For those of you following this blog, you know I'm a USC fan. You might think I strongly disagree with what happened today based on what happened to USC, and you're right and wrong. First off, I think the Penn St penalties were very harsh, too harsh in my opinion. I think the NCAA needed to save face and get in front of this because of their poor handling of previous punishments handed out (such as USC, Oregon, Miami, Ohio St, North Carolina, etc.). The problem is that they rushed this and issued punishments without doing any investigations on their own.
This case was very unique in the sense there were criminal acts involved, not cheating, paying players, academic scandals, recruiting violations, etc. Some argued the NCAA had no right to issue any punishment at all since this was a criminal act. I agree and disagree with that statement. Yes, it was a criminal act and needed to be dealt with in the courts, which it did for Jerry Sandusky and hopefully the former President and AD will also have their time in court very soon. For the criminal act alone, the NCAA has no jurisdiction and shouldn't issue any punishments if it was solely that and the school did not play any part in it. However, when Mr. Sandusky was allowed access to the athletic department by having an office on campus, using their facilities including the weight room, locker room and showers where these criminal acts took place and the school was aware of it, now the NCAA has jurisdiction to issue punishment. As soon as the school was involved giving Mr. Sandusky access to school facilities to continue to be a predator and violate innocent children and the administration and coaches turned their eyes away and did nothing to stop it or report it, now that's a perfect example of the term the NCAA always throw around, "lack of institutional control."
I believe the initial punishment included a 4-year bowl ban, loss of 10-15 scholarships a year for 4 years (I could be wrong on the exact numbers), $60M fine, and 4 years probation. I believe a year ago, the NCAA gave back some of the scholarships to reduce their sanctions. Then today, the NCAA eliminated the remaining 2 years left of the bowl ban and Penn St will receive all their scholarships back starting in 2015. So in a nutshell, all of the sanctions have been removed from Penn St.
I've heard both opinions on this today. Some people are happy because "the players currently there at Penn St had nothing to do with this and should not be punished." Others are upset because the punishments were just or at least having sanctions were necessary because of this horrific act that occurred on the campus.
In my opinion, I felt a 2-year bowl ban was enough punishment, similar to the punishment put on USC for the Reggie Bush scandal. I also felt that only a maximum of 5 scholarships per year should be assessed, not 10-15. I was happy last year when they gave back some scholarships because I felt they punished them too hard. So overall, I'm okay with the NCAA lifting the punishments today. Even as a USC fan where I thought USC's punishments were too harsh too and the NCAA would not accept Pat Haden's request to reduce the punishment just like they did for Penn St. My only problem is the reason people are happy the ban was lifted. Saying "the current players had nothing to do with this and shouldn't be punished." What about the players at USC or any other school that is hit with sanctions? None of their players were at the school when it occurred and had nothing to do with it, but they still get punished. That is always how the NCAA has enforced their punishments, the current administration, coaches and players have to suffer for something they had nothing to do with. It has always been that way and will continue to be that way. THIS is the issue I have with this reversal of sanctions.
I would be happier if the NCAA would just admit they were wrong and rushed to judgment without doing enough investigation into this on their own. All they need to do is apologize and say "we screwed up, the punishments dealt were too harsh and we feel that the sanctions the school has already endured is sufficient." Will the NCAA do this? Hell no, they are corrupt and won't ever admit they're wrong. Hopefully, down the road we will see more consistent actions being done by the NCAA and more consistency on the sanctions handed out. I guess I can always dream, right?
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