I think the NCAA statement sums it up well. Penn State is only the most egregious example of a sports program that has outgrown and overshadowed the academic mission of a public university. I don’t believe they’re the only school that has looked the other way at questionable and even criminal activities, and I don’t believe the taxpayers have either a moral or a financial responsibility to supply a farm system for the NFL. We have some very real problems in our economy right now, and it would be nice to see academia placing their full attention on them.
As to the tearful Penn State students seen crying as the news was announced, I would like to offer some motherly advice: Don’t pick your college on the basis of its sports teams.
(Reuters) – The governing body of U.S. college sports fined Penn State University $60 million and voided its football victories for the past 14 seasons in an unprecedented rebuke for the school’s failure to stop coach Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse of children.
NCAA President Mark Emmert said the school had put “hero worship and winning at all costs” ahead of integrity, honesty and responsibility.
Penn State was not given the so-called “death penalty” that could have suspended its football program but it was banned from post-season bowl games for four years and had the number of scholarships available to players reduced from 25 to 15.
Penn State officials were accused of not taking action after being alerted that Sandusky, a former assistant football coach, was sexually abusing children. The scandal tainted one of college football’s leading coaches, the late Joe Paterno, and led to his firing last year along with other top school officials.
The punishment, announced by the National College Athletic Association at a news conference in Indianapolis, was unprecedented for its swiftness and breadth. It was the latest blow to an institution still reeling from Sandusky’s conviction last month on child molestation charges.
The case was another blotch on the diminishing legacy of Paterno, who until Monday’s action had held the record for victories among big-time U.S. college football coaches in a career that spanned more than 40 seasons. Paterno lost that status since the NCAA’s punishment includes voiding the Nittany Lions’ victories between 1998 and 2011 – the time period covering when allegations against Sandusky were first made and Sandusky’s arrest.
The Paterno family said on Monday the NCAA’s actions “defame the legacy and contributions of a great coach and educator without any input from our family or those who knew him best.”
“This is not a fair or thoughtful action; it is a panicked response to the public’s understandable revulsion at what Sandusky did,” the statement said.
Actually, I think it’s a rational response to the public’s understandable revulsion at what Joe Paterno didn’t do.
Joe Pa’s widow will receive a large chunk of his state retirement in excess of $10 million. To which I say WTF? Who,in the public sector, gets that kind of a retirement settlement (except politicians) even though he was the highest paid “public” employee in the state? It’s insider, secret deals like this that cause some to question the state retirement system for the rest of us working stiffs in the public sector.
The available football scholarships shoud have been reduced to 0. Who will use them for a second rate school like Penn St if they can’t show off for the NFL?
An item at another site mentioned ‘now come the private lawsuits’. Should be very interesting.
I pose a question, did the President of Penn State, her athletic director and coach risk both the reputation and endowment of the the school to protect a mere lone sexual predator? I say no. Even the janitors at PSU knew about Jerry Sandusky. How much did the State College, Pennsylvania police department know?
The is not a problem of a good university with a corrupt athletics department. This is a story of an athletic department which corrupted the entire school,and maybe even the town.
The last verse of the Penn State Alma Mater begins with these words, to which I wish these guys would have paid more attention:
May no act of ours bring shame
To one heart that loves thy name…
Can’t wait for the next eye-witness at another big name sports institution to spill some beans. Penn State is not the ONLY offender and we’er gonna see more witnesses gather some balls and come forward in the very near future.