This morning, NCAA President Mark Emmert officially announced the sanctions for Penn State University and its football program in the wake of what I can only call an incredibly bizarre and unbelievable scandal. Emmert made it clear before this morning’s announcement that PSU football would not receive the “death penalty” as punishment for coaches and administrators covering up the sexual assaults of former coach Jerry Sandusky, but that appears to have just been lip service. What Penn State actually received was the lethal injection to Southern Methodist's firing squad.
With current Nittany Lions players and recruits already de-committing this morning, the official word is that the school will be fined $60 million that will go toward a foundation and trust that will help children and adults who have been sexually abused. PSU will also lose as many as 65 scholarships over the next 4 years, and all current players will be allowed to transfer with no penalty (meaning they can play right away). Additionally, the program is banned from postseason play for the next 4 years and will be on probation for the next 5 years. And every one of the Lions’ wins from 1998-2011 is vacated, bowls included.
That means that Joe Paterno, whose statue was removed from Beaver Stadium as Penn State fans and alumni watched and paid their respect over the weekend (pics after the jump), is no longer the NCAA’s all-time wins leader. That honor reverts to Eddie Robinson, who now once again leads Division 1 coaches with an all-time win total of 408. Bobby Bowden, who also had 12 wins previously vacated, becomes the all-time Division 1-A wins leader with 377. My goodness, Wikipedia sure gets updated fast these days.
After all of that, many people are still clogging the Twitters, debating whether or not this is “fair” or “enough”, or if the NCAA is simply making a terribly hollow gesture. I have no idea. I’m not an expert, so I'll leave that up to the network talking heads. As the NCAA brass pointed out with bravado, we’ve never seen anything like this before, but it also shouldn't take press conferences and athletes being punished to make sure it won't happen again. Alas, here we are.
UPDATE: Let us not forget the divine hammer of justice that the Big Ten will impose as well.
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Can I go back to my bookie and ask for my money back on all of those times I lost by betting against PSU since 1998?
I’m not sure you’re on the wrong side of the ledger there.
I have to admit, I am ok with this. My biggest concern was seeing a way for the NCAA to punish those responsible without economically crippling Central PA. I think this may have accomplished that.
what the fuck? Economically crippling Central PA? are you fucking Hank Paulson? NCAA isn’t a make-work program, dipshit
I am confused, are you ignorant to the influence PSU has on the local economy, or just apathetic to it?
Please clarify, k thanks.
I just can’t believe that you would justify covering up of child rape by thinking about its impact on the local economy. FUCK this entire town. Fuck them all. Sure PSU is influential on the community, and that’s why THEY SHOULD ALL SUFFER
CHILD.
RAPE.
COVERED UP.
maybe Nambla has a recruiting office in State College, but this is fucking ridiculous.
I came here looking to argue with you…. but you are correct sir.
Fuck Joe Pa!
Yay for misdirected rage and punishment for those who had nothing to do with the acts or the disgusting coverup. Fuck you, Mew. Using that logic, every crime that happens everywhere should result in the area in which it occurred being burned to the ground and having the earth salted underneath it.
Nobody is justifying the child rape or the coverup. Everyone thinks both were awful, awful things. But now YOU’RE justifying the bankrupting potentially millions for the actions of a handful of dipshits.
Who is justifying covering it up?
Penn State deserves to be punished. I would just prefer all my family, friends, and teachers I grew up with to not have to deal with extreme economic hardship because of what a handful of University officials have done. I think the NCAA recognized that, and I appreciate it.
aww poor wittle state college, an entire town that’s an apologist for a child rapist. The cult of Paterno lives on.
DAMN YOU OBAMA!!!
Oops, wrong scapegoat.
It’s not a unique opinion, but it continues to blow my mind how anybody could stick to the THEY SLANDERED HIS NAME bullshit. Get a grip, locals.
I agree. It’s really hard to explain how powerful, and in hindsight, terrifying the Cult of Personality around Paterno was.
