Giving SMU the death penalty didn’t put too many companies out of business here in Dallas. Getting rid of PSU Football would put a lot of companies out of business, and I am not certain that these penalties won’t have the same effect. But that probably was a consideration when deciding on the Death Penalty.
We may never know what could have happened, but I suspect that PSU would challenge the legality of the NCAA Death Penalty had it been levied. I understand a team has to be on NCAA probation for that to be the punishment. Even with all that the current penalty is very harsh.
It’ll be interesting to see if the NCAA can make the monetary fines ‘stick’.