🏈 Penn State should decide to sit out one year

[BAMANEWSBOT]

Nebraska coach Bo Pelini understood football's place last November. After his team won at Penn State, Pelini said the game shouldn't have been played given the shadow of the Jerry Sandusky child-sex scandal and Joe Paterno's firing.

"I thought that this game gave us an opportunity to show that the situation going on is bigger than football," Pelini said at the time. "It is bigger than the football game that was just played. It is bigger than the young men that played in the game that would have missed it, had they called it off. It's about education and putting things into perspective what the situation is all about."

Are you listening, Penn State?

Nothing Penn State can do will change the lives scarred by Sandusky through enablement by the school. But Penn State has a rare opportunity to help cleanse itself -- and bail out the boxed-in NCAA in the process.

Don't play football for a year.

Don't act like the victim and make the NCAA do the dirty work, if the NCAA even would. Not when there are real victims.
Don't hide behind interpretations of NCAA rules designed to enforce NCAA "crimes," such as free tattoos and paying players their actual market value. Not when doing the right thing can redefine what "We are Penn State" means.

Penn State could even wait a year to take the season off. The delay would allow innocent players, coaches and recruit to leave, and let the Big Ten reconfigure schedules and TV revenue.

I know this sounds like a fairy tale. Who would self-impose the death penalty? We're so jaded -- myself included -- by how college sports operate that self-reflecting on priorities becomes actual grounds to be mocked.

I've been torn on what should happen to Penn State football, mainly because discussing NCAA penalties about concealing the rape of boys feels grossly irrelevant. In the big picture, the NCAA hammer is ill equipped for this case and far less important than criminal trials, civil suits and any Department of Education decision.

But I've come to believe the big picture is precisely why Penn State should act. It would signal Penn State wants to get its priorities in order.

There is some precedent, to a lesser degree. After Len Bias' cocaine-induced death 1986 revealed major problems at Maryland, the university chancellor canceled three early-season games and rescheduled four others. Footnote: The chancellor was gone three years later and Maryland was on a two-year NCAA postseason ban by 1990.

This Penn State case screams "lack of institutional control" as you and I would understand that phrase. University leaders concealed heinous crimes to save their jobs and the football program's image.

But as crude as this sounds, there are no NCAA bylaws for covering up locker-room rapes by a coach. Lack of institutional control gets placed on a school after violating NCAA rules, not as the actual violation for criminal behavior.

The NCAA is in unprecedented waters. Doing nothing substantive risks making the NCAA look blind to what matters; doing something meaningful risks creating a precedent the NCAA may not be able to handle.

History shows different NCAA investigators and infractions committee members arbitrarily interpret their rules. Often, that depends on which way the wind is blowing at the time.

The NCAA could try to sanction Penn State for not complying with federal laws about reporting suspected crimes. Especially since those crimes occurred by a coach in the Penn State lockers and were aided by another coach.

Another possible avenue: Did Paterno, with President Graham Spanier's support, violate NCAA bylaws by handling team discipline that belonged in the hands of the police, courts or university judicial affairs? Former Penn State Vice President of Student Affairs Vickey Triponey claims she was fired for trying to hold players to the same standards as other students.

Triponey said to USA Today that after one instance Spanier told her, "You can't expect to change the culture."

Admittedly, there's no given that sitting out a year of football will do Penn State a lot of good. But sometimes in life you do things because they're right.

Even if it inconveniences college football.



Read More Here...

 

[TerryP]

"Even if it inconveniences college football."

That statement in itself shows how short-sighted people are when thinking Penn State should do something like this.

Solomon throws in this caveat, disclaimer if you will.

Penn State could even wait a year to take the season off. The delay would allow innocent players, coaches and recruit to leave, and let the Big Ten reconfigure schedules and TV revenue.

At first glance, that seems like it would protect those not involved from suffering any backlash from such a move. If he opened the other eye he'd see it would mean much more.

Several years ago, five perhaps, they did a report on the estimated impact home games had on the local economy in Tuscaloosa. While the exact number escapes me, I recall it being well above the 2 million dollar range. A move like this would have a huge impact on local businesses due to the lack of patronage from those lost games. Now how many are feeling the impact?

