Based on what?
What right does the NCAA have to impose the fine?
My lawyer friend in LA sent me this response:
“I am one of the very few persons in the U.S. who has downloaded, printed, and read every word of the Freeh Report. So I have the disadvantage of knowing what I am talking about.
I think when the case eventually gets into the Federal court, Penn State will win. The Penn State trustees are asserting that Mr. Erickson did not have authority to enter into the consent decree. The NCAA response is that
Penn State was looking down the gun barrel at a four year “death penalty” if Erickson did not sign the consent decree.
In the law, that is called “coercion” which is something we learn about in our first year of law school.
I think all aspects of the NCAA penalty against Penn State can be affirmed EXCEPT the $60 million fine. That is a “taking” of property without due process of law. I am not aware of any other cases in which the NCAA has imposed anything that even resembles such an enormous and onerous fine.
Penn State’s Board of Trustees will have some good, high-priced lawyers who will assert the arguments I have described above, and a lot more. ‘