WPCNR VIEW FROM THE UPPER DECK. By Bull Allen. July 23, 2012:
Well the NCAA made up just a little for the lifetime of hurt and psychological damage to children allowed to continue for years by the gutless, inexcusable, disgraceful behavior of the pathetic men who ran of the Pennsylvania State University the last 15 years. They gave them a life sentence. Not the death penalty.
The decision: a $60 Million fine; no bowl game appearances for four years, probation for 5 years, loss of 20 scholarships a year for four years, and stripping the late football Head Coach and his teams of 111 victories, effectively destroying the coach’s legacy forever. The former coach who put the success of the football program above the welfare of children and kept the offending molester on his staff, even after being told of the abuse. I can't really figure that out, can you?
The fine really hurts.
It hurts not just the football program – but the school itself and its ability to run other athletic programs and academic programs. It will hurt students and possibly mean a raise in tuition.
It may also, if the quality of football deteriorates, wreck the program slowly. The NCAA is allowing all present Penn State players to transfer to other schools to play in September, if they wish. Any football player with talent will get out and go elsewhere.
The loss of 20 scholarships a year dooms the talent attraction tools. It will be eight years before the program recovers, if at all.
Who wants to go to a school if you can’t go to bowl to showcase for the NFL?
As the revenue from football drops, the school’s athletic programs will become mediocre. It is a life sentence, not a death penalty.
I applaud this decision by the NCAA, because no school wants to pay a $60 Million fine. Perhaps it should have been more, though.
But, perhaps those loyal Penn State alumni who loved the former head coach so much will step up and pay the $60 Million fine. They should. Who will write the first check?
Mark Emmert the President of the NCAA, an organization long criticized for its loosey-goosey approach to disciplining big time schools, has set a new tone with this punishment.
Universities that are tolerating abusers of any sort, in any sport have been put on notice they had better turn out the perverts, if, of course, there are any. Hopefully the Penn State assistant coach who disgraced his employer with condonance by the head coach, is the the only one.
Penn State said they would not appeal the sanctions.
How big of them. I expect the alumni fund drive to begin with a big football dinner shortly.
The entire staff of the football program needs to go.
How could those people work with this horrendous person the last 12 years? How could that head coach keep such a monster on his staff? How could they? How could he?
How can the present administration keep that staff in place?
In an ironic footnote, the decision was inexcusably leaked to the press Sunday by the press.
They ran with it.
Yes, the same inexcusable see-no-evil, hear-no-evil, do-no-evil press that saw no evil going on for oh…maybe 15 years in the Penn State football locker room while a child molestor was molesting children in Penn State facilities. And no one in the press picked that up? They could not tell this was going on? Journalism failed on this one. It would have taken guts to tell the story, and you would have needed a source to go on the record...always hard to find.