If you look at the revenue generated by Penn State athletics the only other program that keeps its head above water is basketball. The Ath. Dept. profited around 16MM last year, two of that came from profits from basketball.

Now, what's suggested is having an impact on how many other students? The football team accounts for 121, basketball 15, out of 488 student athletes on campus. Now how many are feeling the impact?

With an athletic department not bringing in the amount of money to sustain itself for that year where does that money come from? Do they levy student fees? Do they reach into the state coffers and get money their to help sustain those programs? Now how many are feeling the impact?

It was grant the Penn State administration a lot of style points. But, it wouldn't do a thing substantive other than hurt more people.

All of this talk under the guise of "considering the feelings of the victims" concerning what Penn State should do is leading to creating more damage.

 

[cjaytch]

I used to think that Scarbo was the worst columnist on al.com. Solomon has surpassed him in my book. From what I can tell, Scarbo just writes articles that will get a rise out of people to generate comments. Solomon seems to actually believe his own drivel. He comes across, to me anyway, as a pointy-headed "intellectual" who hates the very sport he covers for a living.

 

[psychojoe]

The SanFrancisco Dons shut down their nationally prominent hoops program for several years in the early eighties because of a scandal involving a sleazy player/alumni relationship, so the idea is not totally unprecedented.

As was said above, though, for an operation as huge as Penn State football to be shut down, even for one year, will have considerable impact far beyond the football program itself.

I am sure that responsible people in the PSU structure are doing some serious rethinking of their policies regarding having kids on campus, access by others, moinitoring what goes on at their campus. What happened goes far beyond the world of college sports, and for Scarbinski and Solomon to suggest the shut down almost trivializes it.

 

[Bo]

The only people that get punished from shutting the program down had nothing to do with the scandal.

These reporters/columnists calling for PSU to shut down are just using this as a way to scream "Hey look at me!" an draw attention onto themselves.

 

[bamagirl917]

Guess I'm in the minority here but I fully believe the death penalty is in order.. for what length of time, I'm not sure. ANY TIME THERE IS PUNISHMENT BEING HANDED OUT, there are innocent people who are unfairly affected, as well.. It's just a universal truth. The NCAA has already set a precedent for doling out the death penalty in situations FAR more benign, I don't see how it can possibly escape doing so here. I think it's a necessary piece to the message that must be sent to the country (and the world) that this type of institutional (and city wide) coverup of something so vile is simply intolerable. If you've read the Freeh report (and I don't mean the Bamanewsbot post) and you disagree, then shame on you. It's hard to have sympathy for a city whose own police department was turning a blind eye, in many ways.. and a city and fanbase who, to a large extent, CONTINUE to delusionally turn their noses up at the idea that Paterno should be thought the less of.

The sentiment I'm getting from so many PSU fans right now is exactly where the whole problem stems from. The artist who agreed to remove the halo from JoePa on his mural has since added a blue ribbon for child sex abuse awareness to his collar. Are you kidding me? What has he done to deserve that? That's practically mocking the victims, if you ask me. The culture there is just revolting. Shut them down and let the anger from the city, students and fans toward the institution just serve as that much greater of a punishment to the guilty parties. Too many people are involved on too many levels to take any other route, in my opinion.

Let the time without football be a sobering reminder to everyone of what's really important.. and what's been taken away from the victims who can't ever get back what they've lost, or a chance for a normal life. Lending consideration to what is "fair" for every single affected individual is impossible and is missing the point. What's happening to Sandusky's wife isn't fair to her, and leaving 3 children fatherless isn't fair to them but it's no justification for keeping him out of prison.

As my grandfather used to say... Fair is what you pay to get on the bus.

 

[planomateo]

Not sure about sitting out a year, I honestly don't know what the right way to punish the people and institution is. I could look at this two ways, the logical way and the emotional way, the punishment would be vastly different.

The parent in me thinks the school should be shutdown, completely. Screw the football program, I mean tear the entire institution down with a wrecking ball, bulldozers, and dump trucks. Take the land, sell it and pay the victims. I suppose if I check into this line of thinking, then the same thing should happen to a school system that doesn't report other types of sexual assaults - thinking rapes here, because this is equally as bad and happens more frequently.

