Penn State Sanctions resulting from the Sandusky scandal

[RoyJackson]

The NCAA has slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties,
including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories
from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, and the loss of 20
scholarships per year over four years.

NCAA dropped some heavy sanctions on PSU as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal and resulting report by Louis Freeh. I'm sure most of you have read or heard about this by now. The quote above is from the Associated Press and published by Comcast.

So, what do you think? Too much? Not enough?

I'd be fine with all colleges dropping their sports programs and definitely sports scholarships. I think they're a waste of money and more importantly, good students may not be able to attend due to "atheletes" being recruited to win games (education being a secondary priority).

However, 60 million is a LOT of money. Paterno may or may not have made mistakes with Sandusky (I'm taking Louis Freeh's report with a huge grain of salt, since Paterno cannot rebute it...how convenient). The vacating of wins and the loss of bowl games for the next 4 years...is that fair to the players? I don't think so...

At this point, I'm thinking PSU would be best served by just dropping football from their agenda completely...put those funds elsewhere.

What do you folks think?

 

[WilliamBos]

I am disgusted that the alumni knew about what was going on! I think they went easy on them!

 

[brin]

Roy, I think the penalties are overkill....those Penn State officials that were responsible have been fired and are being prosecuted, Sandusky is convicted and Paterno is dead....So just what is being accomplished by punishing Penn State, the institution....? Penn States board of trustees did not do anything illegal....they did not even know about it....What happened was horrible but those responsible should be punished and not future students and faculty....why should they be made to suffer....Penn State, like any university, is comprised of the people it serves and those who work there...why hurt them....what does that prove.....???

 

[SantasForest]

I think they're right on. There is a "weird" mentality that surrounds penn state which allows everyone to think that the law doesn't apply to them...if you don't believe me, go visist on the weekend sometime. The point of all those sanctions was to break some of that mind-set which I hope it does...that school was becoming more of a way-of-life than it was an education.

 

[MoKelly]

I read the $60 million fine represented just 1 year of football revenues. The penalties all have to do with the fact this horrific scandal happened within the football program and it is clear that the cover-up occurred solely because NO ONE had the guts to blow the whistle on the football program. If the bad guy had been a math teacher at Penn State does anyone think there would have been a cover-up?

Now, lets see if the Big 10 Conference has any guts and kicks Penn State out of the Conference.

MoKelly

 

[brin]

Well then, I agree with the question Roy had asked....Why doesn't Penn State just tell them all they are canceling their football program and be done with it...then they can move on and put the whole thing behind them and concentrate of academics and other sports...Football is not the end all be all....Where was the NCAA and Big ten when all this first broke ? Is this all just more Political Correctness carried to the extreme....Punish those human beings responsible and leave the institution alone....why hurt innocent people who will come along over the next 5 yrs....?

 

[dmccarty]

I don't like big time organized sports especially college. Seems like there is always a problem with the programs and it all gets back to the M O N E Y. My university had some sports but most of the students did not care about the sports programs. Since there was no M O N E Y floating around the sports program I never heard of a problem. Decades later, the school has somehow found me even though I have moved multiple times since graduating and I no longer live in the same state. Now I get monthly mail asking me for M O N E Y. The school president built a football stadium, created a team, is pushing sports, and lo and behold, I get letters asking for M O N E Y. What a surprise.

In the PA case, the people who are responsible should be punished to the full extent of the law. It still is not clear to me if the school officials who covered this mess up are in violation of the law. If not the civil cases are going to punish them at some level. Time will tell. I think Paterno knew was was going on and turned a blind eye to it. I don't buy the argument that he was an old man from a different age who did not know about such things. He was a football coach not Queen Victoria.

Having said all of the above, I think it is horrible that the football program is being punished in this manner. The punishment does not punish the people responsible. It punished the kids who had nothing to do with the decisions made by the administration. What did today's students, on the team and off, do to deserve this punishment? They were not in school when these acts happened and nor did they make the bad decisions in this case. Why are they being punished?

It is just one more reason why I don't like the NCAA and big time college sports.

Later,
Dan

 

[mjarrels]

In my opinion, just going to hurt the wrong people that had nothing to do with the scandals.

mark

 

[TripleR]

I would do away with all of it, none of the "student athletes" where I attended were held to the same standards as other students and all too often failed to gain anything from the time spent in college. My BIL had a scholarship and when it ended, he quit going to school; wasted time.

 

[s219]

It's one more example of the politics of big money college sports, no matter what side you come down on. These money-driven politics are probably what caused Penn State to cover up the abuse problem the first place. And the same politics are being used to punish Penn State afterwards. In the end, the NCAA gets their money and continues acting like a big money sports empire. These sanctions do nothing to help the victims or punish the criminals. It's just another revolution of the big money sports machine. Regardless, I sure don't have any sympathy for Penn State or any other big-school sports programs that are part of the NCAA.