NCAA source: unprecedented penalties against Penn State Monday

Reliable source with PSU connections tells me 5 years bowl ban, 3 years no TV, 60 schollies lost over five years.



Brutal. Would crush the program

Sports are becoming too big in this country.

I would think if you were a Wisconsin fan you might be a little bit excited about all of these sanctions coming out against ohio state and penn state. They're pretty much guaranteed to walk into the big 10 title game this year.

for a year or two is going to tend to look like a cop-out. 

these sanctions are true does anybody think the Big Ten would kick them out of the conference?

Will be interesting to see how many questions are asked to coaches and players this week? Even though NCAA is moving fast to make this happen, the questions will go on all year and then, if there is a suspension, once the team returns to the field.

Wow.  Just . . .  wow.

http://bwi.rivals.com/showmsg.asp?fid=36&mid=156455081&sid=890&tid=15645...

And try to get Pitt or Syracuse from going to the ACC.

While I do feel that punishing the school/program is appropriate, and justified, I feel badly for the kids on the team who'll suffer from this... I wonder if the coach will stay, or if he was aware of looming penalties in the future... Its also obvious from looking at USC that the most damaging penalty is the bowl ban, as it caused many current athletes to leave the program, and recruits to look elsewhere, while they have nearly pulled the #1 recruiting class with supposed "crippling" scholarship reductions.

It seems like some of the new leadership at PSU may be starting to make smart decisions. It appears they quickly went ahead and agreed to NCAA sanctions in close to record time. They also took the stupid statue down. At this point they have to start to move things along so they can begin to get past this. Fighting to save the football program and Paterno's reputation is pointless and unlikely to succeed. In the end they need to be concerned with a multi-billion dollar organization with 100,000 students and thousands of employees. The football program is really not that important when viewed from the perspective of the entire organization.

The leadership agreeing to sanctions that cripple the football program for a decade is a reasonable price to pay if it gets you closer to they day when "child sex scandal" is not the defining characteristic of your university. The next step is probably to fork over 100 million to quickly settle the lawsuits. Fighting any of this only drags out the scandal and does further damage to the school. One would hope the schools leadership has figured out.

dennisdoddcbs Penn State is about to become one of those patsies Joe played in the indy days -- if that. Column coming.

PSU needs to be kicked out of the B1G if the penalties are as harsh as some are suggesting.  It will just drag down the whole confernece and lead to a lack of competative balance.  And they deserve it.

My opinion on the proper punishment has somewhat changed after countless stories about Penn State (and I thank various commentators, including posters here for that).  Although I originally wanted to see a "death penalty," I believe that may be unduly harse on the Happy Valley community generally.  I do support scholarship reductions and a two year postseason ban, however.  

My position has always been that the cover up of child rapes is just as much a football failing as institutional failing.  In my opinion, it is almost impossible to separate the football program from the cover up of the child rapes.  The only way to adequately punish the football program for permitting the culture is to penalize the program itself.  The remaining three stooges will get punished criminally.  There also will be hefty settlements to pay.  However, Penn State could gladly pay the settlement tomorrow and pretend that nothing ever happened and that Camelot still exists.  

The NCAA and college football fans generally should expect some baseline for ethical conduct.  In my opinion, looking the other way with Penn State would basically be the antithesis of what amateur athletics should be all about.

Am I the only one that sees this as a legal issue alone? No matter how atrocious, it didn't involve a competitive advantage or the players at all. The men who committed and facilitated these atrocious crimes are or will be rotting in a cell for the rest of their lives. I don't recall or know of a sick f*ck raping boys and others covering it up giving them any advantage at all on/off the field.

Worst case is the NCAA skews a rule or two but none can result in these levels of sanctions.

I'm in no way saying what went on is ok. They should all rot in a dank cell. However, this is a legal issue. Rape and covering it up attracted zero recruits, enhanced their performance, grades, etc.

Years ago I was a law student and I was going through a tough time, and I starting drinking, hard.  It wasn't intentional, it just kind of happened, but I had a couple of weeks where I was getting drunk way too often.  The pressure of law school was getting to me and I was dealing with it in the worst way possible.  One afternoon, when I was reasonably sober, I realized that I was losing my self control over this, and if I didn't find a way to get it back, there was a serious risk that something really ugly was going to happen.  The awful fact was, at that moment in time at least, I couldn't handle my liquor.

So I gave up alcohol for a month.  Stayed away from bars and parties.  Concentrated on my studies.  It was awkward, but I stuck with it.  And it gave me time to deal with my problems and get my priorities straight.

Penn State is, if anything, even in a worse position than I was.  I was afraid of something bad happening -- as it was I managed to avoid any serious legal or academic trouble.  In Happy Valley, well, something awful happened, and it happened because Penn State's administration couldn't deal with the pressures and temptations of running a major college football program.

I doubt that the NCAA will impose the death penalty, and I'm not sure they should.  I do think it would be in Penn State's best interest to suspend their football program for a year.  It'll give them a year to focus on their academic programs, and to take stock of what went wrong and begin to undo the damage they have caused.

After a month, I had my head straightened out.  I rejoined my friends (most of whom were reasonably sober people -- kinda like the Big Ten in that way.) and I could go out and have a couple beers without making an ass of myself.  I had my head straightened out: I was a law student enjoying a few beers, not a boozehound who happened to be in law school.

After skipping a year of football, I think Penn State, top to bottom, will be more likely to think of itself as a college that sponsors a football team, rather than a college that was created by a football team.

That would be my advice to Penn State.  Let it go for a year.  Get your heads straightened out.  Yeah, it'll be awkward, and your teams will suck in 2013 and 2014, but if the NCAA's sanctions are anything like what we've been led to expect they're bound to suck anyway.  So let it go for a while.  You can bring the team back when you've got your priorities straight and you can handle the pressures.

One of my law school buddies put it best: a little self-discipline goes a long way.  It's time for Penn State to discipline itself.

Double post

Was it more fair for USC players to suffer penalties for things one person--Reggie Bush--did, even after he went to the NFL? Also given the fact that the coach, who is alleged to have turned a willful blind eye to what was going on, had also left for the NFL?

Were those sanctions more fair to the USC players who had nothing to do with it than the PSU ones would be?

I have spent half my life in universities, and never, in any capacity, have I seen such institutional corruption, misplaced priorities and downright contempt for the mission of the university as I have in this case. And it is all about the football program. The conspiracy and cover-up was, 100%, done to "safeguard" the reputation and sterling name of the athletic department's cash cow. And if the Freeh report is to be believed, it involved all 4 of the top officials with authority over the athletic department, football program staff and students involved in it. At least 4 innocent boys were raped after the decision to cover it up as well.

This is why the football team has to face sanctions. And yes, it is unfair to those who had nothing to do with it. But that doesn't make it any different from any other NCAA team sanctions. And in this case, at least, it is necessary to make it clear that this type of institutional and leadership failure cannot be tolerated, excused or be allowed to happen again.