The Penn State Scandal

[Plubby]

I'm only 70 pages into the report, but nothing happened in the stadium itself so far Maybe it should have guarded the lockers sooner.

[The Buscher]

http://deadspin.com/5926561

Seriously, idiots like this are making the school look even worse on a national stage.

As an aside, one of my friends is a PSU alumni and he absolutely flipped a shit at me for posting that same article and commenting on it. "Fuck you for assuming all PSU people are like this" etc. even though that's not what I said.

It's weird because he's completely disowned Joe Pa and lost all respect for him - yet it seems like when any non-PSU people call for the statue to be torn down or mention how bad the school looks right now, he loses his shit.

It's like he thinks non-PSU people have no right to comment on a fucking national news story. He's in his own PSU bubble and doesn't seem to realize that the rest of the country looks at the school and just sees the shitstorm that is going on.

[Lint]

The NCAA will announce the penalties to hit Penn State tomorrow around 9AM. Its said their "unprecedented" and the source said to CBS News that "they've never sen anything like it before"

CBS News has learned that the NCAA will announce what a high-ranking association source called "unprecedented" penalties against both the Penn State University football team and the school.

"I've never seen anything like it," the source told correspondent Armen Keteyian.

NCAA President Mark Emmert will make the announcement Monday morning at 9 a.m. at the organization's headquarters in Indianapolis.

The penalties come in the wake of the independent report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that chronicled repeated efforts by four top Penn State officials, including former football coach Joe Paterno, to conceal allegations of serial child sex abuse by Jerry Sandusky over a 14-year period.

The NCAA had been awaiting the school's response to four key questions pertaining to the sex abuse scandal, including issues involving institutional control and ethics.

And Deadspin has video of the Paterno statue coming down

[Maxx]

ESPN is saying it won't be the death penalty, but they punishments will be so severe that the death penalty might be preferred. Won't be seeing Penn State in a Bowl Game for a looooooong time, I'm guessing.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Apparently Paterno's family put out a statement complaining about the statue being taken down?

I get that it's hard to admit things about family members, but surely they should at least be able to tell that they're better off stewing in silence?

[gunnar hendershow]

They won't give a death penalty because it took SMU 25 years to get back on track AND destroyed a conference. It's got a very bad connotation. So instead they'll give a different punishment that has the exact same effect without making the NCAA have to say the words "death penalty". It's probably better this way, the death penalty didn't really hurt the actual cheaters. The best players (read: ones receiving money) transferred and the boosters who were paying the players at SMU stayed on board. At Penn State it's a similar situation where nobody on the team right now was part of the cover-up; the coaches, AD, President, and such who did orchestrate the cover-up are all gone. The death penalty can't do what it says its goal is, so as a result the NCAA won't use it. But I'm sure the punishments will be severe enough where Penn State football takes nearly a decade to recover completely.

Oh and let's hope the NCAA member who addresses the media tomorrow doesn't faint.

[The Buscher]

Just making some predictions in advance of tomorrow's announcement. The urgency to make the announcement seems ominous, as do the comments about how unprecedented these sanctions will be:

-All current PSU players are able to transfer to other schools without having to sit out a year

-All victories from 1998 through 2011 vacated, meaning Paterno is no longer acknowledged as the all time wins leader

-5 year bowl ban

-5 year national TV ban

-No football scholarships for 5 years. All current scholarships will stay, including incoming freshmen who have already signed up. But for 5 years they can only use people who are willing to play without a free ride.

[Plubby]

-All victories from 1998 through 2011 vacated, meaning Paterno is no longer acknowledged as the all time wins leader

I actually am completely in favour of all the others. The blanket scholarship ban is a little bit of a stretch as far as relevance to the crime, but I still like it.

I am, however, going to need it explained to me why a program would be forced to vacate wins when what has happened has absolutely zero to do with what happened on the field. What JoePa did as a coach on the football field does not in any way excuse what he's done as a person. But conversely, what he's done as a person does not make what he did on the sidelines any less impressive and I think to take away Penn State's wins and JoePa's record is an act of vengeance, not justice.

[The Buscher]

-All victories from 1998 through 2011 vacated, meaning Paterno is no longer acknowledged as the all time wins leader

I actually am completely in favour of all the others. The blanket scholarship ban is a little bit of a stretch as far as relevance to the crime, but I still like it.

