Penn State Will Be Made Whole Again; The Victim’s won’t –

Today was judgment day for Pennsylvania State University, also known more commonly to us as Penn State.  As the fallout from the Jerry Sandusky scandal continues, NCAA President, Mark Emmert, leveled Penn State with what some are calling the most severe penalties ever handed down by the NCAA.  Penn State’s punishment:  $60 million sanction, four-year bowl game ban, vacating all wins from 1998-2011 (112 wins in total), and lose of scholarships (10 initial and 20 total per year for a four-year period).  Current Penn State football players are given the opportunity to transfer to other school they want to and can play their immediately (normal transfer rules state that a player must sit out a year before resuming play).  The Penn State Athletic Department will also be on probation for five-years.  These penalties will undoubtedly cripple the Penn State football program in the years to come; but many still wonder, was it enough? 

Dan Wetzel of Yahoo! Sports called today’s penalties worse than the Death Penalty (for those of you unfamiliar with the Death Penalty, it’s when the NCAA completely shuts down a school’s football program).  The only time the NCAA handed down the Death Penalty as a punishment to a football program was in the early 80's against SMU (Southern Methodist University), when it was found that SMU was paying high school recruits to attend there school.  I’m not sure if I agree with Wetzel.  On the surface, today's announcement sounds like a stiff penalty.  But when you take a step back and really examine what was lost here, I don’t think this was enough.  Let’s go through each penalty:

$60 million sanction – the $60 million is to be paid over a period of five-years, $12 million per year, and is the equivalent to the average annual revenues that the Penn State football program generates for the school.  The $60 million must be paid into an endowment to help fund programs for child abuse victims and cannot come from non-revenue sports or cannot come from scholarships being taken away. 

Four-year bowl game ban – Penn State is prohibited from participating in any post-season bowl games, despite win-loss record.  Additionally, the Big Ten Conference announced that Penn State is not eligible for any of the conference’s bowl revenue over that time span.  Penn State is also not eligible to play in their conference championship game as well.

Vacating all wins from 1998-2011 (112 wins total) – This is probably the most damaging to Joe Paterno, who after today is no longer the winningest head football coach in NCAA Division-1 history.  111 of the 112 wins are credited to his record, and with today’s announcement of the vacating of those wins, his career win total of 409 is now knocked down to 298, making him 5^th all-time. 

Loss of Scholarships – This is probably the most damaging to the Penn State football program.  Penn State will have to forfeit 10 initial scholars and 20 in total per year over the next four years and cannot carry more than 65 scholarship football players on their team.  For those wondering, that is about the equivalent of a NCAA Division-1 AA football school, i.e. Sac State or UC Davis.




So, what would I have done differently?  I would have hit Penn State with the Death Penalty for a year, in addition to what was handed down to Penn State today.  I would shut them down for a year, and then when they come back, make today’s penalties take effect.  It may be overblown, but that is what I would do.  I understand the argument that you are punishing players and an administration that had no involvement in what took place that led us to this point, but something has to be done.   

The simple fact is that Penn State football needs to go away for a year.  Out of respect for the victims and their families, especially the ones who are still living in the Penn State/Happy Valley area, this season will just be a constant reminder of everything they had to re-live this past year with the scandal.  When Penn State takes the field on September 1, they won’t find closure or solace, while others not involved with this scandal might.  This may be a bad term to use, since the dust will never settle on this, but Penn State football needs to let the dust settle on this, and then come back next season. 

There is another aspect that I think is wrong with letting Penn State continue to play this season.   I agree with what John Feinstein had to say on the Jim Rome radio show today when he said that all the NCAA is doing by these penalties is enabling Penn State to create a “Rudy” or “Underdog” type atmosphere around their football program, especially with those who disagree with today's punishments and think the NCAA overstep their boundaries.  By allowing them to continue to compete, they will be known as the "little-football-program-that-could," trying to compete and win games despite being under-manned and under-scholarshiped.  They can somehow spin and use today's punishment as a motivator for their football team, all while losing sight of the victims involved with this scandal.  I know you can't abolish the entire program, which is why I think if you at least shut them down for this season, they can let this scandal somewhat pass by them and then come back the following season and play under better circumstances and maybe even honor those victims as best they could.  


