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 –