NCAA cracks down on Penn State
Sandusky scandal
The NCAA obliterated the Penn State University football program Monday as punishment for the “horrifically egregious” actions of school leaders in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
At a morning news conference in its Indianapolis headquarters, the governing body of U.S. college athletics handed down arguably the most severe and long-lasting penalties in its 106-year history.
While the NCAA stopped short of slapping Penn State with the so- called “death penalty” — a short- term suspension of the football team, previously applied only to Southern Methodist in 1987 — the following punishments announced by NCAA president Mark Emmert are no less severe in terms of long-term effects:
A post-season ban for four years;
From 2014-17, a reduction in new football-player scholarships from a maximum of 25 per year to 15 — and a reduction of total annual scholarships from 85 to 65;
Current and incoming Nittany Lions players may transfer and play elsewhere this fall, rather than sit out the usual one year;
The school vacates all victories from 1998 through 2011, which means iconic head coach Joe Paterno posthumously loses the distinction of being the winningest coach in college football history;
The university is placed on probation for five years, with unprecedented levels of wideranging monitoring by the NCAA;
The NCAA may later investigate individuals (presumably, football coaches and athletic-department officials) and levy punishments accordingly;
The school is fined $60 million (the equivalent of one year’s gross football revenue at Penn State), with that money used to establish and fund nationwide programs for detection, prevention and treatment of child-sex abuse.
Penn State announced Monday it accepts the penalties.
Emmert acted with t he unanimous support of both the NCAA’S executive committee (comprising key university presidents and chancellors) and the Division-i board of directors. NCAA investigations normally are systemic and slow-moving. That the NCAA’S leadership decided to circumvent its own deliberate processes in this case is unprecedented.
“Our goal is not to be just punitive,” Emmert said, “but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mindset in which football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.”
The loss of scholarships and the player-transfer accommodation will cripple Nittany Lions football. The team will effectively be rendered uncompetitive for years to come, perhaps longer than a decade — not only nationally, but within its own league, the Big Ten.
Until last November, Penn State and Paterno both enjoyed a glistening reputation for winning big, with purity and honesty.
The school never before had been penalized by the NCAA, or even investigated.
Two weeks ago, Penn State’s own comprehensive investigation found its administrative leaders, as well as Paterno, did “nothing” for 13 years, despite having incriminating information against Sandusky, to prevent him from sexually abusing boys, often in university facilities.
Sandusky, a trusted assistant coach to Paterno at Penn State for 32 years until his retirement in 1999, was found guilty last month on 45 of 48 counts of child sexabuse with up to 10 boys over a 15-year period. His jail sentence, to be determined, could exceed 400 years.
Shortly after the scandal broke last November with Sandusky’s arrest, the Penn State board of trustees fired Paterno. He had been viewed not only in Central Pennsylvania but across America as a saint- like figure who was honesty personified.
Paterno died in January
of lung cancer at age 85 as the winningest coach in college football history, with 409 victories from 1966 to 2011, all at Penn State. He espoused the mantra of “success with honour” throughout his career.
Last November, the Penn State board of trustees also fired longtime school president Graham Spanier, while both athletic director Tim Curley and former vice president for finance Gary Schultz were arrested and charged with perjury, for the alleged dishonest statements they gave earlier last year to a grand jury about their actions, and inactions, in the Sandusky affair.
Curley’s and Schultz’s cases have yet to go before the courts. Spanier has not been charged with any crimes to date.
The school’s investigation — dubbed the Freeh report — hammered the actions of Paterno, Spanier, Curley and Schultz.
“( Their actions) were perverse and unconscionable,” Emmert said Monday, without naming those individuals per se. “No price the NCAA can levy will repair the grievous damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims. However, we can make clear that the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics.”
The Big Ten conference later Monday morning further censured and penalized Penn State for “morally, ethically and potentially criminally” failing to live up to its obligations. The league forced the school to forfeit its share of conference bowl money over the next four years, expected to total $13 million. The conference will donate that money to charity.
The conference also ruled Penn State ineligible to win the Big Ten football championship in the next four seasons, but the NCAA’s post-season ban renders that punishment redundant.
Sally Mason, chairman of the Big Ten council of presidents and chancellors, said conference leaders discussed evicting Penn State from the league, but nothing came of it.
In allowing current and incom- ing Penn State players to transfer immediately and not sit out a year before playing elsewhere, the NCAA effectively is inviting players to leave. By the end of the year, a wave of them might well do that and, thus, gut the Nittany Lions roster.
The NCAA said any current Penn State players who want to quit football but continue studying at the school may do so, with their four-year scholarship honoured.
Paterno passed Bear Bryant in 2001 as NCAA Division I-A’s winningest coach, with his 324th victory. With Penn State now forced to vacate all 112 football wins accrued since 1998, Paterno’s victory total is adjusted to 298.