Penn State Sanctions resulting from the Sandusky scandal

[schoolsout]

So a handful of individuals within the university made a mistake, maybe a criminal violation, so a community and school should suffer?

Do you really believe that the current football team should be punished for other people's actions? REALLY?

How is it fair to punish the innocent?

Later,
Dan
Later,
Dan

In this case, where an a cover up seems to be what happened, yes. As someone mentioned earlier...if it was the janitor that raped a girl, then no. The institution, under its leadership, chose to ignore some pretty heavy wrongs in order to not tarnish their record. Well...that record is now tarnished as it should be.

 

[Martian]

In this case, where an a cover up seems to be what happened, yes. As someone mentioned earlier...if it was the janitor that raped a girl, then no. The institution, under its leadership, chose to ignore some pretty heavy wrongs in order to not tarnish their record. Well...that record is now tarnished as it should be.

I agree 100%. For over 12 years high ranking officials knew what was going on and did nothing about. They have to punish the entire university since this was so widespread, instead of being able to just punish a single person. Had something came about when people found out what Sandusky did and not attempted to cover it up, I doubt we would see any sanctions and only Sandusky getting punished.

 

[JoeBuyer]

If there are no ramifications to wrong doings, there will be no real corrective measures taken. If a shoplifter simply gets told not to shoplift again, seldom will they stop. Same thing here, the University needs to see ramifications to their actions (or lack of in this case) so that they take corrective action long term.

 

[dmccarty]

With every verdict, someone is hurt. A murderer gets the death penalty, and a family looses him. He may be a father, a grandfather, a beloved son or brother; but do we feel sorrow for these people? No. Yes, it is a shame that some players will loose some wins in the record books, that some people might have a lesser reputation, but their small punishment must be endured for what has gone on around them. Those without dirty water have not and will not be fired and replaced. Should we feel sorry for the family of a murder victim like the Penn State staff/students? It isn't fair but it must be done to not allow something as horrible happen again.

Sorry your murder comparison is not valid. The vast majority of the students, faculty, and staff at PSU had nothing to do with Sandusky. In fact, very few people did know. To punish people not even remotely connected to Sandusky's actions is flat out wrong. Following your logic we might as well punish all of the family and friends of tractor owners because of a criminal tractor accident. The idea is absurd. The NCAA punishing students and players who were not even adults much less attending PSU when Sandusky should have been arrested. Punishing them is absurd.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

In this case, where an a cover up seems to be what happened, yes. As someone mentioned earlier...if it was the janitor that raped a girl, then no. The institution, under its leadership, chose to ignore some pretty heavy wrongs in order to not tarnish their record. Well...that record is now tarnished as it should be.

No, a coverup happened. Two members of the coverup have been criminally charged as they should be.

Less than a dozen members of the PSU leadership knew about the Sandusky. That is a minimal number of of people in leadership positions at PSU. An even smaller number of that dozen were covering up. The Board did not know what was going on. To punish the entire school and community who did now what was happening is wrong. A very small group of people covered this up not the entire school.

This is not about removing a statue and records from the books. I think the statue should be moved but the records? That just seems ridiculous. I dont really care about the records but the current players should not be penalized for what happened years ago. That is flat out wrong.

The institution did NOT cover this up. A few people IN the institution covered it up. I am finally getting time to read the PSU report and the big three that were in the coverup were Schultz, Curley and Spanier. Paterno is at a minimum knee deep in the mess and I find it hard to believe he did not fully know what was happening. He certainly was involved with Sandusky's highly unusual retirement. In PSU only these four leaders knew what has happening back in the late 90's. The Institution did not know scat until the story broke.

I don't like collective punishment of innocent people. It surprises me that you and others are defending such actions.

Later,
Dan

 

[Martian]

Sorry your murder comparison is not valid. The vast majority of the students, faculty, and staff at PSU had nothing to do with Sandusky. In fact, very few people did know. To punish people not even remotely connected to Sandusky's actions is flat out wrong. Following your logic we might as well punish all of the family and friends of tractor owners because of a criminal tractor accident. The idea is absurd. The NCAA punishing students and players who were not even adults much less attending PSU when Sandusky should have been arrested. Punishing them is absurd.