The $60 million in sanctions, while a high price-tag, I’m sure will be made up to the school through fundraising and donors who are still loyal to Penn State.  Remember, in the middle of this entire scandal, Penn State had their second highest fundraising and donor totals in school history.  That $60 million will be made up in no-time.  The four-year bowl game bad will at first discourage recruits from attending Penn State, but what happens after the four years when they become eligible again?  And I have never understood the meaning of vacating wins from the record books.  The games ultimately happened, players played, coaches coached, and people were there to witness it.  You never will be able to erase that.  The loss of scholarships hurts in the immediate term, but we just saw USC go through a loss in scholarships and bowl-game ban, and it had no effect on their ability to recruit talented players or their stature as a football program.  In the immediately future for Penn State this might affect recruiting, but what about in years three or four, when that bowl-game ban is about to be lifted and Penn State is able to offer not only a scholarship but also an opportunity to play in a bowl game?  And they can offer playing time, which is the most important thing to a high-school player. 

There may be no penalty severe enough for what has occurred at Penn State.  But after the $60 million sanction, after the four-year bowl game ban, after the vacating of wins, after the loss of scholarships, Penn State will be made whole again.  We will never be able to say the same for those victims.

Mr. Armchair Speaking –

The Midsummer Classic………Debate!! –

They say it’s not officially summertime until the MLB All-Star game happens. What was once called “The Midsummer Classic,” the MLB All-Star game has now become a focal point to great debate and scrutiny over the last decade. Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been engaging in numerous debates over MLB’s All-Star game; from who should be voted into the starting lineup, to whether the game should determine home-field advantage for the World Series, to which starting pitcher should even start the game. There are purest who think this game is sacred and should mean something, to the purest that see this game as strictly an exhibition to showcase the game’s brightest and best players, to the casual fan who mainly tunes in to see their favorite team represented by their team player representative. With the wide range, yet no compromising, view of the All-Star game, there seems to be no middle ground in this debate, when surface is badly needed for stability. So let’s try to find some ground.

The first thing we need to put on the table is the true meaning of the All-Star game. In recent years, the All-Star game has determined home-field advantage for the World Series, mainly whichever league wins the All-Star game gets home-field advantage throughout the World Series. This travesty occurred in 2002, when the All-Star game went into extra innings and both the National and American League team managers used all of their pitchers available to pitch. After consulting with Commissioner Selig, and to prevent risking injury to players, they called the game a tie. That offseason, Commissioner Selig instituted the rule currently in place that the winning league on the All-Star game would have home-field advantage in the World Series; supposedly brining meaning to the game and the hope that both the players and managers take the All-Star game more seriously and treat it as a real game.

What a crock, if you ask me.  First off, in my opinion, you shouldn't have to ask these players to play hard in the All-Star game.  They should want to do so because they are representing themselves, their team, and their fans. But there are always those who need that something extra, and need you to make it worth their wide. Take for example Washington Nationals shortstop Ian Desmond. He is not playing in the All-Star game due to an “oblique injury,” yet the Sunday before today’s All-Star game (last game before the break) he went 2-4 with a homerun and 2 stolen bases. But yet he is still in Kansas City, will be announced as an All-Star with the others, and will watch the game from his cozy sit in the dugout. If he truly cared about being an All-Star and playing in the game, he would play. I know it's just one example, but these players shouldn't need home-field advantage on the line to make them play hard.  They are supposedly going against the best-of-the-best in the game and should want to showcase their talent.  I know that is not always the case, and having something to play for is nice, but it shouldn't be home-field advantage in the World Series.

