Penn State losing money, blames NCAA
Saw this article linked from Sports Illustrated:
Board of Trustees member, Anthony Lubrano, says it's no surprise the athletics department is taking a big hit because of the NCAA sanctions against the school. It's no secret Penn State Athletics is struggling. "It should come as no surprise," Lubrano said. "That's why we've sued the NCAA, frankly." Lubrano blames the NCAA. "If you go to a football game, you notice a decline in attendance, that translates into lost revenues, which translates into a loss for Intercollegiate Athletics," he said.
Yeah...it couldn't possibly be years of lackluster performances on the field, and escalating ticket prices, and oh that whole thing about you sheltering a child rapist. No, it's The Man holding you down.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
I don't even know. You nailed it on the head by mentioning the ticket prices, mediocre football team and bad publicity from PSU harboring a child rapist...
PSU needs to pull itself off the ground, realized they messed up and roll with the punches. Fighting this case is not going to be popular. Of course, the NCAA doesn't exactly have a track record of consistency. They just saw a chance to really put the hammer down on a "No Duh" situation that obviously called for harsh penalties.
Let's see how hard they investigate 'bama for damn near the same thing USC got nailed for...
September 20th, 2013 at 9:18 AM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 9:21 AM ^
Why do you think ND has been so little for so long? Sure they've had moments, NATIONALLY viewed Thank whatever where they've had to pay the price for being a representative of the same unholy union. When I went to L.A. during the Sandusky scandal, they were using his name as the safe word in their comedy skits. They're suing the NCAA for telling them they want our childrent to grow up without PTSD? Wow, just fucking Wow!!!!!
September 20th, 2013 at 9:35 AM ^
What drugs were you on when you typed this incoherent paragraph?
September 20th, 2013 at 9:44 AM ^
usually you can piece together what they mean but I'm still working on this one
September 20th, 2013 at 9:51 AM ^
ND = Chickens
PSU = irrelevant
Sandusky = scum
Save the children
Wud they lace this weed with?
September 20th, 2013 at 10:32 AM ^
This buzz is painkillers. I suspect Watson 545's but he could be on the heavy duty 20mg slow release oxy.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:27 AM ^
I'll have what he's having.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:48 AM ^
You need your Little Orphan Annie Secret Decoder ring to understand it. He's saying that he's drunk.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:58 AM ^
I think I can respond....
My man, my man, MY MAN! Truer words have not been spoken except for that one time when they were. ND, PSU, ASU, FU - whoever....like they didnt see it coming. They HAD to see it coming and yet. And yet. AND YET THEY DIDNT PULL THE TRIGGER! Am I right?
I was there too. And the things they said and did - well lets just say they were not what you'd think they'd be. And now this? A fucking lawsuit.
Who are we to say? Who are we to judge? Who are we? - right!
September 20th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
There have been some pretty dumb posts on this board, especially in the last couple weeks, but that, man, is by far the dumbest.
Maybe try MLive or something; work your way back up to the majors.
EDIT: not a reply to #7, genius board, but #4, obviously.
September 20th, 2013 at 11:30 AM ^
I read this paragraph into my Galaxy S4 interpretter and it replied: WTF?
September 20th, 2013 at 11:31 AM ^
Is there anybody out there? Can anybody hear me?
September 20th, 2013 at 11:57 AM ^
Oh stewardess, I speak jive.
September 20th, 2013 at 12:58 PM ^
Couldn't agree more, Notre Dame should never serve red wine with fish.
September 20th, 2013 at 4:26 PM ^
I am actually intrigued enough where I really would like a translation.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:36 AM ^
The NCAA's punishment of PSU has nothing to do with football and all to do with plausible deniability. They have never proven that anyone at PSU actually believed that Sandusky was the piece of garbage that he turned out to be.
In retrospect, PSU was negligent, but there is no proof that they were co-conspirators, and the penalty was excessive. If the NCAA really cared about the victims, they would have instructed PSU to settle with each and every one quietly, and allowed the story to die on its own.
Instead, the victims still have to read about it every day, and only a few have gotten any settlement money.
