Penn State Punishment Open Thread--UPDATE: NCAA Punshment--$60M Fine, Lots of Scholarships

Since the first day I heard of the allegations, all I can think about are the victims.  The firings didn't change that, the trial didn't change that, the guilty verdict didn't change that, the Freeh report, the statue, the sanctions, the different opinions, etc.  Nothing has changed what I think about when I read about Penn State.

Very powerful people paid a lot of money to do a job decided not to do their job and children were sexually abused. Some of them did not have to be abused if the powerful people in charge would have done their job.  I abhor the "you don't know what you would have done" argument.  The people paid to the their job did not do it.

 I'm not worried about the impact on Penn State, the players, the recruits, the fans, the Big 10, Michigan's Big 10 title chances etc.  Those things will be OK (maybe not great but OK).  The children that were abused will forever have to live with it.  I guess I feel some satisfaction that the penalties are severe so maybe people who are paid a lot of money to do a job just might remember what they are being paid to do.  In the end, I don't really care about the sanctions.  i just keep thinking about the victims and how it didn't have to be for some of them.

Wow, there are 15,000 people right now on the bluewhiteillustrated.com message forums. 

Penn State just dropped from #5 overall to #12.

Joe Paterno now sits between Ken Sparks and Ron Schipper as the 12th winningest coach in the history of NCAA football (all divisions). Here is the NCAA coaching records document - obviously, Paterno's position changes from list to list (the record is broken down several ways here, but to highlight - 298 wins (new total) places him at 11th among coaches with at least 10 years at four-year institutions and 7th among coaches with 200 or more wins at one school.

That's a punch right in the soul of State College, but I tend to believe that this official rebuke of the circumstances surrounding the continued "success" during that period from 1998 to 2011 will help foster so of the needed change in the long term. The removal of the statue and the much diminished stature of the man in the record books - two items which the school rallied around - are now gone. The advantage given to the program by inaction has been erased. I do think this helps the fanbase and the university make that desperately needed break though...but judging from the storm at BSD, that will happen much later.

As for the scholaship reductions and the bowl ban, like others, I almost believe they would come out of this a little better by just shutting it down for a time and then restarting. They'll be irrelevant for many years now, it seems, unable to attract talent, and even when the restrictions expire, the effects will linger. I tend to look at this as a chance for them to go into some sort of competitive hibernation where they could work out all the internal failures which culminated in today's announcement while still allowing kids the opportunity to say that they played for Penn State if they so desire. It is still possible to make the needed cultural changes while there is something left of a program. There will likely be few if any people from the old regime left in very short order anyway.

The creation of the Compliance post and the Athletic Integrity Monitor (working in concert with probation), as well as the agreement that the university must sign and follow, are sanctions that I really did think were fitting. It's almost like having an outside consulting firm show you "a better way", and if there is any school which needs to grasp accountability and transparency in leadership, it is Penn State, and I don't blame the NCAA for wanting to be onsite as they learn this lesson.

In regards to the scholly limits:  (so we're clear, I understand the 10 scholly/yr loss to mean each recruiting class is capped at 15 for next 4 yrs)

However, the cumulative 65-scholly limit for the program poses a significant 1st year issue, right?  I mean, if that 65 total limit kicks in this year, AND in theory PSU was at it's full 85 limit exiting last year, they could have ZERO room for incoming recruits in 2012's class, right? 

Let's say they were indeed at 85 limit, and had 20ish guys graduate, leave early, exhaust eligibility.  That attrition gets them down to 65ish.  Even though they are technically aloowed 15 schooly per year now, they couldn't take any, right, 'cause they're still at the 65 total.

Every 2012 recruit would pretty much be toast??

Anone??

The best part of this entire scandal is that child advocacy programs will have $60 million extra dollars to prevent this from happening again.

Penn State loses their share of bowl revenue for their four-year bowl ban. Details

For the record, I find it really annoying that we can't have a few different threads that allow for focused discussion of the different angles of this.  Instead, we have one massive thread that's a pain in the ass to read through and a bunch of 10-reply threads on things like Ira Weinstraub's divorce and some guy's request for an Asian iTunes account.

This is far and away the biggest story affecting Michigan football right now - and one of the biggest college football stories in recent memory (for a Big Ten school, no less).  On top of that, there's a ton of information coming out and there's much that's uncertain/unclear.

Boo.

2012:  $12M fine, no postseason games, probation, waiver of transfer rules, no B1G bowl payout

2013:  $12M fine, no postseason games, 15 freshman scholarships, probation, no B1G bowl payout

2014:  $12M fine, no postseason games, 15 freshman scholarships, 65 total scholarships, probation, no B1G bowl payout

2015:  $12M fine, no postseason games, 15 freshman scholarships, 65 total scholarships, probation, no B1G bowl payout

2016:  $12M fine, 15 freshman scholarships, 65 total scholarships, probation

2017:  65 total scholarships

They will probably not recover from these penalties until about 2021 at the earliest.

I do feel for PSU students/fans; there was nothing 99.9% of them could have done to stop this scandal from happening, but they're associated with it all the same.  For the current players, too, it sucks.  And while I'm sure a lot of guys will transfer on their own, the scholarship limit for this year (75) essentially forces several of them to do so before September or else someone is going to lose his free ride.

At the same time, I think the punishment is justified.  This was a school that believed that covering up a serial child rapist was justified to protect its image.  It's shocking to believe that PSU accepted that line of reasoning, but it did.  I'm proud of the NCAA for having the guts to deliver a powerful message here.  I'm hopeful that from here on out, people will think about what happened to PSU before they try to sweep criminal behavior under the rug.  For once, at least, the NCAA is making it clear that it values integrity among its membership.  

also directed to the Paterno family that they need to cease and desist. I really hope they get this message

If 13 years of wins are vacated, that puts Bowden as the winningest college football coach. Not the main point of these sanctions, but it's just something that I realized. They railed Penn State. Plain and simple. And deservingly so. I doubt that they'll recover from this.