Nabb1: Give players cars and cash - death penalty. Enable a sexual predator and cover it up for 14 years - lose scholarships, bowl ban.

ami5000: I see this thread is full of rational, well-thought out discussion.

There are also irrational people on both sides of the argument.

GAT_00: The university officials are the ones that covered it up. Maybe if you're going to be angry about the cover up, you should mention the people who covered it up.

Strange I need to mention that. Of course, it fits my point that you're mad about what you've been told to be mad about.


Sorry, bro... but the students supported Paterno and Sandusky when the allegations were brought forward. They actually rioted that he was fired for protecting a child-rapist. They also harassed one of the victims.

So, please... stop pretending the school and students are just innocent bystanders.

Also, I understand that you support raping children, covering it up, and then rioting about being called out on it, so you can just stop already.

ami5000: I see this thread is full of rational, well-thought out discussion.

i'm waiting for my coffee to finish brewing and watching the NCAA do it's press conference. personally, I think PSU just got kicked in the head....the sanctions are gonna sting more than a little bit. plus, having what? 13 years of wins vacated is gonna really muck with PSU's stats. it's also a pretty good symbolic gesture to the Cult of Paterno, going directly to the toxic institutional culture that he helped build and inflict on the university.

The Muthaship: meow said the dog: whatever gets the outrage of you full blast.

I have no outrage, I am just amused.

/that used to be the goal around here

Have you not been to these threads in the past months? You must be on full fledged rage mode! All of these angry individuals will be at the child abuse charity first thing after work to do the volunteering because they care about this issue so passionately. Rage! Rage! Rage OL!

I'm beginning to think that a lot of people don't know what the "death penalty" in NCAA terms involves.

Weaver95:
1. $60 million dollar fine
"These funds must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university," --So it's not just a meaningless fine.

2. banned from bowl games for 4 years.
Insignificant because they might not make a bowl game in the next 4 years

3. scholarships reduced for 4 years.
Loss of 10 initial and 20 total? That will hurt but not tough enough IMHO.

4. students are allowed to transfer and immediately play.
Good. I wish they'd allow this more often. Why punish the kids?

5. vacated all wins from 1998 to 2011
Does this really do anything? People aren't going to say, "ZOMG, Penn State was 0-11 from 1998-2011! They must have really sucked!"

6. 5 year probation.
On top of everything else, not really that significant.

7. investigation of individuals AFTER any criminal procedings are finished.
Would they add more penalties as well?

The real question here is IF this is within the NCAA's charter to actually do this. Would this stand up to legal scrutiny if Penn State challenged? Obviously, the entire Penn State situation is a definite case of a "lack of institutional control" but if that's the case, there's normally an investigation and a hearing. Don't get me wrong, I think Penn State should have had the death penalty. If Penn State isn't an example of a loss of institutional control, there isn't such a thing.

bulldg4life: There are also irrational people on both sides of the argument.

Wow there are? I had no idea. Thanks for telling me.

RandomRandom: The NCAA says this is the worst offense made by one of their member schools, but no death penalty ?!?!?

The fact that Penn State has already said they're not going to appeal any NCAA decision says it all.

It says the fix was in
It says this was a back room deal.
It says Penn State knew what the NCAA was going to say before they announced it.
It says Penn State already agreed to these sanctions behind closed doors., that they and other big athletic programs probably negotiated the NCAA out of the death penalty by putting up a lot of money. None of the large athletic programs wanted the precedent of a death penalty for this sort of conduct.

I hope this cover-up is revealed a lot sooner than the one it's addressing.

It was revealed in the press conference. It was issues as a consent decree that Penn State had to sign. Of course they knew what it was, they already agreed to abide by it.

GAT_00: That was built into the death penalty, which wasn't applied.

The "death penalty" is simply the suspension of competing for one or more years. Allowing for the transfer of student-athletes gets to the heart of the "don't penalize current players" thing.

It isn't built in to the actual penalty.

slayer199:
The real question here is IF this is within the NCAA's charter to actually do this. Would this stand up to legal scrutiny if Penn State challenged? Obviously, the entire Penn State situation is a definite case of a "lack of institutional control" but if that's the case, there's normally an investigation and a hearing. Don't get me wrong, I think Penn State should have had the death penalty. If Penn State isn't an example of a loss of institutional control, there isn't such a thing.

I think the NCAA did surprisingly well on this one. I would have preferred to see PSU football shut down for at least a year but...I think this ruling/sanction(s) list strikes a decent balance between symbolic gestures and real financial consequences for the university.