And secondly, if the All-Star game is going to determine which league gets home-field advantage in the World Series, how is that going to make the players care more and try harder to win the game? Really, there is about maybe 17 players in total who really care about that aspect. Why would Carlos Gonzalez, playing for the last place Colorado Rockies, care about home-field advantage in the World Series? The Rockies are terrible and won’t even sniff the playoff race let alone the World Series. In fact, they may be even mathematically out of the playoff race right now (don’t quote me on that). Yeah, guys who play for winning ball clubs and on teams who have a legit shot at making the World Series will care enough to maybe dive for a ball or hustle a little more, but otherwise I don’t think players go into the game trying any harder to win than if home-field advantage for the World Series weren’t on the line. Players are going to “play to win” and try hard because they are natural competitors. They shouldn’t need home-field advantage to make them compete harder.

So how do we fix the problem of making sure that the players playing in the All-Star game care more about winning and playing hard, but not have the ramification of losing home-field advantage in the World Series if they lose? I have the answer: $$$$$$$$!!!!!!!!!! Money, folks!!! I guarantee, if you put a pot of money up for grabs, say $20 million, and the winning team divides that pot up into equal shares amongst the players and coaches, you will have players trying hard to win. For those playing for the losing team in the All-Star game? Nothing!!! No compensation. You must remember, not all of the players playing in the All-Star game are amongst the highest paid players in baseball. Some of these guys are still on their minor-league deals and haven’t had the opportunity through free agency to cash in on that big-money contract. So in baseball terms, while they aren’t starving, they aren’t getting paid as well. Put a paycheck on the line, and you may see some competition.

The second thing I want to address is the fans voting for the starters. Now, there has been some controversy about this because most recently, baseball fans outside of the San Francisco / Bay Area have accused Giants fans of “stuffing the ballot-boxes” and voting for all Giants players instead of those truly deserving of being All-Star starters, essentially ruining the integrity of the fan vote. My opinion, I caution because I am a die-heart Giants fan, if you are going to give the fans the power to vote for whoever they want to be in the game, you are going to have to deal with the consequences. If that means Pablo Sandoval starting at third base over New York Met David Wright, so be it. Giants’ fans flex their muscle!!! Where were you Mets fans?? See, if you are going to make the All-Star game count for something, then you can’t have the fans involved in the process of determining who plays in the game. And this is where the lines get crossed between whether or not the All-Star game should count for something or just be an exhibition for the fans. You can’t have it both ways in this aspect. If you truly want the game to mean something and have home-field advantage for the World Series on the line, then you have to let the players and coaches determine who plays in the game. I think the NFL with the Pro Bowl gets it right here. While the Pro Bowl is probably the worst All-Star game to watch out of the three major sports, they get it right when determining who in fact is a Pro Bowler. It’s 33% players, 33% coaches, and 33% fans. Baseball should be the same way if they want the All-Star game to current on this path.

Personally, I think the fans should have the right to vote for whoever they want to see in the game. It’s their game!!! The game was originally meant to be played for the fans. And if Giants fans, or any fans of any team, want to see their own players playing in the All-Star game, they should have the right to vote for them. I would just caution to those out there to not make Giants fan mad, because next year, you may see all 9 Giants starters starting the All-Star game.

So I think we cleared up the glaring issues surrounding MLB’s All-Star game and have come to some sort of middle ground regarding the purpose of the game. Sure there is no perfect solution and there will always be those unsatisfied with any outcome; but for the most part, I think we solved the problem. We’ve made the game meaningful by having the players play for money, which we all know they will play hard for; and we gave the game back to the fans by making the game an exhibition while keeping the integrity of what it means to be an All-Star. We let the fans vote for their favorite players, but not have their vote be the sole determining factor of who becomes an All-Star starter. Problems solved, patting myself on the back.

The Midsummer Classic Debate……….Over!!!!



Mr. Armchair Speaking!!!