Freeh Report

[TallTitan34]

JP's last NCAA D I win vs Wisconsin in 97.

[TallTitan34]

Additional Big Ten penalties coming at 11 AM.

[Spotcheck Billy]

Proving that there is no such thing as too much cynicism, I am literally amazed at how many Penn State (or otherwise) fans are outraged at even the thought of sanctions in the comments sections of these kinds of articles.

Found in the comments of ESPN's story on the statue being taken down:


1. They turned it the other way because that's the way Joe Paterno looked at things.
2. The Board of Trustees took a long time taking the statue down because they were waiting for Joe Paterno to tell them what to do.
3. Somehow the Paterno family made money from the contract to take down statue.
4. In its place a plaque will be engraved with the most important thing Joe Paterno ever said - "..............."
5. They will place the statue in the PSU library to remind all who see it to remain quiet.
6. Anyone interfering with the removal or site of the statue will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law....14-15 odd years later and only after several cover up attempts and severe negligence by university officials
7. The statue was revered for being so lifelike--it stood there and did nothing for years
8. Although removed, the statue will continue to have access to the university private plane, coach's skybox seats, locker room facilities and hydrotherapy program.
9. The statue was unveiled in 2001, making it another 11 year old ruined by Penn State
10. The statue was brought down quietly, behind curtains, and covered up so no one could see...because that's the way Paterno liked to do things around there

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

Actually, changed my mind. It's probably around 20% on these stories. The fanaticism stuns me.

[Chicago_inferiority_complexes]

Additional Big Ten penalties coming at 11 AM.

link?

[Golden Avalanche]

What a clown show.

That press conference was an embarrassment that embodies the undeserved sanctimonious nature of today's society.

[Blackhat]

[The Process]

-$60 million fine
-4 year bowl ban
-13 years of wins vacated
-Loss of 10 scholarships per year for 4 years.

They probably would have preferred the death penalty. Wow.

Actually it's 10 initially and then 20 for the remainder of the 4 years.

That program's gonna take a LONG time to recover, although I wish they'd strip TV from them too...

[🏀]

Actually it's 10 initially and then 20 for the remainder of the 4 years.

That program's gonna take a LONG time to recover, although I wish they'd strip TV from them too...

I have to imagine the networks won't need to be told to avoid PSU on the television. BTN is another story.

[The Process]

I have to imagine the networks won't need to be told to avoid PSU on the television. BTN is another story.

Agree on the networks, but it still would have been good to have publicly announced it as part of the punishment, if for no other reason than to make it official.

[nyg]

Additional Big Ten penalties coming at 11 AM.

Rumor is that it will be no revenue for PSU from Big Ten bowl games for 4 years.  Average is about 4 million a year, so that is an additional 16 million.  

Have to agree with Awesome with scholarship loss as the biggie. 85 players is the norm, now down to 65, with average recruits at best for next 6 to 8 years.  PSU will be bottom feeders.

[augoman]

I'm a little puzzeled on the wins being vacated..., had they cheated, paid recruits, or in some other fashion gained advantage it would make sense.  I guess they decided it was a necessary punishment-although they did in fact win those games.
I would have preferred they be banned from television.

[🏀]

I'm a little puzzeled on the wins being vacated..., had they cheated, paid recruits, or in some other fashion gained advantage it would make sense.  I guess they decided it was a necessary punishment-although they did in fact win those games.
I would have preferred they be banned from television.

It was to punish Paterno and his family.

I believe the networks themselves will banish PSU to the BTN.

[Hards Alumni]

It wouldn't be fair to banish them from TV since it affects every opponent they play as well.

[Benny B]

From the AP:
"The postseason ban is the longest handed out by the NCAA since it gave a four-year ban to Indiana football in 1960."


Let's see.... death penalty or Indiana football?  Death penalty or Indiana football?  Indiana football or death penalty?

[Lennys Tap]

So in addition to being disgraced and having it's leaders maybe put in jail, PSU will be an even bigger patsy on the gridiron than they are on the basketball court. Unhappy days in Happy Valley and at the Big 10 headquarters.

[MerrittsMustache]

I have to imagine the networks won't need to be told to avoid PSU on the television. BTN is another story.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Penn State football on TV a fair amount next season, especially the first home game, which will be a national news story - 90,000 fans moving on from a tragedy and rallying around a new coaching staff and the current players is likely to create a buzz. When they turn into 1980s Wisconsin in the next few seasons, they'll go largely ignored by the major networks.

