<p>
Seriously? If they change the entire coaching staff, operate under a microscope, behave like saints, and manage to win with players the same age as many of the victims it will be an insult to the nation?</p>
<p>I’ve got some bad news for you. We’re going to win some games. Will we have a great season? Probably not. But maybe we will. And if that happens, it will have nothing to do with any of this.</p>
<p>Sometimes it’s best to have a low profile. This problem revolved around the football culture at PSU. The last thing PSU needs is to be on national TV with the announcers talking about more and more cases coming out, more and more law suits, more and more bad PR.</p>
<p>[State</a> College, PA - Penn State Football: NCAA President Emmert Doesn?t Rule Out Death Penalty in PBS Interview](<a href=“http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-football-ncaa-president-emmert-doesnt-rule-out-death-penalty-in-pbs-interview-1092546/]State”>http://www.statecollege.com/news/local-news/penn-state-football-ncaa-president-emmert-doesnt-rule-out-death-penalty-in-pbs-interview-1092546/)</p>
<p>It’s not looking good - The NCAA is going to cave to public pressure to save its image. If they don’t do what the public wants they’re going to become even more unpopular then they already are.</p>
<p>Thought this thread might like to see this:
<a href=“Opinion | Throw the Book at Penn State - The New York Times”>Opinion | Throw the Book at Penn State - The New York Times;
<p>To all of you who say it isn’t fair to punish the current penn state players, staff, etc… Isn’t that pretty similar to what happened at USC? I mean Reggie Busch and Pete Carroll already ha left yet they still punished USC…</p>
<p>Just read an article that said most of the Penn State football players aren’t reading the Freeh report. They don’t want to be “distracted”. A lot of the students also refuse to read it because they think Joe Paterno is being wrongly accused now that he is dead and can’t defend himself.</p>
<p>THIS is why Penn State should not be allowed to move on without some sort of extreme penalty to the football program.</p>
<p>I am getting sick of hearing about how Penn State faculty and students now know what to do and will move forward in a positive manner. Bull. They just want to put as much distance between themselves and what happened as quickly as possible without any repercussions.</p>
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<p>Wow, Etuck. You’re criticizing someone for acting to “save its image” and it’s the NCAA?</p>
<p>Bridget8, I have to take exception to your comment about the faculty. The failure was the administration’s. And while the “culture” may also be culpable, I’d wager that 95% of the faculty don’t go to the games or care a whit about football. They see it as a distraction to the work they are trying to do, i.e. teaching and research.</p>
<p>Re: The Times piece, unbelievable. Harvard also has a shopping period. As a Harvard parent, I would hate to see that changed and cannot imagine what the NCAA was thinking. Shame on them.</p>
<p>Penn State, as an institution, developed a culture of adulation, reverence, and willful ignorance that created an atmosphere whereby Paterno and anyone associated with him were quite literally above the law.</p>
<p>In this, they are not alone. While it has always been true that student athletes ( in revenue generating sports) have received preferential treatment in a million small ways (by way of disclosure I benefitted from such preferences) the explosion of attention starting with the advent of ESPN and growing in proportion with that network’s meteoric rise has changed the math. Coaches, who benefitted in a million large ways, now benefit to the tune of multimillions. But more than matters of finance, the self esteem of college communities have become hopelessly entangled with athletic success (or at least relevance). As a result, the deification of college athletes (revenue generating) and especially coaches has reached unreasonable heights/depths.</p>
<p>Athletes are to a large degree unaccountable. They no longer have to meet any reasonable academic standard for entrance (even at elite schools, you would be stunned). They are not required to engage in serious post secondary scholarship (many are neither prepared or capable) although some, admirably, elect to become college students in the traditional sense. Off field trangressions are handled by a shadow system intended to avoid publicity and the criminal justice system, appease victims, while protecting athletes and, more importantly, the program.</p>
<p>Coaches, on the other hand, are accountable - for winning, good hair, general telegenicity, booster management, and congenial appearances in the national sports media (read, ESPN). Coaches are otherwise unaccountable.</p>
<p>The NCAA, and the conference commissioners, are in the business of preserving, rather than reforming the above. Contrary to public statements, any penalties assessed against Penn State will be with the purpose of preserving, rather than dismantling, the system by which Paterno gained unfettered power.</p>
<p>Editorial note: the above decription of college athetic programs undoubtedly does not apply to your school, and no such implication was intended, It does, however, perfectly describe the athletic programs conducted by your rivals. Go _<strong><em>! Beat _</em></strong>!</p>
<p>You know its true. The NCAA in no way wants to kill off a program that makes them so much money. But if they don’t act on this situation the public opinion of the NCAA will plummet and the media will be ALL over it. </p>