I'll say this, if the school gets the death penalty, which I'm not even sure if the NCAA has that ability, what message is sent/received. Meaning, will shutting a school down for this push those to speak up and report, or will it cause them to hide it even further. The latter is what needs to be the focus, how do you punish a program for this type of vulgar disrespect for humanity AND ensure you put a system in place to promote the reporting of these things in the future.

As to the report, I'm still not convinced this was an unbiased report, as the school is trying to protect their interest and its pretty easy to blame a guy who cannot defense himself. By no means am I suggesting JoePa is innocent, just saying he can't argue anything (not that I'd believe what he said at this point). The school is doing everything they can right now to push the blame wherever it can, which is sad - they built and allowed this type of behavior to occur.

If the NCAA drops the hammer on students getting paid, then they better drop the biggest sledgehammer on this type of behavior. But then again, we are talking about the NCAA, they have proven that they aren't consistent with their punishment for many years.

 

[LBS]

To what end?

To correct the problem? As much as can be, I think they have done that. Sandusky is in exposed and in custody. One of the enablers is dead, and the others are outed by a former Head of the FBI.

To prevent it from happening again at Penn State? There is nothing to support an arguement that it (or anything like it) will be happening in Happy Valley. The Penn State campus may be the safest place for a child these days.

To prevent it from happening again at some other school? I would ask, what school out there is seeing what is happening at PSU and thinks that commiting those crimes would be a good idea? Of course no one. Further, the criminal trials and firings are the means to act as a deterant. Not playing football is the least harmful action to the guilty party, and the most harmful to other innocent parties.

My final question is this. If Sandusky had been a math teach would anyone be calling for shutting down the academic aspects of the university, or would the guilty individuals be targets with appropriate actions?

 

[JoshB]

Im so sick of this death penalty talk... the NCAA cant just toss the Death Penalty at whoever they want, whenever they want... its already been said numerous times, this case is out of their scope. They CANT give them death penalty, and giving Penn State the death penalty punishes damn near noone that was actually involved in the scandal. What does that accomplish?

 

[planomateo]

meh, its not about football or athletics to me...its about institution itself failing those innocent kids, failing to act properly at many different levels and what appears to several different times.

athletics is the least of my concern.

 

[Bo]

Again, no one involved in the cover-up will be punished by shutting the football program down. The ONLY ones that would be punished by shutting it down are people that had nothing to do with it. Including other colleges that have PSU on their schedule.

There is nothing I hate worse than a child molester, this needs to be handled by the legal system. Not the NCAA.

 

[Crimson&WhiteGecko]

For me the issue the Penn State, outside of the crimes committed, is the fact that they failed to act on clear evidence of crime being committed. You cannot tell me this entire thing would've been viewed differently IF Paterno brought the hammer down on Sandusky & the authorities for failing to act. He would've been put on a pedestal. He would've been lauded as the bastion of integrity we all thought he was. But nope, this thing was clearly pushed under the rug for the sake of the sports program &/or the school as a whole.

As a result, certainly more kids were abused. No they didn't commit the act themselves but they condoned it with their inaction, including Paterno. No question this is a criminal case, however, something must be done to encourage institutions to come to terms with clear violations of the law and aggressively pursuing the perpetrators regardless of the outcome for the institutions.

Who is going to create this form of structure? I don't know but I know it wouldn't bother me if the football program was severely penalized for trying to protect itself from scrutiny thus garnering what is justly deserves....scrutiny/disdain.

 

[psychojoe]

meh, its not about football or athletics to me...its about institution itself failing those innocent kids, failing to act properly at many different levels and what appears to several different times.

athletics is the least of my concern.

This says it all. I do feel for the thousands of PSU grads over the years who were once proud of their school, but now feel the same revulsion over what went on.

I wonder just what went on behind the scenes in 1998 that led to the charges being dropped and Sandusky being allowed to retire in good standing.