[RJax55]

I wouldn't be surprised to see Penn State football on TV a fair amount next season, especially the first home game, which will be a national news story - 90,000 fans moving on from a tragedy and rallying around a new coaching staff and the current players is likely to create a buzz.

+1. Penn State's first game will be a mega-story. Probably, the most covered and examined game in the history of PSU football. And, certainly that will be case for their opponent, Ohio U (who I feel sorry for, as I wouldn't want my team in that game.) In addition, I think their first Big Ten home game will be a big deal as well, but after that, they will be forgotten.

[Benny B]

+1. Penn State's first game will be a mega-story. Probably, the most covered and examined game in the history of PSU football. And, certainly that will be case for their opponent, Ohio U (who I feel sorry for, as I wouldn't want my team in that game.) In addition, I think their first Big Ten home game will be a big deal as well, but after that, they will be forgotten.

It's somewhat difficult to feel bad for Ohio U who stands a good chance of going into Happy Valley and walking out with some beaver tail.

[reinko]

Drew Magary from Deadspin has quite the take...

http://deadspin.com/5928204/the-ncaa-is-using-penn-state-to-justify-its-own-horrid-existence

The NCAA Is Using Penn State To Justify Its Own Horrid Existence

OK, first of all, you people at the NCAA are gutless shitbags. I know you're probably spending this morning in an Indianapolis conference room patting each other on the back and tugging each other's cocks and ordering EXTRA Einstein bagels for everyone for a job well done (why not, you've got $60 million in bureaucratic charity funds to spend), but you're still gutless shitbags. You gave Penn State everything but the death penalty specifically so they would be encouraged to shut down the program themselves. I see what you did there. You handed down enough meaty punishment for everyone to nod along in approval, but you didn't cross the line and risk a backlash by destroying the program outright by your own hand. You buffed your image nicely this morning, yes you did.
Because that's what NCAA sanctions are, when you get right down to it. They're an exercise in branding. Punishment time is the only time people really pay attention to the NCAA. It's the NCAA's sax solo. Punishing a school is what helps the NCAA justify its existence to people, to say to the country, "WE ARE IN CONTROL HERE, EVERYONE." There's a certain reaction it's looking for from the general public in response to those sanctions. They're the ones you might've read in last night's CBS report on the school's fine:

That second quote is the perfect NCAA response quote. "Why, I've never seen bureaucracy be so bureaucratic!" It's important to the NCAA that you be properly shocked and awed by the totality of its justice system. There was no way they were gonna miss out on shitting all over Penn State when shitting on Penn State makes for such good business these days. (Take it from us Deadspin folk. We know how to milk that titty for all it's worth.)

This was cynical crap. I couldn't give two fucks what happens to the football team—dress them in white unitards and make them a French mime troop, for all I care—but there's nothing more ridiculous than watching the NCAA parade around its values and make frowny faces on national television, months and months after the scandal broke (and years and years after evil was allowed to take root). Blowing up Penn State gives perfect cover for every other big football school that is now, to use NCAA president Mark Emmert's phrase, "too big to fail," which describes all of them, and which describes the NCAA, too, while we're at it. It creates the illusion that everything is on the up-and-up again, and that other schools will see Penn State and totally get it now (they won't). In its own stupid way, it's the perfect end point for the Penn State scandal: rotten institution punishes institutional rot.

The next great college sports scandal isn't gonna be at Penn State. It'll be at some other pretty boy school where the head coach still has too much power and the football program still makes too much money. There's no "stark wake-up call." The system is still fucked, and nothing the NCAA did today will do anything to change that. It only serves to extend the fucked-upness a touch longer. Among the many sick ironies of the Penn State saga is the fact that it was horrible enough to be considered by everyone a terrific anomaly. It wasn't. Sandusky's crime was, but the scandal that ensued was about concentrated power and institutional capture and all the shitty things enabled by the durable belief that the goals of big-time sports and higher education are at all reconcilable. The next great college sports scandal won't be about child rape. It'll be a different kind of awful. A school will get caught in a Bulgarian sex slave ring. A coach will turn out to be embezzling funds from AIDS babies. An AD will turn out to have ties to the Hezbollah. And whenever that new scandal happens, you can bet the NCAA will be there again, ready to put a band-aid on an amputated head.

