NCAA Announces Penalties for Penn State

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**rubiksnoob**

Well, here you go chaps:

http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/ncaaf-dr-saturday/ncaa-announces-penalties-penn-state-including-four-bowl-131754169--ncaaf.html

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced sanctions against Penn State University's football program Monday morning in light of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal and the findings of the Freeh Report investigation.
The details of the punishment:
-Four year postseason ban
-10 initial scholarship losses and 20 per year for four years
-$60 million fine
-All wins from 1998-2011 vacated
-Five year probationary period
The NCAA's action in a case like this is unprecedented, as this was a legal issue -- there was no NCAA investigation. Emmert called this a "very distinct and very unique circumstance." And while the NCAA didn't invoke the death penalty like was given to SMU 25 years ago, it's a crippling blow to the program. (Under former coach Joe Paterno, the team's most consecutive seasons without a bowl appearance was three.)
After the vacated wins, Paterno's win total goes from 409 to 298. The $60 million fine will go into an endowment for charitable programs that serve the victims of sexual abuse. The NCAA also reserves the right for further individual punishments after all criminal proceedings are finished.
Penn State football players will be allowed to transfer without sitting out a season.
On Sunday, Paterno's statue was taken down in front of Beaver Stadium after Penn State officials in the days prior said a decision hadn't been made about the statue's future. It was removed via forklift and put into storage.
Sandusky, a former assistant coach for Penn State who also ran The Second Mile, a charity for at-risk youth, was convicted on June 22 of 45 of 48 counts of sexual abuse. Many of his victims knew Sandusky through the program.
The Freeh Report, released on July 12th, concluded that school officials covered up the Sandusky issue, saying "the most saddening finding by the Special Investigative Counsel is the total and consistent disregard by the most senior leaders at Penn State the safety and welfare of Sandusky's child victims." The Paterno family, which has said that Joe Paterno wasn't part of any cover-up, responded to the Freeh Report by conducting their own investigation.

I must say, the penalties are not as crippling as I, and I believe many others had hoped they would be.

**Frazzled**

How do they get the power to "fine" a university? (its public right?) If I were Pennsylvania I'd tell the NCAA to go F itself. Actually I'd have the AG charge the head of the NCAA with racqueteering and send troopers to get them. Once safely in jail, then I'd offer to discuss it.

- Point #27 on why a Frazzled Administration would be an entertaining administration.

**Ma55ter_fett**

I don't follow any kind of football and I have no idea how thier football programs work.

So aside form the 60 million fine, how big of a deal is this?

**Easy E**

No post-season for ONLY four years?

That seems a bit weak considering this cover-up went on for a decade.

The Scholarship losses seem preety heavy though. After that, they may never even qualify for a post-season.

**dogma**

Frazzled wrote:How do they get the power to "fine" a university?

NCAA contract.

Of course, there might be no provision in the contract for actions external to athletics, which these were despite being conducted by athletic staff, so they might be able to challenge on those grounds. However, there's almsot certainly a general provision regarding conduct unbecoming.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:
So aside form the 60 million fine, how big of a deal is this?

Pretty big. Every NCAA team is given a set number of athletic scholarships, reducing that number effectively limits how many players can be recruited.

**Frazzled**

dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:How do they get the power to "fine" a university?

NCAA contract.

Of course, there might be no provision in the contract for actions external to athletics, which these were despite being conducted by athletic staff, so they might be able to challenge on those grounds. However, there's almsot certainly a general provision regarding conduct unbecoming.

Ma55ter_fett wrote:
So aside form the 60 million fine, how big of a deal is this?

Pretty big. Every NCAA team is given a set number of athletic scholarships, reducing that number effectively limits how many players can be recruited.

That wouldn't work for me as governor. I'd give em a call and clear that little bit up.

