The greater Penn State nation, at least the most vocal and visible factions of it, certainly seems to not be reacting to the penalties and to the whole sordid situation as well as the NCAA and the rest of the country had hoped they could and might.
There is a lot of disconcerting and disappointing bluster, bravado, heel digging and "us against the world" mentality coming out of State College that leads many to believe that they just don't "get it" yet and that the football first and foremost culture is not changing.
I am still willing to give the current penalties time to take their full effects, which, realistically, will take at least 2-3 years to happen. PSU certainly has a few more shoes left to drop, as well, with more criminal trials, civil suits and in-depth investigations yet to play out.
The greater Penn State nation is going through the Kubler-Ross model, or the Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Right now, at this early juncture, there is still mostly denial and anger. Once their team starts to really start sucking, in 2-3 years, there will be a lot more bargaining and depression. Hopefully, by the time the offical NCAA penalties have run out, there will be a great deal of acceptance and then some real change.
That said, I am still beginning to come around to what seems to be the gaining opinion, that PSU football needed to be handed down the "death penalty" (I think for at least two seasons, if done at all) for the point of all of this to really sink in and for a reassessment of the culture to really happen.
The problem with all of these punishments and sanctions and penalties and all of the condemnation and finger wagging is that, at the end of the day, after PSU rides through this storm (say 8-10-12 years from now), even if they had gotten the "death penalty," Penn State will still have one of the largest alumni bases in the country. They will still have a 106,000 seat stadium to play in. They will still have world class athletic facilities to train in. They will still have the national championships to tout. They will still have the consensus All-Americans and famous alumni in the NFL in their resume and they will still be "Linebacker U." They are still, and it seems they will continue to be, in one of the best, and most lucrative, football conferences around and they will eventually be eligible again to play in major bowl games and win B1G and national championships.
There is no doubt about it that the next 5-10 years will be a long, punishing slog for the greater Penn State nation, but whatever happens, their past success has (at least in my mind) guaranteed that they can only fall so far and will undoubtedly make some kind of rebound, possibly even a full recovery. It may very well take 20 years for PSU to regain their previous stature, but I think they have the infrastructure in place to do it.
If you really want to change the "Football is King" mentality at PSU, tear down Beaver Stadium and replace it with something more "Northwesternish." Of course, no outside entity could legally do that, so don't count Penn State as down for too long.
There is a lot of disconcerting and disappointing bluster, bravado, heel digging and "us against the world" mentality coming out of State College that leads many to believe that they just don't "get it" yet and that the football first and foremost culture is not changing.
I am still willing to give the current penalties time to take their full effects, which, realistically, will take at least 2-3 years to happen. PSU certainly has a few more shoes left to drop, as well, with more criminal trials, civil suits and in-depth investigations yet to play out.
The greater Penn State nation is going through the Kubler-Ross model, or the Five Stages of Grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. Right now, at this early juncture, there is still mostly denial and anger. Once their team starts to really start sucking, in 2-3 years, there will be a lot more bargaining and depression. Hopefully, by the time the offical NCAA penalties have run out, there will be a great deal of acceptance and then some real change.
That said, I am still beginning to come around to what seems to be the gaining opinion, that PSU football needed to be handed down the "death penalty" (I think for at least two seasons, if done at all) for the point of all of this to really sink in and for a reassessment of the culture to really happen.
The problem with all of these punishments and sanctions and penalties and all of the condemnation and finger wagging is that, at the end of the day, after PSU rides through this storm (say 8-10-12 years from now), even if they had gotten the "death penalty," Penn State will still have one of the largest alumni bases in the country. They will still have a 106,000 seat stadium to play in. They will still have world class athletic facilities to train in. They will still have the national championships to tout. They will still have the consensus All-Americans and famous alumni in the NFL in their resume and they will still be "Linebacker U." They are still, and it seems they will continue to be, in one of the best, and most lucrative, football conferences around and they will eventually be eligible again to play in major bowl games and win B1G and national championships.
There is no doubt about it that the next 5-10 years will be a long, punishing slog for the greater Penn State nation, but whatever happens, their past success has (at least in my mind) guaranteed that they can only fall so far and will undoubtedly make some kind of rebound, possibly even a full recovery. It may very well take 20 years for PSU to regain their previous stature, but I think they have the infrastructure in place to do it.
If you really want to change the "Football is King" mentality at PSU, tear down Beaver Stadium and replace it with something more "Northwesternish." Of course, no outside entity could legally do that, so don't count Penn State as down for too long.
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