NCAA imposes stiff penalties on Penn State

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | July 23, 2012 | Jeremy Roebuck

[Zakeet]

College sports' governing body today suspended Penn State's football team from postseason bowl play for four years and fined the university $60 million for its handling of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The team also must vacate all wins from 1998 through 2011.

"The career record of former head football coach Joe Paterno will reflect these vacated records," the NCAA said in a statement. "Penn State must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for a four-year period. In addition, the NCAA reserves the right to impose additional sanctions on involved individuals at the conclusion of any criminal proceedings."

The fines are to be paid into an endowment for non-university programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims, the NCAA said.

"The NCAA recognizes that student-athletes are not responsible for these events and worked to minimize the impact of its sanctions on current and incoming football student-athletes," the statement said. "Any entering or returning student-athlete will be allowed to immediately transfer and compete at another school. Further, any football student-athletes who remain at the university may retain their scholarships, regardless of whether they compete on the team."

[dfwgator]

Speaking of Miami, I still think back to that 87 Fiesta Bowl, when Penn State played those thugs....of course, like most everyone then, I saw Penn State as the complete antithesis to Miami, I remember the Miami players wearing fatigues and all that. I was so happy when Penn State beat them. Little did I know...

[dfwgator]

.I understand that he may have felt he was helping a longtime friend and associate, but it was a blunder of immense proportions...

Big mistake...huge!

[wrcase]

You hit the nail on the head. I would like to see harsher penalties for even less infractions. For example, for schools like Ohio State, USC, and Miami, no home games for a year, all coaching staff of the offending team fired and banned from coaching NCAA for life, and firing of the athletic director and the administrators of the offending sport. If that destroys the program and hurts the local economy, tough shit, don’t violate the rules.

[EEGator]

I understand your point, I just disagree with you. As I said on other posts, I’m fine with the NCAA’a penalties. I’m also in favor of going after everyone “in the know” financially and criminally.

[Uncle Chip]

He wrote emails and made phone calls but never asked about the where abouts of the child.

How do you know that??? FWIU that child has never been found. And has anybody ever found Ray Gricar???

"In 1998, the case was referred to then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar, who declined to prosecute the case in 1998, the grand jury found. Gricar’s decision has not been explained. He has been missing since 2005 and has since been declared dead after authorities recovered his abandoned car and the prosecutor’s computer, absent its hard drive. State police spokesman Sgt. Anthony Manetta said there is no apparent link between the prosecutor’s disappearance and the Sandusky case.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2011-11-10/jerry-sandusky-investigation-victim-1-cover/51160950/1

Something here doesn't pass the smell test. The DA aided by a child psychologist in the first case finds no evidence to charge??? Why is that Joe's fault??? And then the Board of Trustees that told Joe Paterno to not speak to the press in a news conference hires someone for 6 million dollars to contain the blame and dump as much as possible on Joe Paterno.

[Boogieman]

“My understanding is Paterno heard some allegations and reported them to his superiors at the university.”

I think your understanding isn’t based on the most recent relevations. Paterno not only heard the allegations, but he knew about the prior incident, he led the cover-up, he allowed Sandusky to continue to access the facilities where the rape occurred, and he did nothing to stop Sandusky from continuing to bring kids to those facilities for years afterwards.

[SoCal Pubbie]

The assertion that McNair “knew” about the improper benefits is based on the unchallenged testimony of an ex con who called Regie Bush, not McNair, and spoke to McNair on Bush’s phone one time. There was no other evidence that McNair knew anything. The NCAA had its mind made up beforehand.

[outpostinmass2]

Read the freeh report on Penn State.

All the had written notes and emails are attached to the end of the report.

Not one time did Paterno or anyone at that school try to find that child. In fact Paterno and the school president informed Sandusky of what McQueery witnessed. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sandusky killed that child.

[SoCal Pubbie]

Oh, and the ex con in question was not a registered sports agent, so that’s out the window too.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

Exactly...college sports, like all major sports is big business:TV; endorsements, Bowl games. it certainly isn’t about all those young players and their lives.

But like all of life, more so here, “Its a gamble”...( and actually a betting scene). Joe and his PSU big shot buddies took a risk, rolled the dice in favor of layin’ low. They lost.

