Free Republic

The NCAA received another serious blow to its credibility today. In court documents filed Thursday in the Paterno lawsuit, Oregon State President and then-NCAA Executive Committee Chairman Ed Ray admitted to not actually reading the Freeh Report — the entire basis for the NCAA sanctions — prior to sanctioning Penn State in 2012. In his testimony in the Paterno Family’s ongoing case, Ray said he was unaware that he needed to prep for anything related to the Freeh Report before the organization’s executive board met to discuss possible sanctions on the University. Instead, Ray spent time in Hawaii where he...

Penn State students and fans Saturday showed support for late coach Joe Paterno with a “Joe-Out” – wearing clothing or displaying images of the Hall of Famer at the Nittany Lions' football game. As a Penn State alumnus, I am proud of my university and I remain proud of the work that JoePa did on and – more importantly – off the football field, with respect to inspiring students and improving academics at the institution.Yet there remains in the public sphere this erroneous belief that JoePa was a conspirator in the alleged cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. Sandusky, a...

IN HINDSIGHT, Joe Paterno wrote, the day after he got fired with a phone call, he wished he had done more. He had not committed a crime, he had not witnessed a crime, he had reported what sounded like a crime to his superiors. The haters jumped all over that sentence, like it was some kind of a confession that the legendary Penn State football coach had somehow enabled Jerry Sandusky to sexually abuse those kids, while he looked the other way. The haters spent a lot less time debating the note he scribbled on a pad before going to...

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - John Urschel (Williamsville, N.Y.), the Penn State All-American guard who claimed the 2013 William V. Campbell Trophy from the National Football Foundation (NFF) as college football's premier scholar-athlete, has been named the recipient of the 84th James E. Sullivan Award, presented by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) to America's top amateur athlete. Urschel was announced as the winner of the prestigious award Friday night during an awards ceremony at the AAU National Headquarters in Orlando, Fla. 
Urschel was selected from a pool of 19 semifinalists vying for the honor in 2014, and was joined by two...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Three-time national champion Penn State pushed nine into the second round and holds a three-point lead against Oklahoma State after one session of the 2014 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. For PSU, national champions David Taylor and Ed Ruth scored falls and Nico Megaludis added a technical fall. Freshman Zain Retherford won an expected tough bout with Citadel's Ugi Khishignyam and senior James English provided an upset of his own, beating Appalachian State's Dylan Cottrell in an overtime tiebreaker. The Nittany Lions dropped just one bout, a head-to-head match with Oklahoma State at...

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — ...John Nichols sat in his office in the old wing of the Willard Building, across the lawn from Old Main, fuming about what people have been saying, for two years now, about the university he loves. John Nichols, a professor emeritus, contends that a child sexual abuse scandal has unfairly defined Penn State. The campus was bustling. The students had returned. This bucolic town’s main drag, College Avenue, had come alive. Stores sold shirts that read, “Billieve” and “O’Brien’s Lions.” Football season was close, and almost everyone seemed excited for Coach Bill O’Brien’s second year. Nichols...

Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz’s assistant testified that she delivered her boss confidential documents about Jerry Sandusky after becoming aware that the former football coach was charged with sexually abusing young boys. At this point in November 2011, she also knew about the investigation surrounding Schultz but “just wanted to help him out.” To receive Kimberly Belcher’s cooperation, the prosecution granted her immunity for removing documents and tampering with evidence. Belcher replaced Joan Coble in 2007 as Schultz’s top administrative assistant. Dauphin County Judge Todd Hoover approved the move. She had worked in the vice president’s...

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) - A judge on Monday will start hearing evidence against three former Penn State officials accused of covering up an early report that coach Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a child, allowing him to molest boys for years........... The three university officials are Graham Spanier, 65, who was fired as president amid the scandal that rocked the high-stakes world of college football; Athletic Director Tim Curley, 59, who was placed on administrative leave, and retired Senior Vice President Gary Schultz, 63. At the hearing in Dauphin County Court, both sides will argue their case stemming from a November...