Palmetto Proving Grounds

It is a shot across the bow to any program that would put sport above common decency and the turning of a blind eye to immoral and illegal acts on kids. Hopefully, they will allow the kids now to transfer and get a fresh start as they weren't a part of violations. One could argue that young men and women are victimized daily by the NCAA, but this was an unprecedented act.

So the punishment is supposed to be a deterrent. If you believe that's right I can accept that but I disagree. Doubt this situation unfolds ever again no matter what is done to PSU. How is the NCAA supposed to mandate personal ethics anyway. This is a circumstance where the criminal justice system should mete put punishment IMO.

Their athletic department covered this up to benefit PSU. They did it for the 100s of millions (billion?) they received over the last 12-15 years. They didn't turn in a child molester bc it would tarnish their image and maybe have to drop a sport or two the football money covers. They did it so they could claim having the HC with the most wins all time that probably wouldn't be broken. What ever the NCAA decides its not enough. If it didn't benefit them they wouldn't have covered it up and the schoool needs to be punished regardless of who's in prison, dead or not working there.

Yes, a deterrant. As they used to say in the French Army when they would pick 10 men at random from a regiment that failed to carry its objective and put them in front of a firing squad, "Pour encourager les autres."

You're dead wrong if you don't think there will ever again be a situation where a university, to protect the image of its football program, turns a blind eye to sexual or other misconduct.

The James Holderman scandal at USC didn't involve football, but the board of trustees did their best for the longest time to ignore, and even to help him cover up, his misdeeds.

I think there are likely at least three reasons for the punishment:

(1) deterrent -- there may not be a situation in the future where a coach's sex crimes are covered up, but I think it's pretty much guaranteed that another coach will operate without accountability and break laws.

(2) saving face -- the NCAA probably feels like it needs to dole out some form of punishment otherwise its legitimacy may be questioned (lots of holes with this reason).

(3) punish the Penn State fans -- just look at how they reacted when Paterno was fired, even though it was clear by that point he did little to stop the Sandusky rapes from occurring. To me, this is the most legitimate reason for punishing the program. They've been one of the all-time great programs for the last forty years, the last twenty of which involved the cover up of numerous sex crimes against children. The culture around Penn State, whatever that means, enabled Paterno. Perhaps the NCAA views what happened at Penn State as more of a systemic problem than one involving only the people who are no longer there.

So when does an organization ever deserve punishment then? You can always attribute mistakes to specific individuals. I think the point of punishment is to deter and I sure hope whatever they decide achieves that result. Obviously a lack of action didn't work for Penn State.

That sucks for their football program, but putting that on a pedestal above all else is what got them to this point.

Bingo.

It was the entire institution that is guilty and that should be punished. The punishment is both preventative for future instances of potential cover ups and punitive for the reprehensible actions of the institution that gained from said actions to cover up a crime and enable continued victimization of the innocent. It is entirely justified punishment of the entire program that enabled and encouraged the criminal behavior.

Would you feel the same way if your son was A$$ raped by Sandusky in 2004 and the head coach, AD, president and the university did the humane thing in 1998 or 2001 it would have nEver happened? I would bet 90% of those kids will either commit suicide or become addicted to drugs and never live close to a productive life. Penn St. Is the absolute picture of lack of institutional control and should get the largest penalty possible. Death Penalty in remembrance of the children.

Seems like a terrible example to me. Do you think a guy who graduated from Penn State is a child molestor?
I just see this as against the American belief system. We don't punish the innocent for the acts of the evil. By some of your logic we should have just nuked Japan until they were all dead. Same in Afghanistan. Even though the innocent people of the country/orginization/university had no say so in the evil deeds. You cannot punish a "university." It is brick and books and land. You can only punish the people and I hardly think the professors, students, atheletes, current coaches and staff deserve it for the misdeeds of those that are gone and have been punished.
It's a terrible thing that happened and I wish that capital punishment was an option for child molestors. However, this doesn't pass the logic test. Whether PSU recieves a loss of 3 sholarships a year or if we execute every employee of the university and burn their houses down, nothing will change what happened. Unnecessary vengeance IMO called for by those not even involved in the crimes.
JMO you are welcome to yours and I'm not saying I'm right.

its not unnecessary vengeance. the school as a whole let a child moelster keep molesting children in the name of football. They didn't want to hurt the program. Would they have done the same for a janitor?

They covered it up to keep their football program on a "level" playing field. Exposing this issue 1000% would have hue the program when they did it. You don't think parents would have pulled kids off the team or out of a recruiting class? Rather than hurt the program, at the time, they covered up criminal acts. In the name of football!!!!

Unfortunately, the way the NCAA is set up (like most forms of justice) its carried out AFTER the act is committed. So, in these cases, the penalties often effect people who had nothing to do with the "crime".

But to say the football program shouldn't be penalized is ridiculous. They DID benefit from the cover up.

If PEnn State did NOT have a football team none of these people would have covered for Sandusky. At least I'd like to think they wouldn't have. Hence the football program should be punished

nail meet head crowclub.... screw Penn State, if any institution deserved the death penalty it's them....some folks need a reality check; these sorry a$$ f'ers knew what was going on and looked the other way. This is real life stuff, not Dabo being a hypocrite or Scam Newton getting paid, tattoos at OSU or UNC academic fraud; these were real kids getting raped and an academic institution covering it up to protect their football program.

Now that is a relevant argument. Obviously, Emmert and the rest of the NCAA honchos thought that the situation demanded that the organization stretch the limits of its jurisdiction.