The NCAA — especially — and Little 12 —by
agreeing with the NCAA — nearly flushed Penn State down the toilet. Stopping
short of giving them the dreaded Death Penalty ala SMU, both organizations hit
the school’s football program where it hurts the most: in the pocket book and
in scholarships and probations. Huge fines, no sharing of Little 12 bowl money,
80 scholarships gone over 4 years, no postseason bowl or playing in Little 12
title games for 4 years — that should be enough to reduce the Nittany Lions to the
MAC’s level like Ball State, Kent State or Eastern Michigan for many years to
come. Penn State hockey might end up being the number one sport on campus someday.
I say that only because the men’s basketball program has been lousy for what
seems to be an eternity. Come to think of it, Penn State has a great women’s
volleyball program. That may be the sport Penn State fans will decide to hang
their hats on in the near future.
The NCAA also trashed Joe Paterno’s now proven
sullied reputation by making the program vacate 111 of his wins during the time Jerry Sandusky was raping kids in Penn State football team showers and
other places, fondling them in cars, etc., while Paterno and the rest of the suits
there were scheming to keep Sandusky’s degenerate behavior hidden in a locked
desk drawer. All the MAC schools that lost to Paterno from 1998 to today will
gain a victory except the Rockets. You may remember in 2000 when Gary Pinkel whipped
the old man, 24-6. That was a solid beating TU gave the old man on
September 3 in Happy Valley. Until then, Penn State had never lost to a MAC opponent. The
Rockets never were behind in the game. Chester Taylor ran for 141 yards,
including 2 touchdowns, and Tavares Bolden threw for 140 yards and a touchdown
for the good guys. The Rockets had not beaten such a highly regarded opponent
since opening the 1997 season with a 36-22 victory over Purdue. And the win
over Paterno stood as the Rockets’ greatest victory until they beat then number
9- ranked Pitt in the Glass Bowl in 2003, 35-31. I still regard UT’s 13-10 win over Michigan as
the greatest victory in the Rockets’ program, only because it was against the
team that always reminds us non-Michigan fans that the Wolverines have the most
wins in college football.
Penn State got what it deserved in
avoiding the death penalty, which was going to take place if they didn’t take
the NCAA deal of scholarship losses, bowl bans, etc. It could have even had the
NCAA strip four nonconference games from a future schedule, say 2016, as an
example of making it an even a harsher punishment short of being dead for a
season or more. Their fans can whine all about the nuances of the penalties and
live the rest of their lives in denial. One of their big excuses is that there
was no precedent for the NCAA to act this way. How does precedent get set if
there isn’t a crime or other egregious immoral, unethical, etc., behavior for
it? This is new NCAA precedent. That’s how courts and other bodies of
government or organizations like the NCAA set precedent in real life. They will
have to deal with their punishment in the same way as all other schools do. The
suits who covered up the scandal should be given jail cells next to Sandusky
for the next 20 years, while Jerry rots there for the rest of his disgusting
life. If Paterno is spinning in his grave, so be it.
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