You wonder about the young coach who saw the incident in 2002 and went to his dad, instead of the police

You wonder about the dad, who went to Joe instead of the police

You wonder about Joe, who went to his AD, instead of the police

You wonder why the people lower in this chain didn't ask questions later about why nothing was done.

Penn State needs to put its house in order and change its organizational culture so that the school's public image will no longer be more important than what happens to innocent children. I don't see how shutting down football for a year would help that.

You wonder about the AD, who went to his administrator, insted of the police

 

[bamaraider]

Why should Dan Obrien, the players, and fans be punished for the actions of others when they didn't partake in the incidents? Why should they be the ones to have to sit through a possible death penalty or self inflicted penalties that Penn State might bring down? They might as well just get used to the "Pedo State" and the trials for now on because whether they sit out for a year or not, their legacy is taunted.

 

[bamagirl917]

Meaning, will shutting a school down for this push those to speak up and report, or will it cause them to hide it even further.

Absolutely it will push them to speak up. The fact that it happened isn't what the institution would be being punished for... it's the sick cover up that went on for decades. It's sad that any human beings would even need this type of looming threat in order to come forward about things like this, but if so, so be it.

As to the report, I'm still not convinced this was an unbiased report, as the school is trying to protect their interest and its pretty easy to blame a guy who cannot defense himself. By no means am I suggesting JoePa is innocent, just saying he can't argue anything (not that I'd believe what he said at this point).

Judge Louis Freeh has no connection to the university and the university had no input in this report... It wasn't favorable for them at ALL, nor purposefully trying to blame Joe Paterno for anything.. it was just a timeline of events that we hadn't previously seen all the details for. I think it was also my first time reading JoePa's comments to the grand jury about why he waited to make any calls.. because he didn't want to "interfere with their weekend". I mean.. ya can't make that one up, folks.

My final question is this. If Sandusky had been a math teach would anyone be calling for shutting down the academic aspects of the university, or would the guilty individuals be targets with appropriate actions?

The academic aspects of the university? As in, the university? Come on, you know that's a terrible analogy. The point of the unversity is to educate students. The purpose is NOT football. Therein lines the problem. Had Sandusky been an educator, everyone wouldn't have been in cahoots to cover for him. He would've been gone immediately. Not to mention, there would've been no way to continually justify his being in a campus shower with little boys time and again.

Im so sick of this death penalty talk... the NCAA cant just toss the Death Penalty at whoever they want, whenever they want... its already been said numerous times, this case is out of their scope. They CANT give them death penalty, and giving Penn State the death penalty punishes damn near noone that was actually involved in the scandal. What does that accomplish?

Err.. you do know they've stated that they're waiting on PSU to comply with handing over the info they requested so they can begin deliberating on whether or not they're going to do exactly that, right? It's certainly within their scope, and they've handed out the death penalty to 5 (I believe) programs in the past.

Here's what some people don't seem to get---- the NCAA's job isn't to punish criminals/criminal activity, it's to penalize institutions for violations. One of those violations, which they've referenced in the past when handing out the death penalty, is "lack of institutional control". If that doesn't apply here, I don't know what does. And so much of the institution and city was involved - from the janitors to the police department to city government - and it went on for SO many years, that I don't see any other way of dealing with it.


From a rival fan on another forum who I think has said it best...

Originally Posted by pcolagator
Ban the football program for as many years as PSU hid the truth about that bastard child molester Sandusky...send a message across the land that athletics, athletes, coaches, administrators, etc. will no longer be put above what's right, what's moral, what the law provides for in the way of human decency. I'm sick and tired of folks saying it wasn't the football players fault...maybe it wasn't, but this all happened to protect the sacred cow that is athletics in this country and specifically at PSU. time to slaughter that cow...

 

[ElephantStomp]

Banning the football program for a year, a day, a decade, or for all eternity proves nothing!!! The people that covered this up are going to be punished in a COURT OF LAW and the university is going to be paying millions to victims and their families. I think all this b.s talk about "death penalty" and " PSU should ban themselves" is getting tiring.

The football program did NOTHING wrong!! The people that covered it up did wrong. Punish the people that are responsible for the crime of covering it up.

