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

I know, right? As tho the players were raping kids like at Steubenville.

 

I couldn't disagree more; that seems fairly cynical to me. While there's no doubt whatsoever that they've fallen from the ideal, the ideal is very different: the stated purpose of the NCAA has been to champion the lifetime benefits to the participants of amateur intercollegiate athletics. To the extent that participation in amateur athletics makes people better people, that's supposedly the paramount thing the NCAA exists to champion. Policing against competitive advantage is merely one of many things they do to help achieve that end.

 

They've never upheld the ideal.

How you gonna stretch this into "They needed to get after PSU's football program because a former PSU employee was allowed to rape kids"?

The president and at least one Vice were involved here as well as Paterno, but no one's calling for (whatever passes for SACS in Penn State's region) to snatch PSU's accreditation.

 

". . .was allowed by the program to rape kids." That's how.

EDIT: missed this:

One of the factors in accreditation is not adherence to some ethical standard in non-academic activities. If it was, I'd be all for it.

 

No, he was allowed by the head coach and the president and the AD and a vice president. Again, either go after their accreditation or leave 'em alone.

I'll shout it to the heavens if I need to- the man was a pimp for big money donors and Penn State as a school (not just as an athletic department) shared in his "earnings". That's why he was protected, not because he was a great defensive coordinator.

 

The obsession with "shit I wasn't very good at and want de-emphasized" gets in the way while kids fall under the spell of various non-sports-related authority figure pedos and are abused every day. This whole thread is an example of the obsession.

 

While they were acting in their roles as officials of the university and custodians of the athletic program.

Since this aspect of the conversation had sat dormant for several days, and until I replied the conversation had been about Lane Kiffin, the most obvious conclusion would be that the paragraph above was posted in response to my last couple of posts. Is that correct?

 

That's not grounds for the NCAA to punish the entity itself. You should be upset that the NCAA did something in the first place that they knew they'd have to back off on.

Just curious... have you read why they reduced the penalty? Because I haven't, and I was kinda surprised at it.

 

Repped because I posted while you were typing and I didn't want you to think I was ignoring your last post.

No, not you specifically. It's about the whole thread, and I've said that a couple times here before.

It's like Revenge of the Nerds, except I love soccer and want to believe that the American game can generate the same kind of fan that American football generates- the kind of fan who won't falsely blame sport for the failings of their fellow citizens.

 

Why not? In every sphere of influence I can think of, actions that officials of an organization take while acting as officials of that organization can, if those actions are bad, result in penalties of various types for that organization.

I'm not arguing for or against any specific penalty for Penn State. I'm simply disagreeing that the NCAA's reach should only be limited to issues that pertain to competitive fairness.

Haven't. In fact, I only know about it from discussions here, and from an article I saw last week about USC wondering if this meant their penalties would get rolled back too.

 

I know you aren't replying to me for some reason, but the "sport" isn't being blamed for anything, it's the people running the sport and the people of State College and PSU Alumni that created the atmosphere around the crimes.

 

The difference between "Can" and "Should" may be the difference in our discussion.

IMO the NCAA's reach should be what the governing body and its member schools say it is. I bet now they'll clarify exactly what it is they want to police over the next few years or decade before the bigtime conferences get tired of their meddling and form their own governing body.

USC's penalties aren't being rolled back because what they stand accused of doing is clearly within the scope of the NCAA's "jurisdiction", so to speak. PSU's situation, again, has no precedent. The NCAA caved to outside pressure and acted on emotion and arrogance. My guess is, they are now realizing that and are trying to back out of a situation they can't defend in court.

 

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/09/ncaa_moves_to_reduce_penn_stat.html

 

ESPN article on Mike McQueary...

http://espn.go.com/espn/feature/story/_/id/10542793/the-whistleblower-last-stand

 

Looking back at the early pages of the thread, some people look really dumb now.

 

What happened? I checked Google News/CNN/ESPN, but can't find anything except that a "beloved Penn State equipment manager" is retiring.

 

Read the first pages of the thread.

 

Just to figure out what the hell you're talking about?

 

I'm not aware of any new revelation that would change my mind about Penn State or Paterno.

 

Why am I not surprised? Look at your comments from 2011. Witch hunts are bad, mmmkay.

 

except that that's not what this was.
a witch hunt implies multiple people going down based on mere accusations and little to no evidence.

 

While the 3 Stooges probably acted criminally, a jury of their peers will decide that.

 

While Mr. Warmth is one of the best posters on this site, I disagree with him here. Sandusky got 30 years. When his sentence expires, he'll be 98 years old.

 

They actually weren't friends, though they often appeared together. Paterno skipped Sandusky's '99 retirement ceremony.

 

I miss Chico.