Penn State Gets Hammer: Worse than Death Penalty?

[DexterMorgan]

For me, it's more about knowing where to draw the line. When it comes to recruiting violations, it's pretty easy. And it's not hard to make the case for this to be an obvious "do something" situation. But where does the NCAA just let something slide? This is the first time I've ever heard of them getting involved in something like this. I can't deny I think PSU deserves to be punished, but I'm just not sure how the NCAA will go forward from this.

IMO, They aren't getting punished because of the molestation. They're getting punished for the cover up of illegal activity. I hope the NCAA gets involved in all incidents where a school covers up illegal activity to benefit an athletic program.

 

[Scorpio79]

IMO, They aren't getting punished because of the molestation. They're getting punished for the cover up of illegal activity. I hope the NCAA gets involved in all incidents where a school covers up illegal activity to benefit an athletic program.

Punishment is also for...
Enabling a serial child rapist for possibly two decades, dozens of victims
Complete failure to report incidents of child rape in athletic facilities/on campus
Knowingly/willingly concealing the above incidents
Creation of an environment in which football was king, and child safety and academics were ignored
Total loss and lack of institutional control of the football program

They deserved every punishment handed down, and more imo

 

[SpiderRico]

LOL

IMO, They aren't getting punished because of the molestation. They're getting punished for the cover up of illegal activity. I hope the NCAA gets involved in all incidents where a school covers up illegal activity to benefit an athletic program.

Bingo! And that's the point that seems to be getting lost in all of this. Even the Paterno family keeps harping on the actions of Sandusky as if that's the reason PSU is getting punished and JoePa's reputation is getting sullied. But that's not the reason AT ALL.

The reason PSU got punished like it did and the reason JoePa's legacy is now destroyed is because the leadership of the university allowed the football team to operate unchecked for decades and allowed one man, Joe Paterno, to have so much power and authority that even the university's janitors were scared to do anything. The leadership allowed one man, Joe Paterno, to put the kibash on taking what McQueary saw to the proper authorities. And as a result, a multitude of children were raped subsequent to that decision.

This is no longer about child rape. This is about unchecked power, about a complete lack of responsibility and control, and about money, prestige and legacy above innocent children.

 

[atxhawk]

Olive, are you a lawyer or in anyway a legal expert? As we have seen many times in our history, the court of public opinion is often different from that of the actual courts. We have also seen many times that laws can be interpreted differently by different judges in different places so lawyers may be throwing different precedents at each other in order to prove their point. I'm going to pull out a couple of quotes to from this article NCAA slams Penn State, fines it $60 million - Yahoo! Sports to show you how PSU accepted the punishments to not only avoid further punishment but also to STFU, because fighting them would not go well for them in the public eye.

"Penn State spokesman David La Torre said university President Rodney Erickson had no choice but to acquiesce, given the threat of a total shutdown of the football program."

Dangit, it was this article Penn State Nittany Lions not facing 'death penalty' Monday by NCAA, source says - ESPN New York

"This is unique and this kind of power has never been tested or tried," the former chair said. "It's unprecedented to have this extensive power. This has nothing to do with the purpose of the infractions process. Nevertheless, somehow (the NCAA president and executive board) have taken it on themselves to be a commissioner and to penalize a school for improper conduct."

"I would be surprised if they're treating this as simply a lack of institutional control under the rules," the former chair said. "Because then that would technically go through the committee."

The chair said that the NCAA is choosing to deal with a case that is outside the traditional rules or violations. He said this case does not fall within the basic fundamental purpose of NCAA regulations.

"The purpose of the NCAA is to keep a level playing field among schools and to make sure they use proper methods through scholarships and etcetera," the chair said. "This is not a case that would normally go through the process. It has nothing to do with a level playing field. It has nothing to do with whether Penn State gets advantages over other schools in recruiting or in the number of coaches or things that we normally deal with."

 

[hoffahawk]

Punishment is also for...
Enabling a serial child rapist for possibly two decades, dozens of victims
Complete failure to report incidents of child rape in athletic facilities/on campus
Knowingly/willingly concealing the above incidents
Creation of an environment in which football was king, and child safety and academics were ignored
Total loss and lack of institutional control of the football program

They deserved every punishment handed down, and more imo

BINGO


The fact that PSU agreed to the penalties shows that at least some there understand they need to change the way things have worked in the past.

