CougarCorner

If there ever were an instance of a lack of institutional control as it relates to athletics, this is the case. Indeed, this is the case of an institution itself out of control. This is not some errant athletes getting tats. This is not a case of a rogue coach going too far. This is not an instance of a booster going over the top. This is not the case of an incompetent athletic director who does not know what his players or coaches are doing. This is a case of the Institution itself sacrificing children to protect its athletic program. Penn State needs to exit athletics for a period of time, I say five years, to regain its values and principles before it continues with its sports programs.

If USC and Ohio State lost some scholarships and bowl-eligibility for a year or two, then the death penalty should definitely be on the radar.

USC was an instance of a star player receiving money from boosters/agents and the school knew or should have known about it. Ohio State was a half dozen players selling gear and memorabilia and the coach helping to cover it up.

Penn State, as an institution, intentionally and knowingly looked the other way for over a decade while atrocious felonies against minors were being committed on University property...actually, in the football facilities.

At a minimum, I would suggest that they get a 14-year bowl/postseason ban and 10 scholarships per year for the next 14 years.

It'll never happen. If you go to wikipedia and read about the SMU death penalty, they blame that for bringing down the entire conference. The NCAA will never give a football team the death penalty again. They wouldn't want to destroy an entire conference to do it.

Boy you guys are hard on the B1G around here. To me, if it didn't relate to recruiting or the actual game, don't penalize the athletes. Hit them in their admin/coaching pocketbooks, let criminal law take it's toll, but leave football about football. This was a tragedy and in my book Paterno lost some of his lustre, but those are separate issues than the school playing football. Paterno and the school president lost their jobs over this, as they should, it's not like that is a light penalty.

frdbtr wrote:It'll never happen. If you go to wikipedia and read about the SMU death penalty, they blame that for bringing down the entire conference. The NCAA will never give a football team the death penalty again. They wouldn't want to destroy an entire conference to do it.

SMU was paying players. They were obviously cheating and intentionally breaking the rules placed upon them.

Penn State, as an institution, was covering up criminal activity against minors to protect the value and reputation of Penn State football. HUGE difference. It's not just cheating, it is horrific.

I really don't think the loss of or detriment to Penn State would bring down the Big Ten. But imagine the realignment chaos that would be created if it did!! Or even if the Big Ten was seeking to replace Penn State...

EM_Puma wrote:Boy you guys are hard on the B1G around here. To me, if it didn't relate to recruiting or the actual game, don't penalize the athletes. Hit them in their admin/coaching pocketbooks, let criminal law take it's toll, but leave football about football. This was a tragedy and in my book Paterno lost some of his lustre, but those are separate issues than the school playing football. Paterno and the school president lost their jobs over this, as they should, it's not like that is a light penalty.

totally agree. I don't see how the players who are currently playing should have to get involved in this. Remove all with knowledge or involved including coaches, administration, AD and whoever else may have even had scant knowledge of what was going on, and move on. Let the law do it's job and let the football players keep playing.

Of course it relates to players and coaching and recruiting.

Penn St didn't gain an advantage of having a very good defensive coach on their staff who should have been in jail?

Penn St recruiting didn't benefit from not having to worry about parental fears of the football program being closely associated with child rape?

Penn St didn't benefit from the additional money their football team brought in through bowls and wins and Paterno's legacy?

It's not a one-to-one correlation, but Penn St did and openly admitted to covering up these heinous crimes for the betterment of their football program. The cover up was BECAUSE of the football program.

YNot wrote:

frdbtr wrote:It'll never happen. If you go to wikipedia and read about the SMU death penalty, they blame that for bringing down the entire conference. The NCAA will never give a football team the death penalty again. They wouldn't want to destroy an entire conference to do it.

SMU was paying players. They were obviously cheating and intentionally breaking the rules placed upon them.

Penn State, as an institution, was covering up criminal activity against minors to protect the value and reputation of Penn State football. HUGE difference. It's not just cheating, it is horrific.

I really don't think the loss of or detriment to Penn State would bring down the Big Ten. But imagine the realignment chaos that would be created if it did!! Or even if the Big Ten was seeking to replace Penn State...

I'm just going off of linked articles I read on the wikipedia site about the SMU death penalty. It was so financially devistating to SMU that it affected every team in the SWC and they blamed the death penalty for why the SWC broke up. I don't think that the NCAA will ever give the death penalty to a football team again.

There is a huge opportunity here for BYU. Let's say the prim and proper Big 10 Big Whigs jettison Penn State and Penn State is forced to go Indy again from whence they came iirc - Bam - BYU schedules them in November - 3 Happy Valley Provo for 1 Happy Valley Pennsylvania - and Bam Bam Bam - BYU has a new big name rival.

WINK WINK WINK

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EM_Puma wrote:Boy you guys are hard on the B1G around here. To me, if it didn't relate to recruiting or the actual game, don't penalize the athletes. Hit them in their admin/coaching pocketbooks, let criminal law take it's toll, but leave football about football. This was a tragedy and in my book Paterno lost some of his lustre, but those are separate issues than the school playing football. Paterno and the school president lost their jobs over this, as they should, it's not like that is a light penalty.

Of course it was about football. It was all about football. And the money that it brought in. Paterno said multiple times that this shouldn't tarnish the rep of PSU football, yet he did the worst possible thing by looking the other way and letting it continue. It is all about football.

Yes, it would suck for the players and coaches and employees that would be affected. That is the risk you take when working for someone.

All football players transfer, without playing penalty, or get their full scholarships covered if they choose to finish at PSU. Employees get paid their full salary for the full length of the penalty. PSU just had a huge fundraising month, they can afford it.