What gives the NCAA the authority to lift 60 million from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania? If they want to punish the football program, fine, shut it down. But, the University gets a great deal of it’s funding from the state (the taxpayers). Did we do something wrong?
The NCAA didn't do this unilaterally. Penn State agreed to it. PSU saw this as much preferable to one option the NCAA had, namely the death penalty for the football program.
I think that this is a great opportunity for the Governor and the legislature to make some serious reforms to Penn State. It receives a lot of money from the state, but has a lot of freedom to what it wants.
The NCAA may not have touched a penny from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania. Penn State's football program made a profit of $53 million for the 2010-2011 football season (the last season for which Penn State has released financial information).
If they want to punish the football program, fine, shut it down.
That would be ideal. However, shutting the program down for two years would cost the University well over $100 million in revenue it would otherwise receive from the football program - not to mention the revenue lost in the community if no home games are played.