 

[olivecourt]

Olive, are you a lawyer or in anyway a legal expert? As we have seen many times in our history, the court of public opinion is often different from that of the actual courts. We have also seen many times that laws can be interpreted differently by different judges in different places so lawyers may be throwing different precedents at each other in order to prove their point. I'm going to pull out a couple of quotes to from this article NCAA slams Penn State, fines it $60 million - Yahoo! Sports to show you how PSU accepted the punishments to not only avoid further punishment but also to STFU, because fighting them would not go well for them in the public eye.

"Penn State spokesman David La Torre said university President Rodney Erickson had no choice but to acquiesce, given the threat of a total shutdown of the football program."

Dangit, it was this article Penn State Nittany Lions not facing 'death penalty' Monday by NCAA, source says - ESPN New York

"This is unique and this kind of power has never been tested or tried," the former chair said. "It's unprecedented to have this extensive power. This has nothing to do with the purpose of the infractions process. Nevertheless, somehow (the NCAA president and executive board) have taken it on themselves to be a commissioner and to penalize a school for improper conduct."

"I would be surprised if they're treating this as simply a lack of institutional control under the rules," the former chair said. "Because then that would technically go through the committee."

The chair said that the NCAA is choosing to deal with a case that is outside the traditional rules or violations. He said this case does not fall within the basic fundamental purpose of NCAA regulations.

"The purpose of the NCAA is to keep a level playing field among schools and to make sure they use proper methods through scholarships and etcetera," the chair said. "This is not a case that would normally go through the process. It has nothing to do with a level playing field. It has nothing to do with whether Penn State gets advantages over other schools in recruiting or in the number of coaches or things that we normally deal with."

I'm not a legal expert, but we aren't talking about the law-- we're talking about the rules that govern a voluntary association. They seem pretty clear to me, but feel free to check them out, especially article II: http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools...misc_non_event/1112ncaa-compliance-manual.pdf

Also, this anonymous source doesn't seem very credible to me. First of all, he/she ignores the basic argument that Emmert made, which is that the NCAA constitution explicitly demands honesty and responsible behavior:

2.4 For intercollegiate athletics to promote the character development of participants, to enhance the integrity of higher education and to promote civility in society, student-athletes, coaches, and all others associated with these athletics programs and events should adhere to such fundamental values as respect, fairness, civility, honesty and responsibility. hese values should be manifest not only in athletics participation, but also in the broad spectrum of activities afecting the athletics program.

The anonymous source then goes on to compare the Penn State case to the murder of a female Virginia lacrosse player by another (male) lacrosse player. The fact that he/she doesn't see how those cases are different (hint: one involves a massive, institution-wide cover-up, the other didn't) makes me very, very happy that that person is no longer chairing whatever committee on infractions they supposedly chaired.

 

[ThunderHawk]

After finally watching that press conference it sure seems to me like Emmert had the death penalty in mind at the beginning but was dissuaded due to the collateral damage risk not necessarily to Penn State, but to the B1G and others totally divorced from the situation.

 

[hawkeyebob62]

After finally watching that press conference it sure seems to me like Emmert had the death penalty in mind at the beginning but was dissuaded due to the collateral damage risk not necessarily to Penn State, but to the B1G and others totally divorced from the situation.

I'm not sure Emmert had ANYthing in mind. I think he listened to the "committee". I think, to Emmert's credit, he is extremely outraged at what happened at PSU, and made no attempt to hide it.

It would appear to me that B1G may have informed NCAA that, for now, PSU was not getting booted, so NCAA did their best to hammer PSU while minimizing, as much as possible, the collateral damage.

I still think PSUs program could be toast in a couple years.

 

[treychase]

Mark Emmert states ""Had PSU not been as forthright, not been as decisive ... outcome would have been significantly worse."

But I thought these sanctions were "worse than the death penalty"

LMAO

 

[ColoradoHAWKEYE]

Mark Emmert states "="Had PSU not been as forthright, not been as decisive ... outcome would have been significantly worse.="But I thought these sanctions were="worse than the death penalty="LMAO

=

Its hard to say the death penalty "alone" of no operations for 1 year
would not be worse than what they
got. Together with additional sanctions and monetary fines, it certainly would have been! What came down is a different means to a similar outcome, imo.