I definitely was a part of it, but have managed to sort of escape the pull a lot easier than others. Living out of the community helps. Central PA is kind of an echo chamber, and right now that echo is still very pro-Paterno unfortunately.
Things will change, it will just take some time and a lot of redefinition by the University.
They are a different breed in and around State College, PA. The popular defense is “He had a lifetime if greatness & 1 incident won’t change my opinion of him”. As if the ‘incident’ was he forgot to pay parking tickets.
I sell the things you need to be
I’m the smiling face on your tv
I’m the cult of personality
damn…. Raw is tonight…. :(
I see youve never dealt with Central or Western Pennsylvanianers, its a mentally and emotionally exhausting experience
it continues to blow my mind how anybody could stick to the THEY SLANDERED HIS NAME bullshit.
Amen.
Can we get someone to photoshop that sign so it reads “They may erase you from this site, but NEVER from the list of indicted co-conspirators for a child rape ring”? Thanks.
the entire town is culpable IMO. I’m sure this runs way deeper.
You’re right Mew, even the kids that were molested in that town are culpable right?
theres a difference between making a point…. and being a fucking retard
So why would Bill O’Brien leave the Pats to take this job?
Grew tired of Belichick fucking his wife?
Most likely.
Belicheat might have put hands on him
Ted Roof left UCF after a few weeks to take the same job at Penn State. I giggle a little at that.
My ex-girlfriend went to Penn State(huge titties). Anyway, it is a cult over there. It’s a very nice and clean cult, but everything there runs around Joe Pa and the football team. This is just a Northeast school, can you imagine if this happened to Alabama? There could be photos of Nick Saban eating babies(there probably are), and the locals would defend it.
You don’t mess with College Football. There would be less of an outcry if the Arizona Cardinals had done this.
thanks for the titties info
you had me at huge titties
Huge titties? I thought Central PA was known for its huge tracts of land. Unless…oh, wait, I get it now.
I think that it’s widely known that Saban flourishes on the flesh of the innocent and he washes it down with Tim Tebow’s tears.
Those babies had it coming.
They could close off the upper bowl and still draw more fans than the Jags. Plus, once MJD goes down the talent level will be equivalent.
Luckily, Jacksonville’s Super Bowl ban is already in place, so at least they can’t cry foul that they’re not on national TV.
I’d really love it if the media would stop taking statements from Paterno’s family, because FUCK.
You can’t take away games that they won unless they cheated. This is just stupid, it doesn’t make sense to take away Wins because someone did something awful. You are taking away all the wins that all those players earned and they did nothing wrong.
Child Rape is bad, so are the Nazi’s, we’re not going to eliminate Hitler from the history books because he is evil. It’s a lesson, and it’s reality. This is running away from the reality of people being bastards. Trying to use sanitizer on history doesn’t work.
too bad.
They’re not removing Paterno from the history books. They’re just saying that all of the wins he earned while he protected a child rapist don’t count because the program itself is why the sad fuck turned a blind eye. He still gets his other 298 wins. Also, the history books will show that his greatness as a football coach don’t mean jack shit because he — once again for posterity — protected a goddamn child rapist as to not sully a goddamn football program.
Way to invoke Hitler and the Nazis, btw. Totally relevant.
They should have taken the statue down Baghdad-style, with ropes and angry peasants and whatnot. Fucking rapist-protector. Fuck him and fuck everyone in State College who doesn’t agree with me. The rest of you are free to go.
Of course their board members are whining about this already.
[content.usatoday.com]
And alumni are trying to force out the current leadership for accepting this deal. BTw according to PSU’s new president the alternative the NCAA gave them to consenting to these punishments was a multi-year death penalty.
I think they got off easy their leadership seemingly abetted a child rapist for 14 years, I think a 14 year death penalty for their entire athletic department was the ideal punishment.
Hopefully there is a person with true integrity in a leadership position at Penn State now and that person is making a list of people still there that are still defiant and some day soon all those people will be purged from the university.