Penn State scandal, JoePa and the football/college town complex

I think it was just done to kick Joe out of the top spot. I'm sure the NCAA doesn't want its Div. 1-A all-time wins leader to be a pedophile enabler.

 

I think the PSU football program dodged a bullet. 10 scholarships per year will hurt competiveness for a while but compared to the other possibilites, that's not very harsh.

Longer term outside of Pennsylvania the "brand" has sufferred. Out of state recruiting might be difficult.

 

"Devastating blow to Penn State"? That's the biggest crock of shit I've ever heard.

I don't feel sorry for Penn State (a school my wife attended and received her Bachelor's from, and I actually root for) or its students, but in the case of any school who has ever had recruiting violations, there have always been honest people who have suffered. What about the guy at the end of the bench who did everything right for his time at the school, and now he has to pay the price of his predecessors? It happens. The goal of the punishment should be to make sure that nothing EVER like this happens again. The athletic program and the school itself allowed for the cover-up of a man who raped children. The athletic department let this happen continuously for over a decade. That's a decade worth of children's lives completely ruined all for the sake of protecting the program. If you put the program before the rape of children, then your program deserves to die. To let it live on like this is just saying, "Yeah, we know that wrong was done, but what can we do now??" The most severe of punishments should have been taken against to program because the most egregious of crimes was covered up to allow the program to live a full and happy life, even if the children who were raped never do. I don't feel sorry for the program at all. I used to love PSU football. I watched every game, every single week. Now, the idea that a football signed by Joe Paterno sits in my living room makes me want to vomit, and I can't get rid of it because it belongs to my wife, and she refuses to get rid of it, despite what Joe has done because she spent two years living in the walled community known as Penn State: Where you'll never know what goes on in the outside world.

What should have happened is they should allow zero scholarships for football for 10 years. No games on TV whatsoever for 10 years. Home games played with just the student section for 5 years. No season ticket sales to anyone but students only for 5 years. That's worse than the death penalty. This punishment is absolutely frivolous.

 

It's pretty obvious the motivation is to take Paterno's name off the top of the wins list.

 

I wonder if you really think this, or you just wanted to write the most extreme post on the topic.

I'm glad that Chris Fowler didn't spend any time talking about the non-revenue sports or the resteraunt owners of the town as "innocent victims." But his constant "some would say" got on my nerves. Chris, if there's ever a time for you to editorialize, this was it.

 

I've been to State College many times since, as I said, my wife is an alum. As I said, I was a fan of PSU sports. I'm not anymore because I have a conscience. I can't blindly follow a program that allowed for such egregious crimes to have been covered up. I don't feel sorry for PSU, its students, or anything involved with the university in any way. How does it make the victims of these crimes feel when the program that allowed the crimes of their attacker to be covered up is still in existence? There are only a small amount of victims in this whole ordeal, and they're the little kids who were viciously raped. There are no victims in the football program. There are no victims in the hierarchy at Penn State. There are only the victims who were raped. To see the football program and the university continue to prosper after this is nothing short of disgraceful. I know, "$60 million fine..." Bullshit. It's a drop in the bucket to the university. Like I said, they received over $200 million in donations after this stuff started to go down. The program should have been disbanded, but it wasn't because it was deemed "Too big to fail". In the grand scheme of things, this a big slap on the wrist. And if you want to say, "Well, that's not fair to the people who have jobs within the program and the stadium..." Who is suffering more: Those people or the kids who were raped?

The SMU program was essentially destroyed for over 20 years because players were being paid. Meanwhile, the PSU program covers up the rape of children, so the program doesn't receive a black eye, and they don't suffer a worst fate. It's disgraceful.

 

It's different for a variety of reasons, but did minor sports suffer at SMU when the Mustang footall team went offline? I seem to remember the soccer team getting better? But again, the instutions are so different that it might be worth considering other PSU teams.

 

I'm hoping, after the administrators who hid this in cahoots with Paterno get convicted, then the NCAA will levy more punishments. Then they can better claim "lack of institutional control" through their soft disciplinary committee.
Do I believe the NCAA actually will? Not likely, imo, but they did leave open that possibility in their statements.

