Here’s a very telling piece, from ESPN’s Big Ten blog. Before today’s Penn State Nebraska game, there was exactly one protester outside Beaver Stadium:
http://espn.go.com/blog/bigten/tag/_/name/huskers-lions-111112
Given the scandal that is unfolding at Penn State, there is no way today’s game—or the rest of the season—should go on as scheduled. Yes, I know that none of the players had any involvement or connection with the Sandusky scandal. But a number of coaches, including interim head coach Tom Bradley, were around and may have participated in the cover-up, or at the very least, did nothing to stop Sandusky.
Yet, the Penn State community has no problem with Bradley leading their Nittany Lions onto the field against the Huskers. And apparently, the Big Ten would be content to let PSU potentially play for the conference championship and represent it in the Rose Bowl.
Almost 30 years ago, the NCAA shut down SMU’s football program for two years for paying players. If Penn State doesn’t deserve the death penalty for protecting a serial child rapist, I don’t know who does. As a sports columnist in Minneapolis put it, what SMU did (compared to PSU) “is the equivalent of spitting on a sidewalk.”
The 100,000-plus fans in Beaver Stadium today should be ashamed of themselves. Ditto for ABC/ESPN, which (apparently) never considered cancelling their coverage of the game.
At least some advertisers, like Cars.com pulled their ads from the game.
I remember that entire episode very well, having moved to Texas a few years prior to this happening. The NCAA clearly had it in for Texas Governor Bill Clements, the first Republican governor since the reconstruction era. The SMU payments weren't right but the over-the-top death penalty of the program was aimed squarely at our Conservative governor who was chairman of the board of governors at Southern Methodist.