 

[ElephantStomp]

Bamagirl917,

That rival fan's opinion is off base at best. The "scared cow" had NOTHING to do with it. It was a group of people that had sero backbone and were p.o.s that's it. To say that everything was covered up because this country views athletics as a "sacred cow" is ignorant at best. It was covered up because of friendship and respect. Although it is disgusting that nobody did anything to protect the victims from the creepy sob. To "slaughter the cow" would be an ignorant irrational move. To punish people that had NOTHING to do with covering anything up would be a travesty and no better than me blaming my daughter for her brother breaking my ipad because she was in the same house with him, but she was napping.

 

[LBS]

Stomp could not be more right.

I pondered the thought that perhaps JoePa being of a different generation might have contributed to his actions. His Old-School views, empowered by him being as powerful as he was, may have led this situation into realms that simply could not be reached at other schools because New-School folks know that secrets never remain secrets, and that pediphile is a radioactive issue that is way over the line.

 

[TerryP]

Absolutely it will push them to speak up. The fact that it happened isn't what the institution would be being punished for... it's the sick cover up that went on for decades. It's sad that any human beings would even need this type of looming threat in order to come forward about things like this, but if so, so be it.

Judge Louis Freeh has no connection to the university and the university had no input in this report... It wasn't favorable for them at ALL, nor purposefully trying to blame Joe Paterno for anything.. it was just a timeline of events that we hadn't previously seen all the details for. I think it was also my first time reading JoePa's comments to the grand jury about why he waited to make any calls.. because he didn't want to "interfere with their weekend". I mean.. ya can't make that one up, folks.

The academic aspects of the university? As in, the university? Come on, you know that's a terrible analogy. The point of the unversity is to educate students. The purpose is NOT football. Therein lines the problem. Had Sandusky been an educator, everyone wouldn't have been in cahoots to cover for him. He would've been gone immediately. Not to mention, there would've been no way to continually justify his being in a campus shower with little boys time and again.

Err.. you do know they've stated that they're waiting on PSU to comply with handing over the info they requested so they can begin deliberating on whether or not they're going to do exactly that, right? It's certainly within their scope, and they've handed out the death penalty to 5 (I believe) programs in the past.

Here's what some people don't seem to get---- the NCAA's job isn't to punish criminals/criminal activity, it's to penalize institutions for violations. One of those violations, which they've referenced in the past when handing out the death penalty, is "lack of institutional control". If that doesn't apply here, I don't know what does. And so much of the institution and city was involved - from the janitors to the police department to city government - and it went on for SO many years, that I don't see any other way of dealing with it.

From a rival fan on another forum who I think has said it best...

National Collegiate Athletic Association = NCAA.

National Children's Advocates Association ≠ NCAA.

That's the entire point.

The problem with everyone using the LOIC language is that is set up for instances where failure by schools, as defined by the NCAA, pertains ONLY to institutional control over NCAA rules and regulations. LOIC can only be assessed when violations of NCAA rules have occurred.

No one has mentioned a reason why all of those not associated with this should feel the brunt of the misdeeds of a few. Do we take the actions of a few and punish a hundred thousand, if not more, as a result?

The argument "it'll serve as an example to others who may considered covering something up" is weak, at best. This school is being vilified hourly. Do people honestly think it's going unnoticed?

And, if I may add one question. Do people honestly think if we took the 120 athletic departments in the NCAA division 1 ranks, we'd find any who would have done the same?

Everyone will get their due including the victims. Why on earth would anyone want to punish an entire community?

 

[TerryP]

I'm not directly accusing anyone here of this. But, if the shoe fits?

I've seen too many instances where people read the opinions of others in the media and adopt those viewpoints without consideration of the entire picture.

This seems eerily like one of those cases.

Independent thought can be a beautiful thing.

Lastly, let me leave you with this.

IF the NCAA decides it can act in criminal cases because there were people that knew about this but did nothing...what say you about a guy like Jimmy Johns selling cocaine on Ath. Dept. grounds? I didn't live in Tuscaloosa and knew he was "slinging." It was one of the worst kept secrets we've had—well, Mark Gottfried's "friend" may be equal.