[MerrittsMustache]

Drew Magary from Deadspin has quite the take...

http://deadspin.com/5928204/the-ncaa-is-using-penn-state-to-justify-its-own-horrid-existence

The NCAA Is Using Penn State To Justify Its Own Horrid Existence

OK, first of all, you people at the NCAA are gutless crapbags. I know you're probably spending this morning in an Indianapolis conference room patting each other on the back and tugging each other's cocks and ordering EXTRA Einstein bagels for everyone for a job well done (why not, you've got $60 million in bureaucratic charity funds to spend), but you're still gutless crapbags. You gave Penn State everything but the death penalty specifically so they would be encouraged to shut down the program themselves. I see what you did there. You handed down enough meaty punishment for everyone to nod along in approval, but you didn't cross the line and risk a backlash by destroying the program outright by your own hand. You buffed your image nicely this morning, yes you did.
Because that's what NCAA sanctions are, when you get right down to it. They're an exercise in branding. Punishment time is the only time people really pay attention to the NCAA. It's the NCAA's sax solo. Punishing a school is what helps the NCAA justify its existence to people, to say to the country, "WE ARE IN CONTROL HERE, EVERYONE." There's a certain reaction it's looking for from the general public in response to those sanctions. They're the ones you might've read in last night's CBS report on the school's fine:

That second quote is the perfect NCAA response quote. "Why, I've never seen bureaucracy be so bureaucratic!" It's important to the NCAA that you be properly shocked and awed by the totality of its justice system. There was no way they were gonna miss out on crapting all over Penn State when crapting on Penn State makes for such good business these days. (Take it from us Deadspin folk. We know how to milk that titty for all it's worth.)

This was cynical crap. I couldn't give two fracks what happens to the football team—dress them in white unitards and make them a French mime troop, for all I care—but there's nothing more ridiculous than watching the NCAA parade around its values and make frowny faces on national television, months and months after the scandal broke (and years and years after evil was allowed to take root). Blowing up Penn State gives perfect cover for every other big football school that is now, to use NCAA president Mark Emmert's phrase, "too big to fail," which describes all of them, and which describes the NCAA, too, while we're at it. It creates the illusion that everything is on the up-and-up again, and that other schools will see Penn State and totally get it now (they won't). In its own stupid way, it's the perfect end point for the Penn State scandal: rotten institution punishes institutional rot.

The next great college sports scandal isn't gonna be at Penn State. It'll be at some other pretty boy school where the head coach still has too much power and the football program still makes too much money. There's no "stark wake-up call." The system is still fracked, and nothing the NCAA did today will do anything to change that. It only serves to extend the fracked-upness a touch longer. Among the many sick ironies of the Penn State saga is the fact that it was horrible enough to be considered by everyone a terrific anomaly. It wasn't. Sandusky's crime was, but the scandal that ensued was about concentrated power and institutional capture and all the crapty things enabled by the durable belief that the goals of big-time sports and higher education are at all reconcilable. The next great college sports scandal won't be about child rape. It'll be a different kind of awful. A school will get caught in a Bulgarian sex slave ring. A coach will turn out to be embezzling funds from AIDS babies. An AD will turn out to have ties to the Hezbollah. And whenever that new scandal happens, you can bet the NCAA will be there again, ready to put a band-aid on an amputated head.

Sooo...what exactly does he think the NCAA should have done to Penn State?

[warriorchick]

+1. Penn State's first game will be a mega-story. Probably, the most covered and examined game in the history of PSU football.

Perhaps, but I wouldn't buy any advertising that appears after three minutes into the game.  All of the looky-loos will have changed the channel by then.

[warriorchick]

NM

[Lennys Tap]

Sooo...what exactly does he think the NCAA should have done to Penn State?

If I'm reading him correctly, PSU is almost irrelevant to the discussion. He feels universities and "big time" sports are incompatible. A death penalty for intercollegiate sports as we know them seems to be his logical conclusion.

[tower912]

I'm not defending PSU or anyone there involved with this.   Having said that, is the NCAA going off of the Freeh report along witht he results of the Sandusky trial?    If not, who conducted their investigation?    Where is their report?    If they have done one, let's see it.     Did Penn St get to respond?      The NCAA may have entered into some murky ethical waters themselves.