be a deterrent to other programs thinking about covering up grossly immoral and illegal activity.
In any case, it appears that the sanctions will be something along these lines.
Penn State University will be hit with fines in excess of $30 million as part of “significant, unprecedented penalties” expected to be announced Monday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, a source familiar with the case told CNN on Sunday…
…While the school’s football program will not face the so-called “death penalty” that would have prevented the team from playing in the fall, the school might have preferred a one-year suspension because of the severity of the scholarship losses, postseason sanctions and other penalties, the source said.
“If I were Penn State or any other school and were given both options, I’d pick the death penalty,” the source said, adding the range of sanctions “is well beyond what has been done in the past” and “far worse than closing the program for a year.”
…While not divulging specifics, the source said, “The penalties go well beyond the loss of a scholarship or not being able to go to a bowl game.”
I’ve been a Penn State football fan my whole life. So, this whole thing has been painful to watch. But I realized immediately that Paterno needed to resign and that some people needed to go to prison. There’s no defense for what they did. At this point, knowing more facts, I think Paterno should have gone to jail. The NCAA’s job isn’t to do the prosecutor’s job. The NCAA needs to worry less about meting out biblical justice than on sending a message to other sports programs that kids come before profits.
I’d prefer the football stadium be razed to the ground and the school never field a football team ever again.
Yeah, a lot of people feel that way.
To me, that’s collective punishment. It’s basically the Israeli approach to dealing with the Palestinians.
I don’t like to punish people who did nothing wrong just to strike fear into other people. Let the Justice Department deal with the justice. Let the NCAA make it clear to other schools that they absolutely do not want to emulate Paterno’s approach to scandal management.
I don’t like to punish people who did nothing wrong just to strike fear into other people.
But that’s what the NCAA always does. See USC & Reggie Bush as the first of many examples. And the NCAA isn’t one to talk about being a cesspool.
I think in this case pretty much everybody can talk about being a cesspool.
I was also concerned about punishing people collectively for the sins of a few – right up to the point when thousands of Penn State students and other fans rioted because they were so upset that Paterno was forced out two games before he’d already agreed to resign during a huge scandal for (then allegedly) covering up credible child rape accusations for years.
I’m going to remember those riots for a long time. Those riots told me that the sickness in State College ran far, far deeper than a few athletic administrators. I’d be quite happy if Penn State never won a football game again.
That, unfortunately, is what sticks in my mind as well: all those willing enablers.
to me, that’s like supporting the Israeli’s bulldozing of homes because a group of Palestinians cheered a suicide bomber. You just get mad, stop thinking, and seek to smash everyone who looks remotely like your enemy.
Sorry, but that’s a terrible analogy. Whether or not a football team plays or wins a game is not a life and death issue (despite what some people seem to think); taking away the games is not the same as bulldozing homes. And the pro-Paterno demonstrations involved thousands of people in a community of less than 40,000 people. That says to me it was a majority sentiment, and a pathology deeply rooted enough that it won’t be “fixed” by making the team suck for a few years.
If someone must root for an in-state FBS team for their life to be complete, Pitt and Temple both have pretty good teams these days and have managed to get there without behavior that horrifies the nation.
Go Temple Owls! 🙂
I’m curious to see if wins will be vacated…
I’d be surprised if they did that because that usually is a response to players competing who were ineligible or who should have been ineligible. You can’t really say that Penn State won a game by cheating, except in the most indirect and unprovable way.
It’s along the thinking of “hitting them where it hurts.” Since winning football games and reaching the wins record was more important to Paterno than protecting innocent children then he should have taken from him that which apparently was most important to him. Vacating wins in this instance punishes one person and one person only – Joe Paterno – and he deserves to be punished.
Now that we know, wow!! They were docked all their wins dating back to 1998. That’s nuts, but you were right.
That was my favorite part of the sanctions! No more “winningest coach” for the guy who tought winning was worth covering up for a serial child rapist.
What wins are going to be vacated? Sandusky last was an Asst. Coach at PSU almost 15 years ago now.
I don’t know. I think the students who rioted in favor of someone who enabled child molestation should be punished.
Still mind-boggling to me that they rioted over a friggin’ coach. A coach who hadn’t done any actual coaching or recruiting in years, and really hadn’t been any good since the ’80s.
We fired Bowden at FSU for a hell of a lot less than what finally got JoePa canned. Nobody rioted over that crap.
If this whole scandal has taught me nothing, it’s that Penn State is the only school I’ve ever come across from which a frighteningly large chunk of the fan base is genuinely creepy.
All fan bases have asshats who believe the program can do no wrong. But most fans recognize that the sport is laughably corrupt, and that these coaches all do sleazy things. The one exception I’ve ever come across is Penn State, where JoePa truly is seen as a god, and where they really do believe they’re morally superior to everyone.
All things considered, I’ll take Free Shoes over Slappy Valley any day of the week.
…adding: And I think I get why Penn State is so messed up, even in a world of hopelessly corrupt college ball. Most fans like their coaches, but their loyalty is to the school first and foremost. Penn State is the only case I know of where the coach trumped the program.
And interesting perspective. Since every single school I went to had crappy football teams–abysmal–they were an object of ridicule, not veneration. But even so I could never figure out the kind of devotion a school inspires.
I’d like them to be forced to have a weeping child as their mascot for five years.
That’s not bad.
Yeah, I like this one.
for the Catholic Church?
Or the CIA.
How about Goldman Sachs?
Eh?
What’s that you say?
Too rich?
Too powerful?
Oh.
OK.
Nevermind.
Carry on with your powerless squalling.
Yore freind,
Emily
P.S. I have been there a couple of times. A stupider so-called “major” college town cannot be found. Beer, football and pissing in the streets. If it was up to me I’d leave Paterno’s statue up as a reminder and raze the whole fucking university.
I’m not saying it’s necessarily sufficient or the most appropriate punishment, but the US Catholic Church has paid over $2.5 billion in sexual abuse-related costs in recent decades, and several dioceses have gone bankrupt.
Pocket change.
Sorry, but if the educational system of the United States were to have the number charges of sexual molestation of the young filed against it that have surfaced regarding the Catholic Church over the last 20 years or so the entire system would have collapsed. Only the vast wealth and power of the world-wide Roman Catholic Church props the U.S. system up. Ditto in Europe.
S.
From the Twitter machine:
.
Full NCAA ruling and media summary.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
.
Removed
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
the program should be ended.
period.
over and done.
finished.
Those are just the NCAA sanctions. The Big 10 conference has also announced further punishments.
The Big 10 didn’t do anything, what a joke.
I’m trying to figure out what they could have done over what they did, without also directly penalizing the other schools in the conference. What are your ideas?
could have extended the ban from post-season conference final and participating in their bowl money beyond NCAA.
They also could have cancelled their home conference games starting next year – to give the other teams in the conference a chance to reschedule with other schools if they wanted. They could also have booted them from the conference.
Not NCAA relateed, but does anyone know if Graham Spanier is a licensed marriage and family counselor?
And what did Paterno and others know about Sandusky before deciding that he wouldn’t be in line for Joe’s job? Summarily retiring and not seeking a position elsewhere seems unusual for a high level football coach.
All fan bases have asshats who believe the program can do no wrong. But most fans recognize that the sport is laughably corrupt, and that these coaches all do sleazy things.personal injury attorney
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