Later,
Dan

You're not getting the point. Many of the universities high ranking officials did nothing to bring justice. Janitors saw and knew about the incidents, but said they failed to report them because they knew they would loose their job if they did. That, my friend, corruption. The university was corrupt, and the university was therefore to be punished. It sucks for some players that they loose some wins, but that's all just record books. They know they still won those games. People still know that Paterno won more games than anyone else. The actual loss is to the university as well as it should be.

 

[JoeBuyer]

Well from reading some of the posts on this thread, I can see how this happened with this mindset. Blind faith in the program and lack of accountability.

The same thing is happening in the financial institutions these days. White collar crimes, no one gets locked up and as a result, it keeps happening.

Someone who defends PSU, please tell us what you think would have been fair? Remember that boys were raped and it sounds like a dozen senior staff are known to have been aware of it, which means that a hundred must have known of it in reality.

 

[lockhaven]

now lets set some rules, at what level is a person required to go past the chain of command? Janitor ,maintenance supervisor, building manager, where does the need to ignore policy start? Paterno reported the incident he has been crucified even in death. The assistant coach that reported to Paterno is now a hero. why did he not kick sandusky in the balls knock him down and stomp his head. No he reported him to the next level Joe Paterno. Paterno reported it to his boss. Now the current leaders conduct an investigation and find that Paterno now dead, and the already charged are whom to blame. Then they rush out tear the statue down, lets get the media so focused on paterno that maybe they will not check farther. Meanwhile anybody that wants to can "remember" with a lawyers help that they were abused. Hey maybe I was abused and just now remembered it OH my I could get a couple of million, then of course i would not remember and feel better.

 

[creekbend]

I am definitely late in posting on this thread. This is my viewpoint. Punish the Guilty but not the innocent. After a thorough investigation, punish the Guilty but not the Innocent. There are many present and future students that definitely had nothing to do with any of these charges and aren't responsible. Why place sanctions that affect their Future? Just to make a point?

 

[CinderSchnauzer]

Since this incident is without precedent we have no yardstick with which to measure the sanctions. Perhaps, that so many feel it is too harsh and many others feel not enough, maybe NCAA got it right.

That the NCAA accepted the Freeh report as being sufficient without further investigation. That the current university administration initiated and then put forward the report to the NCAA WITHOUT dispute and accepted the sanctions without dispute, is to me sufficient evidence that something happened and that just perhaps some of the Penn State supporters are a bit misguided.

Sandusky has been CONVICTED and will spend the rest of his life in jail, Coach Paterno is dead and the former President & Athletic Director are facing / awaiting criminal charges. Since a corporation has no free will of it's own then the latter three, as President & senior administrators, effectively both represent and ARE the University. Their actions are the actions of the University. The lack of ethics and morality as evidenced by their actions, become in my opinion the acts of the University. In my view sanctions against the University therefore are warranted.

The vacating of 111 wins, in my view, has no real effect on anyone in the real world, except as it applies to the legacy of Coach Paterno as the coach with most wins ever.

No Bowl games? Were they going to get there anyway? Perhaps wishful thinking in the eyes of PSU supporters.

Loss of 40 Scholarships. May add difficult to recruiting, but do those last 10 scholarships go to the real potential stars or to players who would have spent most of the time on the taxi squad. Scholarship = free education + potential ticket to NFL. What are stats for last 10 making the bigs.

As I understand current players on scholarship do not have that canceled and if they are potential superstars they can transfer immediately.

$60M is mega $$$$ for most of us, but given potential and actual revenue in university football programs, $12M per year for 5 years may not be a major hardship.

I probably missed something or did not expand my comments sufficiently. I listened to the interview with Coach O'Brien this morning. Deep in his heart he may have different feelings, but in his spoken words he has a great attitude and if he can translate words to deeds he'll be a a State hero.

Synopsis of his statement - "It is what it is - Move On - We will do the best we can moving forward.