I am, however, going to need it explained to me why a program would be forced to vacate wins when what has happened has absolutely zero to do with what happened on the field. What JoePa did as a coach on the football field does not in any way excuse what he's done as a person. But conversely, what he's done as a person does not make what he did on the sidelines any less impressive and I think to take away Penn State's wins and JoePa's record is an act of vengeance, not justice.

I agree 100%. But with the pressure on the NCAA to impose massive sanctions I would not be surprised to see something like that happening. Penn State is trying to distance itself from Joe Pa, and so I could see the NCAA doing the same thing.

[Lint]

Well its being reported that they'll be fined anywhere from 30-60 million dollars

EDIT: Oh...and from The Onion..

[Lineker]

NCAA hits Penn State football with $60 million fine, vacates Paterno's wins from 1998 - 2011 - @AP

Other Penn State sanctions include 4-year bowl ban, loss of scholarships, 5 years' probation - @AP

[Guest mr. potato head]

OK kbusch, who do you know inside the NCAA?

[Katsuya]

Apparently it means Paterno is no longer the all-time leading winning coach with those victories vacated.

[Plubby]

Still not OK with the wins vacated. I am in favour of the rest of them though. I also hope the rest of the Penn State football program rises above and beyond the stench of what's come before.

[Guest mr. potato head]

Agree with Plubby, wins erased seems like a rather odd punishment. A bit getting caught up in the heat of the moment.

[GhostMachine]

Apparently it means Paterno is no longer the all-time leading winning coach with those victories vacated.

It actually knocks him down to 7th on the list.

I think the punishments are appropriate, except for one thing: Its way too close to spring practice. Most players will be stuck at PSU until at least next year if they want to leave, because most teams have already given their scholarships out. Unless a school wants to take away a scholarship from a player they already have to give it to someone from PSU, and that would be shitty. Would have made more sense to say `If you sit out this season and transfer to another school, we'll give you an extra year of eligibility' than to just let them play immediately elsewhere where they might either take someone else's scholarship or be a walk-on. IF they can find a team willing to take them.

[naiwf]

I agree with all of the penalties, and think that vacating the wins is the appropriate punishment for JoePa since he put wins ahead of everything else. Posthumously taking them away from him, and essentially erasing the last 13 years of his "life" isn't fair, but neither is allowing a child predator to rape kids on campus because he's your friend.

[GhostMachine]

I agree with all of the penalties, and think that vacating the wins is the appropriate punishment for JoePa since he put wins ahead of everything else. Posthumously taking them away from him, and essentially erasing the last 13 years of his "life" isn't fair, but neither is allowing a child predator to rape kids on campus because he's your friend.

I can't wait to see what Paterno's family has to say about this.

The only other thing I'd like to see done now is Paterno's plaque, photo, bust or whatever pulled down at the College Football Hall of Fame, pissed on, and tossed in the trash. I don't think there's any way he'd have been inducted if all this had come out beforehand, and he was inducted well after the cover up started.

[zero]

Way to go, NCAA. Of course, the NCAA talking about "putting wins above all else" is a bit disingenuous, but in this case, they're absolutely right and did the right thing.

Vacating the wins sends a strong message - it's not just about winning and if you operate under that mentality while children are being irreparably damaged, you won't just be punished, your legacy will be destroyed. Yes, there are a lot of innocent people involved, but that's what happens when you cover up a major crime, you drag an entire world down with you.

When I was a kid, a local high school football team had gone undefeated through the entire season and part of the postseason. They were primed to win the state championship until it was revealed they had an ineligible player, a fifth year senior. The athletic commission wiped out the entire season. I think wiping out 13 years for protecting a child rapist is absolutely fair.

[Guest Oswaldo Jones]

As someone who done get a scholarship at Penn to play football this year this absolutely sucks, I'm no fag, I didn't get raped, this shit shouldn't be affecting me. I mean dang this shouldn't be happening. Now what them expecting me to do? Play some pansy ass sport like soccer or hopscotch? I was gonna go NFL, baby, Oswaldo Jones all the way but now cause I didn't let some polak stick his finger up my fanny and didn't let some italian feel me up I gotta fall back on some piece of shit school like Notre Dame and play fourth string to some guy twice my size? That's some bullshit. I mean, they talk about victims, what about me? What about Oswaldo Jones? Ain't just them kids got raped, I needed this so my mama can done get her a real big house, you hear?

Shit.