Even Penn State gets forgiveness.

[DawgatAuburn]

I find it hard to believe that this soon after the sanctions were handed down to Penn State that the NCAA is already backing off on them. Yesterday Penn State got back 20 scholarships....20! I'm not going to play the woe is me card related to Redmond or jackets or airline tickets......but an action like that would only occur with one of the privileged. It surely hasn't taken the NCAA long to forget about why they punished Penn State in the first place and reward what they interpret now as a good faith effort. In addition to the scholarships, there is also apparently talk of reducing the bowl ban. Why announce the harsh punishment in the first place? This smells to me like a pre-determined arrangement between the two sides. Emmert was desperate enough to need that kind of a home run in his administration. Let Penn State take the tough penalties, knowing that in a year they would be reduced.

 

[hatfieldms]

I think it is the NCAA admitting they went a little too far

At least that is what it sounds like to me

 

[aTotal360]

I'm probably one of the few that thinks the NCAA handled as best they could. IMO, you dropped the hammer on them and see how they react to it. If they show grace and are proactive in putting the pieces back together, you reward them down the road. If the NCAA would have thrown their hands in the air and said "this is out of our jurisdiction", they would have gotten blasted even harder. I haven't heard anyone offer a perfect punishment. It doesn't exists.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

I find it hard to believe the number of talking heads who think the NCAA should have done nothing. If anything, I'd be in favor of sanctions that lasted as long as the abuse in their facilities lasted and got covered up. I don't get the sudden Penn State love. What happened there is substantially worse than any NCAA rules infraction.

 

[patdog]

Me too. The NCAA penalties were a too quick knee-jerk reaction by the NCAA and they realize they made a mistake.

 

[DerHntr]

Exactly. What went on at that school was absolutely horrible. They will pay for it for years to come regardless of the NCAA's reaction to it. It was definitely a tough situation for the NCAA since they have set the precedent that they can govern over a university well beyond what many expect is their role by creating vague rules and regulations (MS state flag for example). We debated it often here and there just isn't a simple answer because of the NCAA's history of action.

 

[DawgatAuburn]

I'm of mind that you make a decision and stick to it. This was not a lifetime thing. It was four years, but a year into it they are backing off. If there was to be some sort of early relief like a paroled sentence for a felon, those stipulations should have been made clear at the outset. As it is, it just makes the NCAA look even worse to me.

 

[Drebin]

I find it hard to believe the number of talking heads who think the NCAA should have done nothing. If anything, I'd be in favor of sanctions that lasted as long as the abuse in their facilities lasted and got covered up. I don't get the sudden Penn State love. What happened there is substantially worse than any NCAA rules infraction.

I agree that what happened is substantially worse than any NCAA rules infraction. The issue here is that the NCAA reacted harshly to what was more of a criminal matter. The program was justifiably punished for lack of institutional control over the whole thing, but the penalites for that were way too extreme.

I personally don't want the NCAA in the business of punishing programs over legal matters, no matter how abhorrent the crimes were. The NCAA can do whatever they want and selective, arbitrary enforcement of infractions over interpretations of legal matters really takes us down a slippery slope.

 

[CookieMonster.sixpack]

You know what would've really sent a message? If they'd shuttered Beaver stadium for a few years. When they didn't suspend the football program, I knew they'd eventually let them off. People will say it's not fair to the athletes, but do we really want to talk about what is fair here? They should've nuked the program and let them come back in a decade.

Imagine telling the victims and their families that the punishment for the program that harbored and aided your abuser is a few scholarships and a couple of years without a bowl game. Give me a 17ing break.

I'd have let the victims personally put the torch to their football stadium.

 

[horshack.sixpack]

Definite grey area. The crime was "enabled", for lack of a better word, by the sports program, so they were interwoven. If Jerry had not been a football coach, he would've likely found some other avenue to attract victims. It's just a sad mess and I suppose that I fall into the camp that believes that if Penn State hadn't been so worried about their reputation, they would have taken it seriously long ago, put an end to it, gotten Jerry arrested, and prevented more kids from becoming victims. That role that Penn State athletics played is the killer to me. I suspect that there are as many opinions out there about it as there are people. Of course radio guys are meant to state bold opinions to garner reactions and listeners, so I shouldn't be surprised at the way that they state things as if it their opinion were sport's gospel...

 

[WayboDawg]

You know what would've really sent a message? If they'd shuttered Beaver stadium for a few years. When they didn't suspend the football program, I knew they'd eventually let them off. People will say it's not fair to the athletes, but do we really want to talk about what is fair here? They should've nuked the program and let them come back in a decade.

Imagine telling the victims and their families that the punishment for the program that harbored and aided your abuser is a few scholarships and a couple of years without a bowl game. Give me a 17ing break.

I'd have let the victims personally put the torch to their football stadium.

Amen. I bet if each one of the persons on that NCAA panel were parents of one of the children that was raped, they would be singing a different tune. Penn State should never be allowed to play football again. The officials at Penn State knew what was going on, and yet Sandusky still had access to those kids using Penn State's facilities.

 

[HammerOfTheDogs]

It says molesting kids is A-Okay with the NCAA.

 

[Wicked Pissah]

I disagree. I think they shouldve shut them down for 5 years. Too many people knew what was going on. They should give every dime of profit in that athletic dept to the victims for the next 50 years.

What would happen to msu if geoff collins was raping kids for decades and once found out, still allowed access to facilities and the showers with young men. What if mullen and the president knew? I call that lack of institutional control. They gave usc worse and smu for paying players they were making bank off of. Which is worse?

 

[engie]

Given that they are in the spirit of forgiveness right now, surely they would be OK with reducing Will Redmond's suspension by 6% -- and allowing him to be eligible for LSU...one game early...

 

[starkvegasdawg]

It says molesting kids is A-Okay with the NCAA.

Just don't buy a car under the kbb book value. Do that and there will be hell to pay. Hell I tell you.