 

It IS a devastating blow, and I didn't see/hear any suggestions that any of the three in the vid feels sorry for Penn State.

It's not frivolous at all. It's harder than SMU's DP. They'll recover more quickly than SMU did because they're not SMU, but the penalty itself is tougher.

 

Should smaller sports have to suffer as a result of this? No, but did those children who were raped have to suffer either? I mean, when we weigh it up, you have kids who can transfer to other schools to play sports, but the kids who were raped can't get their lives back. I think only one party is suffering. Also, if the whole athletics program were to go under because of the actions of the football program, then so be it. The school's athletic director wasn't looking out for what was best for other sports when he made the decision to assist in the cover-up. Why should we start doing that now?

 

Good. They can stay and get an education. You want to play football and get an education? Feel free to transfer. I don't feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for the kids who were raped.

 

It was the title of the video itself.

SMU paid players. What they did, according to the rules, was wrong. However, no one got hurt.
PSU covered up the rape of children to protect the interests of the football program. A lot of innocent people got hurt. The punishment in this case does not fit the crime.

 

I don't think vacating the wins is all that big of a deal. It's not even good for Internet smacktalk. Example: Ohio State fans aren't going to stick their chests out now that they're the sole 2005 and 2008 Big Ten champs, because they lost to former co-champ Penn State on the field in both of those seasons.

Winning? That's for the programs.
The NCAA has no competition- money is their "only thing"...

Yes, and it was accurate.

The crime's never been brought before the jury that is the NCAA. I'm curious about how you decided (beyond matters of opinion or "feel") that the punishment was harsh enough, too harsh or not harsh enough. Looking for something concrete here.

 

SMU's penalty was worse. It was not just a one year death penalty. Additional sanctions including loss of scholarships stayed in place after the one year ban. Actually, in the second year, all of SMU's home games were to be canceled but the school decided to cancel the entire year. SMU could have come back sooner, but the school made a decision to de-emphasize football.

 

This isn't just about the football program. It's the culture of the football program itself. You want to deter any future problems within any program. You know what any school can say now? "Well, at least we didn't hide the fact that one of our coaches raped kids, so our punishment shouldn't be too bad." It's all aligned with the culture. If you don't come down with the most lethal penalty you can find, then nothing changes. It's why the death penalty and life in prison exist. They're the most harsh penalties you can find for the most harsh crimes. Did the current regime commit these infractions? No. The previous one did. However, those infractions live on in the culture. Schools wouldn't commit infractions if they knew the NCAA would come down real hard on them. Has any program paid its players, at the volume that they paid them, since SMU received the death penalty? No. Why? Because the NCAA felt that the punishment fit the crime. Does the punishment fit the crime here? No. The culture surrounding the football program will never change, unless something extremely drastic is done. We're talking about the cover-up of child rape here. We're not talking about paying players. We're not talking recruiting violations. This is serious shit. Young, innocent peoples' lives have been ruined, and all because of the culture surrounding the football program.

 

I'm afraid I disagree. Its a lot easier to get recruits to come play for a program with a coaching staff with a track record and a roster with 45 players already on scholarship than it would be to get them for a program that has nothing to show at all.

In the first case, you can say "we really only need two receivers and a nose tackle to be competitive again, and we think you boys are the ones."

In the second case you are saying "we're going to bake pie in the sky by and by, and we think you'll have a terrific experience starting from scratch and should come here instead of Nebraska." Being able to play right away when you are going to be playing with an all- freshman set of teammates is not really everyone's pipedream...

It's the difference between getting the guys who aren't sure anyone else wants them, and getting some of the guys who are already being followed by NFL scouts.

It wasn't just the change in standards that caused SMU to lose and lose and lose for so long after the revival.

 

Exactly, and Penn State still has those scholarships, and after 4 years, it will be like nothing has changed.

 

Also, the $60 million fine is payable at $12 million a year for 5 years.

After the amount that is brought in on football alone each year, this is a drop in the bucket.