psu

I know we just want this to be over, but I thought this should be covered, because it's new PSU stupidity. If you don't want to hear anymore about it, stop reading now. At this point, you have to wonder how much more PSU's athletic department can take.

I'm not sure if these are two independent suits, or flipsides of the same suit, but it reads like they are independent, which I think would make sense. They can be filed independently, and then that gives him two shots to win. Can an MGoLawyer confirm if that makes sense? Filing two separate lawsuits that each have the same final aim if there is a separate legal tennent for filing each one?

First off:

McQueary files whistleblower lawsuit

Evidently, McQueary was shocked to find out he was the ONLY member of the football coaching staff A: not offered a chance to interview for his old job under the new head coach, and B: to not have his legal fees covered by the university.

Now, the legal fees thing might not have merrit, because as I recall, McQueary electeed to get his own laywer rather than be represented by the university, because he feared the legal association (I could be wrong on that. I can't find a source that confirms it). However, if the univeristy paid for anybody else's independent lawyers, then that ones got legs.

The other issue, not being interviewed for his old job under a new coach, leaves them with no legal recourse, I think. If they had made a clean break, and told everybody from the old staff, "We're cleaning house, 100%", they might be okay. But to only leave him out? Do they not have a legal staff in their HR department over there?

Seeking: $4 Million, Legal Fees

Suit two:

McQueary files defamation suit

In this case, McQueary states that the Three Stooges - Spanier, Curley and Shulltz, worked together in public and behind university closed doors to discredit McQueary and make him a scapegoat and clearly indicated on several occasions that McQueary was a liar. He claims that this has ruined his reputation for honesty and dedication in the local and higher-education communities.

Seeking: $4 Million, Reinstatement, Lost Bowl Bonus, Legal Fees, Back Pay and Benefits

I think Bill O'Brien has been granted a tremendous opportunity at PSU. For the next 4 years PSU football will celebrate wins like the super bowl and blame the losses on Mark Emmert and the NCAA. O'Brien no longer has to worry about respecting the legacy and traditions of Penn State because they got nuked by the Freeh Report. He can now rebuild penn state in his image without the pressures of following one of college football's greatest coaches.  You think following Lloyd Carr at Michigan was hard, try following JoePa at PSU regardless of the circumstances.  He essentially has 4 years to prepare for the 2016 season and beyond and nobody can question his methods with "That's not how Joe did things". 

With smart, targeted recruiting strategies I think a school like Penn State, even with 65 scholarships, can be competitive in the B1G.  I don't think Bill O'Brien is in as bad a situation as we think, but it could be a glass half-full viewpoint.

Is there no Penn State fan who truly gets it?

I’ve been browsing fan websites for weeks, looking for a sign that Penn State fans understand why there is such enduring controversy surrounding their football program and school.  I can’t say that I’ve seen evidence that even a single fan really gets it.  The current president of the university seems to understand, but the most vocal PSU fans and alumni want to ride him out of town on a rail. The PSU fans seem to respond to the lunatic fringe of the blogosphere with answers to questions that no sane person is asking.

For example, PSU fans acknowledge that pedophilia is horrible and should never occur, but then act as though that somehow shows that they “get it.”

PSU fans list all the positive attributes of Penn State, its football players, its graduates, etc., etc.  Yes, we sane “outsiders” all understand that there is more good than bad in Penn State and there is plenty to be proud of.  Again, that’s never been in question, except to the lunatic fringe.

It is the next point, though, that begins to get at the crux of the problem. PSU fans point out the half truth that this sort of thing happens everywhere. Yes, child sex abuse is far more prevalent than most people realize, and most of us probably do know someone who has been abused and very well may know an abuser without realizing it.  These truths, though, ignore the difference, the reason Penn State is singled out and stands alone among US universities (as far as we know): at no other institution were there repeated allegations of child sex abuse that rose to the very top of the university where the response was to cover up, protect the pedophile, thereby allowing him to continue abusing children for over a decade.

Now, many PSU fans do acknowledge this last point, but almost none without spinning it in such a way to convince themselves it was just an isolated incident with just a few bad apples (I don’t know how many times I’ve heard it was just one monster and two, perhaps three others) and they are now out of the university, so the problem has been resolved.  That third individual, which many PSU fans still refuse to acknowledge, played a role in this is a if not the central figure in the cover up.  Joe Paterno, for all the teaching and preaching (and leading by example) he did about honor, integrity, doing things “the right way,” failed miserably on the biggest test to ever come his way.  There is no getting around this.  But these are the points I’m waiting for a Penn State fan to acknowledge, and it is some semblance of refusal to acknowledge these or similar points that leads to many saying Penn State fans still don’t get it:

1)      There was a cult of personality surrounding Joe Paterno.  This is not unique to PSU, so I’m not quite sure why there is such resistance to acknowledging this point.  The only difference might be that Joe Pa’s longevity and success led to a level of reverence perhaps never achieved at another university.

2)      Joe Paterno was the most powerful individual at Penn State for decades.

3)      While he might not be culpable legally under Pennsylvania law, morally and ethically Paterno failed the child abuse victims and the community by not doing more to stop Jerry Sandusky.

4)      When the most powerful person on campus, the athletic director, and the president of the university all cover up and enable a child rapist to continue his abuse for decades, and others in far lower positions in the university are afraid to come forward with complaints there is a question that must be asked and answered: who or what enabled the enablers?

U Iowa President Sally Mason told the Des Moines Register today that the B1G has jurisdiction to punish PSU and will be watching the NCAA's actions closely before considering how to address the Sandusky issue; she's current chair of the conference's presidents and chancellors. 

According to last week's Chronicle For Higher Education "conference bylaws require any member that fails to show complete, accurate information during an investigation to 'show cause why its membership in the conference should not be suspended or terminated.'"

http://www.cbssports.com/collegefootball/blog/eye-on-college-football/19633881

I am in the dark about how the presidents and chancellors may be viewing the crimes and scandal associated with them, and curious how people think or are aware this is being viewed in academic quarters (what is being mumbled by the professoriat and admin around the water cooler?) An associated question is just how PSU was viewed before the scandal--as a member in good standing of the Big Ten?

Would some kind of probationary status for PSU be appropriate?