Around the Big Ten

[lineygoblue]

There will be a "circle the wagons" approach, for sure.

Hopefully, adult people will win out, and remind everyone that this is not about football. Its about protecting children from perverted adults. Penn State, as an institution, failed in the latter.

Best thing the Penn State family can do is move on from here.

[entropy]

Perhaps they can ask the school to move his statue to the library... That way students will know where to stay quite and not speak up


I'd like to take credit, but I read that someplace else..

[Dr. Strangelove]

In other news, Insight Bowl renamed as...

[Hannibal]

Stan... That is why Ive said Miami won't get nailed like they should. Nobody did the work for the NCAA. PSU did it for them..

Actually, the NCAA may have even more data for Miami than Penn State. The guy who ratted on them kept tons of records and he has made them available.

[Hannibal]

I wonder if this means that no Penn State victories from the vacated period can ever be shown on the BTN.

BTW do they get to keep their glorious victory over OSU from last year?

[Jeff Buchanan]

On the NCAA's abrogation of due process .... I understand the legal argument, Stan. PSU signed on the dotted line admitting guilt. Thus, they have no rights.

As an anology, does that make water boarding as a means of extracting information OK for America? Gitmo?

Maybe that's a stretch but the PSU BOT deserves intense scrutiny for caving and in doing so failing to protect what every member institution in the NCAA deserves. The ability to be heard. What would Emmert and the NCAA have done, if PSU said, "we're not signing this?"

As much as I don't want to hear shit from the Paterno family, the fundamental issues they raise with respect to being heard are critically important.

Yes, I want my pound of flesh from Sandusky and from the deciders within PSU that allowed Sandusky to continue his criminal activity after he was first outed. But, damn, this sort of thing from the NCAA or any institution that claims authority over others who might want to model the NCAA's actions is dangerous.

[Mackenzie]

With regards the 60 million endowment.... Don't know exactly what the funds can be directed towards but I hope it all must go toward direct services such as counseling, individual education, etc. I hope PSU is not allowed to use the money for buildings, office space, office personnel, etc. If they do, that should be from non-endowment funds. Wouldn't take much for PSU to come up with some "architectural wonder" that would eat into funds that should, in my opinion, go to direct support services.

[lineygoblue]

According to ESPN, the 60M that PSU is being fined, will be distributed to communities within the Big Ten area, to support centers that assist abused children.

[Ghengis Jon]

Funded by the television revenue they aren't forfeiting. Wonder who gets the tax deduction, the networks or PSU?

[iam416]

Hopefully, adult people will win out, and remind everyone that this is not about football. Its about protecting children from perverted adults. Penn State, as an institution, failed in the latter.

As a point of order, the NCAA sanctions are entirely about football. As noted several times, the NCAA would not have lifted a finger if this were an Engineering Department scandal. The reason the NCAA is involved is football. And, from their self-serving interests, which have been laid out numerous times, I think it's also about the "culture of college football" that I would argue is present at nearly every big-time program -- the general elevation of the interests of the program above all else. This, incidentally, is where the Engineering/English department analogy falls short. Neither of those departments is PERCEIVED as the an enormous cash generating tail wagging the dog. Perhaps, along those lines, a Med School would be a far better example -- frankly, those are probably more valuable to an University. Anywho, I think that's a motive, too.

And lest there be any mistake, I'm not saying one way or the other whether the latter is right or wrong, but I do think that's the altruistic motive, though I do think the self-serving motive dominates.

[drok]

I'm a bit bothered by how swiftly and strongly the NCAA acted based on a report that the school sanctioned rather than an NCAA investigation. Emmert said himself that the report was much more thorough than anything the NCAA could have done. This once again gives incentives to schools to not self-report as their reports will be more thorough resulting in usually stiffer penalties and also shows the NCAA's inability to enforce it's own rules.

[iam416]

This once again gives incentives to schools to not self-report as their reports will be more thorough resulting in usually stiffer penalties and also shows the NCAA's inability to enforce it's own rules.

And the SEC guffaws. They've known that for decades.

[THE_WIZARD_]

As a point of order, the NCAA sanctions are entirely about football. As noted several times, the NCAA would not have lifted a finger if this were an Engineering Department scandal. The reason the NCAA is involved is football. And, from their self-serving interests, which have been laid out numerous times, I think it's also about the "culture of college football" that I would argue is present at nearly every big-time program -- the general elevation of the interests of the program above all else. This, incidentally, is where the Engineering/English department analogy falls short. Neither of those departments is PERCEIVED as the an enormous cash generating tail wagging the dog. Perhaps, along those lines, a Med School would be a far better example -- frankly, those are probably more valuable to an University. Anywho, I think that's a motive, too.

And lest there be any mistake, I'm not saying one way or the other whether the latter is right or wrong, but I do think that's the altruistic motive, though I do think the self-serving motive dominates.

So what if it is about football? It was a football coach who was the perp. It was football coaches who sat on their hands. Yes admin guys also sat on their hands. But at PSU (and like Talent said...many other universities) football is bigger than the institution. The NCAA was making a statement that athletics...and in particular football...should NOT be bigger than the institution put there for education. Will it make a dent in that cause? Probably not. But had they done nothing it could have sent a message to the contrary. It was purely about sending a message AND that message should be viewed to other football factories that nothing is more important than educating and protecting kids.

You can talk all day about the legalities of this Talent...but in the end the NCAA did the right thing.

[Da Geezer]

So now we have two teams in that division that cannot play for the B10 title. Time to swap Michigan for PSU for the upcoming season only. I've always thought Michigan and Ohio should be in the same division (Talent's logic about a possible MI v OH championship game the weekend after The Game is convincing to me).

On another level, do the teams PSU defeated since 1998 pick up wins? I suspect they do not. There was one win that Paterno did not coach that was vacated. I'll bet Sandusky coached that.

[Optimus Prime]

24 Hours, post-carnage.

There must be a a provision, procedure or mechanism to boot PSU from the B1G? Their football has been crippled for a decade or more and this Albatross should belong to the NCAA not the Big Ten Conference.