Reason & Elegance

Jul. 23, 2012 at 11:42pm with 18 notes

Reblogged from parislemon

NCAA Brings Down The Hammer On Penn State

$60 million fine. 4-year bowl ban. The vacating of all wins since 1998 (stripping Paterno of the winningest NCAA football coach crown).

But by far the most crushing is the loss of scholarships going forward for the next four years (and the ability of any current player to transfer where they want without penalty).

Adam Rittenberg:

A reasonable conclusion: Penn State football might not be back to normal in terms of its roster until the 2020 season or so.

I’ve heard from some Penn state friends who think that is too harsh. And I’ve heard from others who say that the student athletes should not bear the brunt of the punishment for the faults of the coaches/administration. I disagree on both counts.

This is well deserved. And none of these egregious crimes would have never been perpetrated had the offenders not thought the school’s football pedigree to be too valuable. But clearly they are mistaken. Nothing is above a child’s innocence, and their rights to grow up free of abuse. The whole town of state college needs to learn this lesson. Their football can go to the desert and die if this is the cost of sustaining it.

To be perfectly honest, I wouldn’t have minded if they just got expelled from the NCAA altogether.