Sandusky brought enough pain to PSU and to his victims. Making the current generation of PSU students and athletes pay for Sandusky's grossly inappropriate acts in such a public manner only perpetuates the story, as opposed to allowing the victims the space to heal without being reminded of it every day.
Reading about what Sandusky did actually made me take a second look at my 43-year opposition to the death penalty, and had me wishing all sorts of vile endings to his life before I came to my senses. In the end, though, it shouldn't be about Sandusky, PSU, or the NCAA.
It should be about doing whatever they can to help the victims heal and try to give them the tools, financially and emotionally, to enjoy the rest of their lives.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:12 AM ^
There might not be proof that they were co-conspirators, but there was proof that they were given highly credible information that they should have acted on. At some point, Penn State was willfully ignoring the horrible truth.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:30 AM ^
And those people deserve to be punished. They deserve to be in jail, and they deserve to be sued by the victims for monetary compensation. Instead, the NCAA is penalizing all of the student athletes at PSU for something they don't even have jurisdiction over - this should have been left to the legal system.
This isn't about correcting behavior. Half the penalties the NCAA gave PSU would have accomplished the same: made sure no one else would cover up events like this. It's become a witch hunt where everyone associated with PSU athletics must be punished, regardless of whether they are students or not.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:39 AM ^
I see what you are saying. Your argument makes sense. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the Penn State sanctions. On one hand, they had little, if anything, to do with Penn State jeopardizing the mission of the NCAA -- to make sure that amateur student-athletes are actually amateur student-athletes. And the NCAA does a miserable job of that anyways. And there is no precident to follow, but a potentially dangerous one being set.
On the other hand, the fans still didn't even want Paterno fired. The fans at PSU don't seem to accept what happened. There was a cultural problem at PSU too.
September 20th, 2013 at 6:40 PM ^
There absolutely was a cultural problem but in that sense, the sanctions not only failed but made it worse - the fans mostly felt like the penalties were ridiculously excessive and felt persecuted. This had the *opposite* effect that was intended and merely made the fans and team get defensive.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:59 AM ^
Sometimes Mommies & Daddies fuck up. They lose their jobs, or they commit crimes, or are otherwise forced to pay the consequences for their actions.
Sometimes it means Christmas morning sucks for a few years.
September 20th, 2013 at 6:29 PM ^
Equating a nuclear family to an athletic department is kinda dumb. If you want to keep with this analogy, the extra punitive damages equates to locking up the kids in jail too (doesn't normally happen!). Your analogy is bad, and you should feel bad.
September 20th, 2013 at 6:41 PM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 6:49 PM ^
Football players were. The other athletics, which will be affected by the decrease in athletic department funding were not.
September 20th, 2013 at 6:58 PM ^
You make it seem like it's no penalty and really easy to just switch universities in the middle of your degree. It may be better than staying in a crippled department but for most people it isn't something they want to have to do, even if they can start playing right away for the new team.
September 20th, 2013 at 8:06 PM ^
I figured a more nuanced argument discussing organizations as a whole having important departments that when mismanaged or facing scandal can severely impact (and often ruin) large corporations was more than anyone needed to read.
Unfortunate and seemingly unfair consequences can happen in organizations as large a national govt. or as small as a family when simple mistakes, horrible crimes, or random acts of god change circumstances for the worse.
A company CFO embezels funds, and sometimes eventualy the mailroom kid ends up losing their job; maybe his kids will even become homeless, or worse
.
The important part to remember is that there is a decision-making leadership at the top, and varying levels of increasing powerlessness as you move towards the bottom. That is life.
PSU as a university benefitted at every level from it's football image, and now they will suffer a bit for it's misdeeds. Even the widdle baby athletes, it's very sad.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:39 PM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 11:47 AM ^
PSU put their football program above the well being of children and therefore PSU Football should be punished by the NCAA.
Punishing current students for past issues is a separate arguement. That is the NCAA way for dealing with all issues.
September 20th, 2013 at 12:07 PM ^
Weren't the students offered the choice to transfer without penalty. If they chose to stay then they pay - right? It is about correcting behavior - as imperfect as it may be.
This BOT guy is whining about the money. Money is important... but not wrt this tragedy.
September 20th, 2013 at 4:29 PM ^
Is really good on this whole point, IMO.