<p>The NCAA is just concerned with it’s money too, like most organizations. If they don’t jump on this opportunity then they’ll get bad press. Bad press = less money. </p>
<p>And I’m not “criticizing” them - It’s understandable. They don’t want to be put in the position to deal with Penn State as much as PSU doesn’t want to be in the position to be dealt with. But let’s not make it more difficult than it needs to be. I personally don’t think the DP is warranted with the >NCAA< violations they have to work with, but the public does. And when the public turns into a angry mob, the public usually gets what it wants. </p>
<p>A whole lot of people made a stink about the US Olympic uniforms made in China and were calling for boycotts of Polo RL - So they promise US made uniforms next Olympic year because its logistically impossible this year. People complain, people get what they want.</p>
<p>The objectivity of NCAA’s investigation/sanctions approximates that of the Paterno family investigation.</p>
<p>And I certainly wish Mr. Simpson the best of luck in his continuing (although temporarily interrupted) search for the real killers.</p>
<p>I think that there is a big difference between “public wants PSU football dead” and “public wants PSU football dead and is willing to make it happen” - If the NCAA does nothing, PSU fans will still show up to games and watch TV to support a school and a team that they feel has been unfairly condemned for the acts of a few, and opposing fans will still show up to watch Penn State get beaten on the field, and the NCAA and the schools will still get their revenues.</p>
<p>Ultimately, none of the participating schools want to hand the NCAA the authority they would need to address this ex post facto - re-interpret the rules to allow NCAA to enact the death penalty, and you effectively toss the rules out and give the NCAA free rein to punish where they will.</p>
<p>The NCAA is too busy investigating schools that made one too many phone calls to a recruit, invited a kid to a picnic at the coaches house and he ate a hotdog he didn’t pay for, or kid who sold a jersey for $200 so he could eat.<br>
If a football head coach and university leaders break the law and fail to report child abuse, then allow it to continue on their campus, then cover it up, in order to protect its football program (and $50,000,000 profits/year) does not get the death penalty, what do you need to do to get the death penalty!</p>
<p>PSU football is the reason there are 29 varsity sports, without the revenue from that, there is no way of those could operate. Plus, ask any local business owner when they make the most money, hint: they are home football weekends. Shutting down the football team would cripple the university financially and would cripple the town around PSU. </p>
<p>The NCAA should do something and it is this, make PSU write a blank check to charities. This hurts the Univ. financially and will actually do some good. This whole situation to me, as a student, makes me infuriated to the ADULTS who are calling for the program to get the DP. Paterno is dead, Sandusky is going to rot in prison, Curley and Shultz will go to jail, and probably Spanier too. Those who were guilty will pay the price. The NCAA shouldn’t be a the moral/ethical police. The school will be punished enough in the future because every ignorant person out there is going to unfairly target the current players/coaches/staff as child rapist and other BS. </p>
<p>I will end my post will this, why does everyone seem to care about this so much?</p>
<p>They deserve the death penalty. They also deserve harsh penalties for the Clery Act violations. Ideally, bankrupt the university. Then the State of Pennsylvania should take full control of the school or drop the state funding entirely.</p>
<p>^ You’re just ridiculous.</p>
<p>PSUfan. The reason people care is that adults in leadership jobs at PSU allowed children to be raped to protect their jobs and the PSU football program and its makes people SICK. As the NCAA president stated “he has never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of overall conduct and behavior inside a university and hopes to never see it again”.<br>
With the SMU DP only a handful of players took money to play. No one was injured. At USC only R. Bush took money and Pete Carrol broke a few minor rules. Again no one was hurt. The PSU football scandle is soooo much worse it’s had to think of a reasonable punishment.</p>
<p>Bud, thank you. To add to that, I would that the failure to remove the Paterno statute and take his name off of anything shows the trustees either do not understand how serious this is, or think they are above the rules.</p>
<p>Those involved, namely Sandusky, Curley, Schultz, Spanier, and Paterno, are being punished in one way or another. Sandusky is going to jail, Paterno is dead, and the rest will probably be guilty of charges in their respective trials. The football program has very few, if any staff members remaining from 2001. PSU has and will continue to clean house. Also, point out any NCAA violations from this, the NCAA has no jurisdiction in moral/ethical issues. The NCAA should work with PSU to help the victims (which seem to be forgotten in all of this) and make sure this doesn’t happen again. Punishing the players and local community doesn’t fit the crime.</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State Football: Why There Should Be No Debate over Joe Paterno Statue | Bleacher Report](<a href=“Penn State Football: Why There Should Be No Debate over Joe Paterno Statue | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report”>Penn State Football: Why There Should Be No Debate over Joe Paterno Statue | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors | Bleacher Report)</p>