Penn State punishment handed out

So today the details of Penn State's punishment were announced.

They will be fined $60m which will be paid over 5 seasons, banned from bowls for 4 seasons, and stripped of every win since 1998 thus dropping Joe Paterno out of the NCAA top 10 winningest coaches of all time. They must also reduce 10 initial and 20 total scholarships each year for four years.


I think justice has been done. It may be a tad on the harsh side but probably right.

I don't undertsand the logic behind stripping them of their wins, but agree with the rest of the punishment.

Skyforger wrote:I don't undertsand the logic behind stripping them of their wins, but agree with the rest of the punishment.

Isn't it every win since the cover up technically began. So it's basically the NCAA retrospectively refusing to recognize the football program during the period after Sandusky's acts.

crazy_dave23 wrote:

Isn't it every win since the cover up technically began. So it's basically the NCAA retrospectively refusing to recognize the football program during the period after Sandusky's acts.

What happened was disgusting and totally unacceptable from a moral and ethical point of view, but they didn't break any rules or regulations over which the NCAA has authority. Penn State needs to be punished for turning a blind eye and allowing Sandusky to get away with it, so fining the programme, banning them from prestigious competitions and restricting scholarships etc is the right thing alongside criminal proceedings for the sickos involved.

But I don't see how stripping the guys on the field, who probably are totally innocent and ignorant, of wins is right. Had they fielded ineliglble players, bribed refs, taken performance enhancing drugs then I can see how you'd strip them of what they've earned. That element of the punishment just seems harsh to me.

Stats play an important part in US Sports, so by removing the wins, they for ever remove Joe Pa from the top #10 so in years to come when coaches move up the win rankings Paterno's name will not be there to compare against or be in the top 10 lists.

Harsh yes, worse than the 'Death Penalty' what the NCAA is showing is that Football ruled at Penn State above all else, taking that away is the punishment to the programme rather than the players and others who had no dealings with what went on.

Have to admit, this isn't a story I've followed in too much detail but am aware of the basics obviously. If the programme covered up what went on then no punishment is too harsh. This does seem like a heavy punishment so fair play to the NCAA for dishing it out.

Don't know if anyone's heard this but current Penn State players have the option to transfer to other schools, including ones in the same conference, without any problems, they can just go to who may want them.

Players who are eligible won't be restricted by another institution's scholarship limits if they choose to transfer, nor will they have to sit out a season as is customary for players transferring from one FBS program to another.
Delany said the Big Ten's initial thought is to not limit the ability of players to transfer to another Big Ten school at this time.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/big-ten-donate-penn-states-150011470--ncaaf.html

Silas Redd may be going to USC

Here's the New York Times article.

Skyforger wrote:

crazy_dave23 wrote:

Isn't it every win since the cover up technically began. So it's basically the NCAA retrospectively refusing to recognize the football program during the period after Sandusky's acts.

What happened was disgusting and totally unacceptable from a moral and ethical point of view, but they didn't break any rules or regulations over which the NCAA has authority. Penn State needs to be punished for turning a blind eye and allowing Sandusky to get away with it, so fining the programme, banning them from prestigious competitions and restricting scholarships etc is the right thing alongside criminal proceedings for the sickos involved.

But I don't see how stripping the guys on the field, who probably are totally innocent and ignorant, of wins is right. Had they fielded ineliglble players, bribed refs, taken performance enhancing drugs then I can see how you'd strip them of what they've earned. That element of the punishment just seems harsh to me.

The players won't lose; many another school has already sent recruiters to contact them. This happened with Southern Methodist University when they received the so-called "death penalty" in 1987: all their top talent went to other schools. After one season out that school managed to field a team - with really substandard players, btw - and it took them 20 years to reach the heights from which they'd fallen.

The Washington Post is less than impressed with the NCAA's punishment.

what about the player who played for Penn state during that time, will they be heavily affected?

There's nothing they can do to the players. This was strictly all on Sandusky, Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz.

The wins being taken away are to damage the legacy of Paterno. The majority of players have moved on to their careers and the current players have the option to transfer.

The other sanctions are to damage the school for now and the near future. They'll be back to normal in a few years.

I don't know why they're hammering the school this hard. Not to trivialize sexual predation and the cover up, but all the main players in this fiasco are either dead (Paterno), in prison (Sandusky), or fired and probably going to prison (the athletic director, vice president, and president). The school is going to be paying tens of millions in civil lawsuits. If going to prison isn't a deterrence, is being banned from bowl games and losing scholarships really going to change future behavior? In my opinion, this is going to hurt the current student players most of all.

And this sets up a slippery slope -- is the NCAA going to intrude in all other criminal cases?

The Mangler US_UK wrote:I don't know why they're hammering the school this hard. Not to trivialize sexual predation and the cover up, but all the main players in this fiasco are either dead (Paterno), in prison (Sandusky), or fired and probably going to prison (the athletic director, vice president, and president). The school is going to be paying tens of millions in civil lawsuits. If going to prison isn't a deterrence, is being banned from bowl games and losing scholarships really going to change future behavior? In my opinion, this is going to hurt the current student players most of all.

Don't worry about the players; they'll be fine.

The Mangler US_UK wrote:And this sets up a slippery slope -- is the NCAA going to intrude in all other criminal cases?

Would you send your kid to Penn State - for any reason at all, not just football - if they maintained that cloistered wall of silence or if the NCAA went easy on them? I wouldn't.

The NCAA doesn't punish criminal behavior (that's what courts of law are for); it punishes any university's institutional culture which promotes environments for that criminal behavior. If they didn't then their whole reason for being would be called into question.

I'd have no problem sending my kids to Penn State if the NCAA didn't add any punishment. The NCAA punishes for rules violations and a culture that promotes rules violations. Criminal activity that falls outside of the realm of competition should be handled, and in this case is being handled, by the police and the courts. When this came to light, the Penn State board of trustees acted swiftly and sacked everyone involved and the authorities started the judicial ball rolling. And the civil court will soon be busy.

This is in contrast to, say for example, SMU, where the school had many recruiting and other noncriminal violations, and continued to violate after being punished.

Again, I don't think the NCAA needed to get involved in a criminal case, but that's just my opinion.

Looks like some of the Penn State board of trustees isn't happy with Penn St.'s president accepting the NCAA's sanctions in an attempt to sidestep any possibility of the 'death penalty'.

Probably a little late IMO.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/penn-state-nittany-lions-trustees-meet-legitimacy-ncaa-sanctions-072512

News article saying there was talk of banning football at Penn St. for 4 years.

http://msn.foxsports.com/collegefootball/story/Penn-State-president-says-four-year-football-ban-was-considered-072512

I saw that. That would have killed not only Penn State but the Big 10 in terms of revenue and prestige.
Better to force the penalties only on Penn State and preserve the football team as active.

"How Two Coaches Dealt with Recruiting Limits." (NYT article)

Another take on Penn State, courtesy of Next Media Animation

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2zEe-MO0pY&feature=player_embedded#!