What is sickening is that they played this “gamble” for money and fame and just let those young boys get churned up and hurt in real life on the paterno/PSU roulette wheel.

RAH! RAH!

[dfwgator]

No question that today is a watershed moment for college athletics in general. I don’t know exactly what the ramifications will be in the long run, but it has definitely changed because of this.

[catnipman]

“It makes a point that this sort of thing WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.”

Indeed. Not to be tolerated at Penn State or anywhere else, i.e., you other NCAA schools, take heed at what we did to Penn State.

And for those whining about punishing “innocent” people by punishing the institution, well, I say that, yes, some innocent people do get punished when an institution is punished, but an institution is made up of individuals, and there is such a thing as in institutional culture, and that culture derives from the collective actions and attitudes of its leaders and individual members, both current and past, and you can bet that there are still a whole bunch of Penn State folks on the periphery of this that really aren’t quite as innocent as they seem, and who are breathing a collective sigh of relief they they weren’t part of the few singled out as scapegoats.

This institution deserves to be punished for its secretive and abusive culture and the horrific deeds this culture fostered against defenseless and innocent children. Penn State deserves to be punished both for the thing itself, as well as a strong warning to other institutions to not allow the same thing to happen again.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

It really isn’t surprising to see the support for Joe Paterno even after all that has come out regarding his enabling of Sandusky’s crimes. It is just so hard to fathom that he failed so miserably; you can imagine a Barry Switzer doing something like that, but Paterno??? It is a great tragedy all the way around.

[Recovering Ex-hippie]

this has nothing to do with the 4th amendment.

why don’t we just dig up Papa Joe and give him his rights.

He will have in abstentia due process throughout these civil cases.

What 4th amendment????He was NEVER charged.
Talk about twisting conservatism into a pretzel just to defend a predator enabler. Go for it.

[Uncle Chip]

<>“My understanding is Paterno heard some allegations and reported them to his superiors at the university.” I think your understanding isn’t based on the most recent revelations.<>

I think your understanding isn’t based on the most recent revelations, either:

He did too report them and the DA Ray Gricar failed to prosecute and then disappeared in 2005:

http://www.johnziegler.com/editorials_details.asp?editorial=219

[relictele]

This is the thinly-disguised hatred of the football culture expressed by academic types who inhabit both the member institutions and the NCAA itself.

Note that all the Title IX women’s programs are happy to cash the checks written by the football teams because liberals still believe someone, somewhere wants to watch women’s crew.

But they still hate football Saturdays which are, of course, a ritual demonstration and celebration of traditional, nuclear family, Judeo-Christian American culture.

It’s the ultimate in ivory tower hubris to declare that a result of a game - which involved dozens of players, coaches and officials, up to 100,000 people saw in person along with millions more on television - is now null and void. To apply this magic wand to over a decade of contests is flat-out silly.

What happens when a professor is exposed as a fraud, a plagiarist, an agenda-driven plant, a dangerous radical or even a Sandusky type i.e. a member of NAMBLA? Does the institution sack the offender on the spot and disavow his writings, research, findings, opinions, etc.? No. They hem and haw and hide behind rubbish about academic freedom, peer review, tenure policies, etc.

The NCAA is like MADD, CSPI or any other self-appointed ‘force for good.’ Their true priorities are cash first, control second, perpetuation third. They are accountable to noone yet they are treated as experts, as enforcers, as judges, juries, and executioners by far too many.

[Scoutmaster]

The unjustified whining of USC fans over the Bush/Majo-related punishment has made them the laughingstock of the NCAA.

[chessplayer]

I have a hunch tuition costs are going to suddenly skyrocket. They have to rip the 60 million out of someones hide.

[Uncle Chip]

I wouldn’t be surprised either. But is Joe Paterno the convenient scapegoat protecting other higher ups, like at the level of the Board of Trustees who paid him $6 million for a report to contain the damage below them:

http://www.johnziegler.com/editorials_details.asp?editorial=219

This is the same Board of Trustees that when Joe wanted to hold a news conference told him to cancel it and shut up.

[chessplayer]

“The NCAA recognizes that student-athletes are not responsible for these events and worked to minimize the impact of its sanctions on current and incoming football student-athletes,” the statement said.

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Who the hell would want to join their football program after this. It’s not like there is a shortage of other big name football schools they could play for.