Penn State - The Hammer Drops

At about 9:00 am this morning, the NCAA swung its mighty hammer and bludgeoned the Penn State football program with unprecedented sanctions.  The announcement which was made by NCAA president Mark Emmert shocked the sports world because the sanctions were so severe.  Here is a listing of each sanction and my opinion on each.

1. A $60 million fine, with the money going to an endowment to benefit the welfare of children.  I could not agree more with this one.  This money will go to good use to raise the awareness of child abuse including sexual abuse.

2.  A reduction in the maximum allowance of scholarships offered to incoming players from 25 to 15 a year for the next four years.  This is a big blow to the PSU football recruiting program.  This will water down the talent that the Nittany Lions are allowed to bring into the college.  I'm not sure about the validity of this penalty since it only hurts the current coach and his players.

3.  Any entering or returning player is free to transfer without restriction (such as sitting out one season). Others can maintain their scholarship at Penn State and choose not to play.  This penalty does soften the blow to Penn State's current players if they chose to leave the program.  I would be shocked to see an exodus of any type and believe that this will strengthen the bond between the current team.  If you have to have sanction 2 then you have to have this one.

4.  A five-year probationary period and the hiring of an academic monitor of the NCAA's choosing and so forth.  You have not heard too much about this one, but it makes sense to me.  This program has fallen so far, so quickly that it will need to be monitored for at least 5 years.  You can't lay the hammer down on a program and then forget about them.

5.  Finally, The vacating of all victories from 1998-2011, which strips Paterno of his title as the winningest coach in college football history (now Grambling's Eddie Robinson) and Division I-A (now Bobby Bowden). Paterno, for the record, loses 111 wins and now ranks 12th with 298.  At first I thought this ruling was totally wrong.  Why strip Paterno of all his wins?  Joe and his team won those games on the field, not back in the showers.  I thought that the molesting of young boys by Jerry Scumdusky had nothing to do with the teams play on the field or did it?  I went under the hood and after further review I think this is somewhat justifiable.  I use the word somewhat.  Stay with me now!  If "Big Nose" Paterno and the other idiots at Penn State had turned Scumdusky in right from the start, he would have been fired, tried and convicted of his crimes.  Scumdusky was one of the best defensive coordinators in college football and the creator of Linebacker U.  Without him, would PSU have won all of those games?  They may have won most, but in my opinion not all therefore gaining advantage which is against NCAA rules.  Also, if someone other than "Big Nose" Joe turned Scumdusky in, would JoePa have survived to save his job?  He was in charge and he dropped the ball.  Hypothetically, he could have been canned therefore resulting in a new coach and possibly less wins.  Its all hypothetical of course.  I am somewhat torn on this one for sure.  I guess the NCAA just couldn't have him on top as the winningest coach of all time.

There you have it.. Overall, the sanctions are fairly just and deserving of a school that lost total control of what was going on with their football program.  Surprisingly, Penn State will not appeal the sanctions. School president Rodney Erickson signed a consent agreement with the NCAA and "accepts the penalties."  I guess he is in no position to debate what has happened.  Now it is time for all the Penn State fans to accept their fate and move forward.  It is not the end of the program, but a road bump to what we all hope are better days ahead.