Were the NCAA Sanctions Against Penn State Too Harsh?

I think when a lot of people look at Penn State now all they are seeing is the Jerry Sandusky scandal and a set of staff that failed to do the right thing and follow proper procedure (and morals).

If the whole issue were only about the abused children, then the 60 million dollar fine should have sufficed. I'm not huge on sports either, so the remaining sanctions don't bother me all that much. My issue lies in the fact that the sanctions against Penn State go beyond punishing Jerry Sandusky and the staff that failed the University. The sanctions will punish the students in general, especially the student athletes, who are going to lose scholarships and be denied the right to play in bowl games even if they earned the spot.

Also, just so we're clear, In no way do I condone child abuse. I don't think the sanctions are necessarily too harsh, but I certainly wouldn't agree with the opinion that they weren't harsh enough.

I feel that they were properly harsh, but I have a hard time not wanting more. Everyone that was involved in covering it up has been fired, and they are being brought up on charges, which is good, but because kids where harmed, there is a part of me that is wanting to raze the school to the ground and burn the guy responsible alive, but that would not change anything.

The sanctions were well conceived and are just right.

How far does covert unofficially institutionalized long term serial child rape go?

Good question.

Realizing Nittany Lion fans have just had their fantasy crushed, how is it possible to be too harsh for the crimes committed and covered up? Joe Pa was a fraud, a myth.

The damage done by ignoring and covering up this scandal far exceeds the sanctions levied at Penn State. There are always innocents caught up in scandals and especially when the responsible people fail in their positions. I feel sorry for the students and athletes; however, I believe they understand and will rise above this sad time.

Excellent thoughts DiView. I tend to very much agree with you.

They got what they deserved. I wonder how the people who aided the cover up sleep at night.

I've wondered that many times myself.

BIG QUESTION. The victims and society need and deserve an answer.
What will happen to them?

The fine is a bit harsh I think.

If this goes all the way to the top than yes. Quite possible the head of the college knew what was happening and decided it be hidden to protect all the money coming in to the college.

If not the sanctions have hurt more innocent than the ones who actually were involved in the crimes. For example the banning of bowl games hurts the players even the ones who were the victims.

Ad to future players who are not even part of the incident now will never be able to advance unless they leave and go to another college. As usual people do knee jerk reactions in high profile cases to look good for the rest.

no

should have been harder. every knew and covered for him

The $60 million dollar fine is earmarked for supporting “programs preventing child sexual abuse and/or assisting the victims of child sexual abuse.”
The football team annual allotment of scholarships cut from 25 to 15 over that same time frame.
Players can transfer to other schools immediately without sitting out one season, thereby emptying reducing the list of football talent. If a player opts to stay at Penn, they must maintain minimal academic requirements to retain their scholarship.

We can say that the sanctions hurt the innocent, yet those same kids were rioting/protesting for a man that let countless of boys get raped. Enough said; I feel bad for the incoming freshman though.

When they were rioting, they did not know the full extent of the cover up. That came out in dribs and drabs.

They protected a predatory child molester.

What was even worse, even though they knew it a whole 14 years before, they allowed it to continue. That is to me anyway, the greatest outrage of all.

BTW: Nice to see you Hh.

HI Sissy, hope all is well.

The NCAA was right. PSU cared only of money and football- not the welfare of the kids. They were fortunate they weren't sactioned the 12 years that Paterno did nothing.

I believe that Penn State is far, far from not being the only campus where football rules and the coach is king. Hopefully this is a wake-up call for all of them.

There is no way in hell that Penn State is the only place where something like this happened/happens.

In addition the sanctions imposed, there should have been a 3 year ban on television broadcasts of Penn State games. College football receives billions of dollars in television rights; Penn State shouldn't share in that revenue. I heard a report that the Big 10 conference has imposed an additional "fine" on Penn State in the form of lost revenue shared by the teams of the conference. The figure I heard was $13 million.

I hadn't thought about the t.v. broadcasts. I agree that would have been something else to consider.

Any institution that would protect,and conceal the fact that one of their employees was a child molester deserves to be punished severely! Where is the millions in fines going,is it going to the victims,or what?

The $60 million dollar fine is earmarked for supporting “programs preventing child sexual abuse and/or assisting the victims of child sexual abuse.”

Vacating wins is idiotic. The games were played, Penn State was the better team on those days and the players had nothing to do with the crimes of Sandusky. It is a sanction that ignores athletic history while doing nothing to erase the atrocity. There were players who got seriously injured in those wins; now the results of their pain and dedication cease to count with the stroke of a pen? Absurd. The other penalties, however were appropriate.

The wins that were given to the other teams will always have a "mark" on them. They literally won by default. I'm not sure how I personally feel about that particular sanction. I just feel dreadfully bad for what happened and what was allowed to happen.

In my opinion, the sanctions weren't harsh enough.

No, it isn't "idiotic." Vacating wins was in the time period of 1998-2011 with 1998 being the first incident of child sexual abuse reported. Whether players were seriously injured is irrelevant; they chose to play a violent sport. There's absolutely no defense for Penn State no matter how hard you might try.

I don't think it could be harsh enough. Wasn't JS indicted on 48 counts? 48 counts of child molestation! All the while, the Penn State football program covered it up. C'mon now!

I have to agree Lenny, but then I don't think anything save mowing down the whole University could ever be harsh enough in any of our minds eye. That could have happened (giving a death knell to the Univ.) and the Board even considered it from what I've read.

They did the right thing and need to continue going after those who knew and said nothing.

Nuff said. When crap like this happens, you have to hit them and hit them HARD. It's the only thing they understand.

I think the most egregious thing of this whole sordid mess was that the University allowed this pig Sandusky to continue with his youth programs, and access to all parts of the University even after he retired in 1999 and they knew what he had been doing. How can they live with their conscience?

Exactly and it's totally disgusting!

I totally agree!

thankies!