What are your thoughts on the NCAA's sanctions against Penn State for the Sandusky issues?

Too weak.

They pussyfooted around.

The NCAA shouldn’t have been involved at all. They are an organization meant to deal with student athletes and the sports themselves. It’s in their mission statement that they are there to take care of things that the already existing legal structure doesn’t.

The Department of education and the Legal system are looking at this very heavily, and very drastic punishments are likely to be handed down. Frankly I find it insulting to the severity of the crimes that the NCAA is brought in at all, and punishes the innocent in the name of the victims.

Why, I think that the people at NCAA are gutless shit bags. They’re probably spending this morning in an Indianapolis conference room patting each other on the backs and tugging each other’s cocks and ordering EXTRA Einstein bagels for everyone for a job well done (why not, they’ve got $60 million in bureaucratic charity funds to spend), but they’re still gutless shit bags.

They gave Penn State everything but the death penalty specifically so they would be encouraged to shut down the program themselves. Who can’t see that?

NCAA handed down enough meaty punishment for everyone to nod along in approval, but they didn’t cross the line and risk a backlash by destroying the program outright by their own hand. They buffed their image nicely this morning, yes they did.

The phrase “a day late and a dollar short” comes to mind.

I don’t know why anyone here (or anywhere else) wants the NCAA involved. Should the IRS hand down stiffer taxes next year too? This isn’t their job, it’s the job of the legal system and the department of education.

You scoff at the NCAA’s punishments…. But forget that PSU could lose it’s accredited status, and is likely to lose most (if not all) of it’s 1.8 billion dollar endowment.

To bring football into this is insulting to the victims and the crime.

I think they did the right thing. Yes, I know this will hurt Penn State – that’s the point. But I can certainly appreciate all the people who call for castration of rapists, but taking away football is just one step too far.

@tedd I think football was already brought into this, when Penn State decided football was more important than kids getting raped, and when many of the students took that same stance when Paterno was fired and rioted.

As many organizations as are involved with Penn State but had no say in what Penn State did to the reputations of those associations should be stepping up and publicly castigating Penn State for its failures. NCAA is just one of many who should throw the full weight of their organization’s bylaws at Penn State for its shortcomings. Pedophilia is a common aberration of the sexual impulse and has existed for millennia. So they might want to check and see if any other college and university is guilty of similar failures of leadership. Sandusky may be the most prominent example, but there are others in tenure in other programs of many colleges and universities who are guilty of the same crimes.

@Aethelflaed How often do you see an abused wife stand by her husband? There are plenty of fans out there who think Joe Pa is still totally innocent in this, but that belief alone is not enough to justify these punishments, on top of the sh*t storm that is coming. Most egregious, I find it demeaning that we would punish these masses of innocent people in the name of justice for those who were so horribly wronged. If I were among the victims I would be offended that my plight could be so trivialized as to be associated with a game.

The real punishments are coming. Penn State is going to lose most/all of its 1.8 billion dollar endowment. That tops anything the NCAA could even have dreamed of throwing.

@DaphneT While I agree with you that in cases such as this every possible organization should look into the matter to see if there’s something they can punish for… the NCAA simply isn’t meant for legal matters. In fact it was specifically started because there were no laws covering the things its bylaws cover.

@tedd Don’t assume you know what you’d feel like as a victim of sexual assault until you’ve been one.

@Aethelflaed, taking away football is just one of the many means by which Penn State and other ‘non-education, non-nuturing’ organizations can be told to wake up and realize that they’ve fallen from grace. Penn State and many others claim that they are in the job of taking the young of the country and molding them into the leaders of the future. Their actions to cover up Sandusky’s activities have created future leaders with the same proclivities. And those future leaders thought that everything was just fine. Well, someone needs to make the point that homage to football and one man’s activities is not ‘just fine’.

@tedd, while the NCAA may not seem to be meant for legal matters, it’s longevity makes it a source of ‘legal’ might. Any judge will review the opinions of supposed experts of a field and the NCAA is expected to be an expert in college & university sports management, expectations and conduct. All that society can hope for is that the leaders in these long-lived organizations have a code of honor that is aligned with the majority. Imagine if all the NCAA leaders are past graduates of Penn State. All I’m reading into the NCAA sanctions is that most of the NCAA leaders are not graduates of Penn State and don’t agree with how Penn State handled the matter and are intent on letting every one of the NCAA membership know that they are on notice to clean up their campuses.

My summarizing thought regarding the Sandusky conviction is if I was a student at Penn State right now, I’d be demanding my money back, seeking a transfer and working to get a degree issued by another reputable university so that I wouldn’t have to fight quite so hard to become employed. Every graduate of Penn State, associated with the football club or not will have to prove they weren’t there during Sandusky’s time, will have to defend themselves against unfounded allegations every time the question of where they went to school comes up. This is harsh for them and likely undeserved; it is the fall-out of the Penn State decisions.

@Aethelflaed In my time as a camp counselor I had the unfortunate “honor” of counseling several children who were recent victims of abuse from their parents (in some cases sexual). In particular I remember the 7 year old little boy crying in my arms, looking at me through a black eye, asking me to be his new daddy. Pretty steep for an at the time 19 year old, and it has stuck with me since. I can tell you from my experiences, revenge would be the last thing on their mind. Justice yes, but not revenge… and especially not punishing the innocent in their name.

@DaphneT Are you really so naive as to think the NCAA even cares about this issue? Lets assume for the sake of argument that the NCAA has full jurisdiction and responsibility to punish Penn State for this. Why did they get off so light? Barely a year ago Ohio State received roughly ¼ the same punishment for players getting free tattoos and the coach lying about it. Do you mean to tell me that “crime” is ¼ as bad as raping 10 children? ..... The NCAA only acted to appease the mob, and acted just hard enough as to not effect the money stream Penn State brings them (PSU has the 3rd largest fan base in the country).

It’s simply not the NCAA’s place to get involved here. Saying they have jurisdiction is like saying the IRS should get involved and impose tax penalties on PSU for this… One of the conspirators was the treasurer after all.

I agree with your summarizing thoughts though. Don’t get me wrong, I feel Penn State deserves repercussions, but not from the NCAA, and not against the innocent in the name of the victims.

Actually, @tedd, I’m naive enough to think that the NCAA wants to be on record as doing something to castigate Penn State so that future students and their parents will believe that something was done by a supposedly reputable organization.

I’m also naive enough to know that no one will do enough to establish in everyone’s mind that football or anything should come ahead of providing children a safe learning environment. Penn State is the one that got caught, they are not the only ones who’ve turned a blind eye.

@DaphneT So they wanted to do something, just to do something… and that something was punish the uninvolved? What logic is that? Why not punish the grand children of murderers?

People at Penn State turned a blind eye. They are not bigger than the university, and the university itself didn’t do this, nor did 99.999999% of the people at the university.

Besides, your argument that the NCAA wanted to be on record is just stupid. Does the IRS want to be on record about this too? They have zero grounds to act, but maybe they should punish PSU just because of how awful their transgression was. Why stop there? The EPA should probably get involved too and punish PSU for this.