**dajobe**

While harsh, everything here seems like it is ok(assuming most if not all of that 60 mil go to foundations that prevent child abuse and not just go to the NCAA coffers).

but i am a skeptical of taking away 1998-2011 wins as that just seems to hurt the players and fans who really had nothing to do with this...i could see taking the wins from Jo Pa's record, but entirely, dang

**Frazzled**

its not ok. Thats taxpayer money for a private criminal activity and the NCAA aint no freeking court of law. They are private entity. They need to get boned by the government in response.

EDIT: I'm the one texan who doesn't give a

about football. I especially don't care about Yankee football (or Yankees actually). I have an issue though when $60mm in taxpayer funds could be spent for, you know, scholarships and financial aid.

**LordofHats**

That fine is gonna burn hard. PASSHE already had its budget slashed by half last year, pretty much killing what was one of the most effective state run school systems in the country. Now they just lost another 60 million.

Now, who do we call about campus police cover ups?

**dajobe**

Frazzled wrote:its not ok. Thats taxpayer money for a private criminal activity and the NCAA aint no freeking court of law. They are private entity. They need to get boned by the government in response.

EDIT: I'm the one texan who doesn't give a about football. I especially don't care about Yankee football (or Yankees actually). I have an issue though when $60mm in taxpayer funds could be spent for, you know, scholarships and financial aid.

maybe ok was the wrong word, i have never really understood how organizations like the NCAA or NFL can fine a public organization to such an extent, but i havent read the laws and am not a lawyer. how is it that these organizations get away with these fines then? surely the gov't would step in and stop them if they werent legal, or maybe not

**Easy E**

Because you don't have to be part of the NCAA. If you want to be part of it you sign a contract that allows the NCAA to have some power over your organization. In exchange, you get a piece of the NCAA money in the form of scholarship money and marketing.

**Monster Rain**

To anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of college football, this is indeed a pretty stiff penalty.

**Akroma06**

I have several issues with this.
1) Why is the NCAA doing this at all? It should be coming down from the government as to how to punnish Penn St, not a private organisation. Now keep in mind I don't like big government, but seriously this isn't a recruiting violation or eligibility comming into the picture. This is about a crime.

2) You are not punnishing the school. Lets face it the administrators make plenty of money and frankly don't care that much about the bowl bans. They will still make money on tuition and fees.

3) This is the big one to me. They are punnishing the students who go there NOW. Not even those who were students while the sex abuse was going on! How is it right for any of the players who may or may not be able to continue going to school without a scholarship? I know that they can go to a different school without the normal 1 year sit out period for changing schools bassed on football reasons, but we are a month away from the start of the season and teams are already going to have their rosters set up and are getting ready to start practices. So where are these kids supposed to go? This is just like the USC affair. It hurt the current student-athletes not Reggie Bush or Pete Caroll. They are both in the NFL and USC has to suffer for what they did.

So once again the NCAA is going too far and overstepping its bounds.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Monster Rain wrote:To anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of college football, this is indeed a pretty stiff penalty.

Something about SMU and death penalty come to mind.

**Ahtman**

The library can fine you for not returning books. Red Box can charge you for not returning movies. The NCAA they can fine you if break the rules. A college is not required to join the NCAA, but if they do, they agree to abide by certain rules. Of course, there are benefits to being in the NCAA, or no college would do it.

**Frazzled**

I think a $60mm fine just outweighed that. As I noted, a good Governator would call them and clear that up.

**kronk**

-$60 million fine

Who gets this money? Where will this money go?

**Frazzled**

kronk wrote:-$60 million fine

Who gets this money? Where will this money go?

Give me half and I'll make at least 10% goes to respected charities.

**dajobe**

Frazzled wrote:
kronk wrote:-$60 million fine

Who gets this money? Where will this money go?

Give me half and I'll make at least 10% goes to respected charities.

that is probably more than is going to respected charities now

**youbedead**

Frazzled wrote:
kronk wrote:-$60 million fine

Who gets this money? Where will this money go?

Give me half and I'll make at least 10% goes to respected charities.

I'll make it 50%, I'm a modest man.