September 20th, 2013 at 6:31 PM ^
Unless I'm mistaken, it was only the football athletes that were allowed to transfer. Since Penn State's Athletic Department (like every other University in the B1G) uses money made from football to support other sports, maybe they should have been allowed to transfer too.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:22 AM ^
The culture of CFB was a major contributor in this debacle. Similar to Gorden Gee hoping Tressel didn't fire him in the first throes of tat gate. Football has become bigger than the Universities that ostensibly spawned it. The penalties are designed to address this as well.
The victims need healing first but the system also needs fixing.
I would have torn down Beaver stadium but so be it. Backing off the penalties isn't going to fix the culture of PSU football. If making money was the goal - most schools would not play this game either.
September 20th, 2013 at 1:17 PM ^
There might not be but we don't know yet because the trials of the administrators (Curley, Schultz and Spanier) have yet to take place. Why the delay in their trials when Sandusky was so quickly convicted?
There's some seriously fishy ass-covering still taking place behind the scenes and this the PSU story is far from over.
September 20th, 2013 at 12:57 PM ^
Perhaps you should take a look at John U. Bacon's book before making such statements.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:20 AM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 9:20 AM ^
ban. Yup, most of us would characterize that as a loss. Don't know whether "we're suing because we're losing money" will be the most persuasive rationale for any judge. . . I really think that S'ing the F U for at least a LITTLE while would have some merit as a strategy going forward, but that's just me.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:21 AM ^
College football attendance is declining across the board for most colleges I think, though Penn State's situation is more alarming than most.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:29 AM ^
IIRC, Penn State also had some very contentious reorganization of the way they deal with season tickets that required steep increases in donations for some longtime ticket holders that led to a lot of fans seeing their seats moved around and others giving up large numbers of season tickets just prior to the who Sandusky mess happening. It's kind of a perfect storm for declining attendance.
I've also always thought that Penn State would be particularly hit by fan dissent/declining interest/whatever is going on because it's so far from any population centers. There are a lot of potential fans who live 3-4 hours away (Pittsburgh, Philly, New Jersey, suburban DC), but a lot less that live in the 0-3 hour range, and 3-4 hours, each way, or a hotel stay at inflated prices, is a pretty significant commitment of time and money.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:57 AM ^
Found an article from 2009 that says Penn State's new ticket pricing would charge people $400-$600 more per seat per year. Yikes! It does appear to be the perfect storm.
http://altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/524432.html?nav=742
September 20th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
Why does the revelation that PSU "blames NCAA" not surprise me in the least? It's the reason they moved way up on my teams i root against and hope they lose list.
Someday it would be SO refreshing to hear or read "Penn State has something bad happen to it. Blames the fact they aided and abetted a child rapist for over 10 years and then tried to cover up their involvement as the reason"
But that will never happen.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:27 AM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 10:08 AM ^
PSU sell tickets last season. There was tremendous outrage over them firing Paterno. The NCAA penalties helped unite a very unhappy fanbase against an outside enemy. THe truth they don't want to face is the Sandusky scandal has really hurt them the most. I expect that's keeping the non-hardcore fans and companies away much more than any scholarship reductions.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:15 AM ^
Agree with this.
People eventually experience fatigue and the "us against the world" anger ebbs, and this is the result -- people lacking enthusiasm for a team that has no chance of a bowl game for at least another few years, maybe longer, since the scholarship limits go on for two years after the bowl ban.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:28 AM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 10:18 AM ^
We still did okay when we were mediocre, but would that have been the case if we were banned from bowl games with no hope of being a great team for at least another half decade? Even in the darkness of the RichRod years, there was still some hope that better days were ahead. But remember that when Michigan fans gave up on the season in 2009, OSU took over the stadium.
September 20th, 2013 at 10:38 AM ^
September 20th, 2013 at 4:18 PM ^
That was different though. That was a case of Michigan fans having tickets but selling them en masse instead of using them. PSU just plain isn't selling a lot of tickets.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:30 AM ^
Only in America.
September 20th, 2013 at 9:42 AM ^
Perhaps SMU could litigate. They deserve compensation for all of the damage done by the dreaded Death Penalty.
/s