**gorgon**

You guys need to actually *read* the news.

-The fine goes to charities for abused kids. It's up to $73 million with the Big 10 sanctions, I believe.

-NCAA had the power because PSU gave it to them in the form of a consent decree.

-Why did they do this? Probably because a) things may get even worse for them as more is uncovered so they're trying to take the best deal available now, and b) they're hoping to have a productive relationship with the NCAA instead of making a mortal enemy out of them.

Penn State football will take 8-10 years to recover from these sanctions. No elite recruit is going to commit there knowing they can't play in the postseason. And trying to play a Big 10 schedule with only 65 scholarship players instead of 85 ...well, good luck with that. This all stacks up for PSU rather nicely and PSU will be looking a lot of losing.

IMO, this hurts more than a one-year "death penalty," since they could just ride it out and go back to business as usual. Business will not be usual for quite some time.

@Frazz -- the PA governor was the AG who started the investigation, although he may eventually end up under investigation himself for dragging his feet.

**Inquisitor Lord Bane**

Akroma06 wrote:I have several issues with this.

2) You are not punnishing the school. Lets face it the administrators make plenty of money and frankly don't care that much about the bowl bans. They will still make money on tuition and fees.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Monster Rain wrote:To anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of college football, this is indeed a pretty stiff penalty.

Since I don't think your from Pennsylvania, let me explain. Penn State is like a cult school of sorts, everyone applies there, and 2 kids in my graduating class turned down Ivy League schools to go there. Most of the reason is the athletics department. Everyopne loves their Nittany Lions. Hurting the team realistically WILL cripple the school 2 or 3 years from now because no one will want to go there. Its a chain effect that no one is looking far enough ahead to see.

**d-usa**

I am thinking that the university could probably choose not to pay the fine by leaving the NCAA.

But in the long run they would be loosing more money that way.

I would not be surprised if the school made $60 million during those years from the football program and by being part of the NCAA.

Of course I think the schools would be better of if they quit spending this kind of money on sports and actually spend it on academics.

**Frazzled**

Agreed.

**dogma**

Frazzled wrote:I think a $60mm fine just outweighed that. As I noted, a good Governator would call them and clear that up.

It isn't that much money, its basically the gross revenue Penn State derives from an average football season.

**Frazzled**

dogma wrote:
Frazzled wrote:I think a $60mm fine just outweighed that. As I noted, a good Governator would call them and clear that up.

It isn't that much money, its basically the gross revenue Penn State derives from an average football season.

Thats $60mm in money. Its money for scholarships, and general college expenses. The NCAA can go feth itself.

**dogma**

d-usa wrote:
Of course I think the schools would be better of if they quit spending this kind of money on sports and actually spend it on academics.

It depends on whether or not the team is a net loss. Certainly some school have little business having NCAA sports, mostly the small directional ones. Then again, those teams are powerful recruiting tools, which is to say "revenue generating".

Frazzled wrote:
Thats $60mm in money. Its money for scholarships, and general college expenses.

You realize that Penn State's annual budget is ~4 billion USD, right?

**Frazzled**

We're just going to have to agree to disagree on this Dogma.

**d-usa**

Penn signed a contract, they agreed to let the NCAA have this power over them. Nobody forced Penn to join up.

**Frazzled**

d-usa wrote:Penn signed a contract, they agreed to let the NCAA have this power over them. Nobody forced Penn to join up.

No one's forcing them to pay up. Again, a simple call from the governor should do it. Mine would probably send Texas Rangers to retrieve the head of NCAA, and in the interim shoot a few coyotes (local joke). WE're mean like that.

**Mannahnin**

How is this oppressive? Penn State makes a ton of money because they're part of the NCAA. A crapton. A "60mm is a fraction" pile of money.

Sure, they can opt out of the contract, I imagine, and not pay up, but they'd be losing money in the long run. The school has already weighed it up and chose to take this rather than waiting for it to get worse.