2001 Penn State emails....more trouble

[Kibitzer]

I am not yet ready to run my flag down, fold my tent, throw in the towel or take my marbles and go home.

A couple of things you must bear in mind. First, the NCAA defines a "booster" as it pleases, to not only include such stalwart supporters as the late Sam Gilbert but some innocent citizen who bought a ticket to a game. (Our moderators remind us of this so often that I know it to be true.)

Second, the NCAA is not impervious to the court of public opinion. There's not much noisy outcry about what a team in North Dakota calls itself, but the sustained national disgust about the Sandusky story puts enormous pressure on the NCAA to "do something."

The Morehouse College soccer situation gives them a precedent, "lack of institutional control," which is just as sturdy as precedents used by the Supremes recently to scrub the Stolen Valor Act or uphold the ACA. (If a ticket buyer is a booster, any little precedent will do in a pinch.) It was of course easy to whack a small black college and the significance of the punishment was not so much about what they did but that the punishment cited "lack of institutional control" as the basis for punitive action.

To be continued. Students, read up on Article 2.1 to learn what NCAA rules were broken at PSU. I'll quote brief pertinent passages tomorrow. I will also seek the justification for the Supremes to not even listen to the State of Nevada in their appeal of the lower decision favoring the NCAA.

Recess.

 

[Icebear]

If there is a death penalty for Penn State it will have nothing directly to do with the Sandusky scandal. It will have to do with Lack Of Institutional Control over actions favoring athletes with lesser penalties and favorite son or daughter treatment for those athletes. This is hardly something that has been hidden around the school for years. Nor is it something unique to PSU or even Division 1 schools. Sometimes the penalties administered by the teams were more demanding than from the normal process. Joe definitely was old school in that way.

Newspapers even have reported on the penalties given to athletes or how their situations were handled. If anyone was informed of how problems within the student population were handled it was clear athletes were at times handled differently. This may well be the hammer used to bring penalties that would be beyond the scope of the NCAA's authority.

It is, also, worth remembering that it was PSU who approached and hired someone of the scale of Louis Freeh to do the internal investigation and given free rein and free reign to gather everything he felt pertinent.

http://www.sbnation.com/ncaa-football/2012/6/30/3128792/penn-state-scandal-ncaa-investigation

http://usat.ly/N5ihW3

 

[Huskymaniac]

We need to stop all of this speculation, especially about the dead. I'll be waiting for this thread to be locked.

I think the whole story is inexcusable and sad but the reality is that people are allowed to trash reputations so long as it isn't a rival WOMEN'S coach, rival WOMEN'S player or former UConn WOMEN'S player that transferred.

 

[JS]

I think the whole story is inexcusable and sad but the reality is that people are allowed to trash reputations so long as it isn't a rival WOMEN'S coach, rival WOMEN'S player or former UConn WOMEN'S player that transferred.

Don't take Doggydaddy too seriously. He's just being a pain because his lovable snout is out of joint about something else.

 

[Kibitzer]

As promised (and I'll make this brief brief), I cite Article 2.1 of the NCAA Bible to identify the justification for the NCAA to use to punish PSU football. It reads, in pertinent part: "The institution's president or chancellor is responsible for the administration of all aspects of the athletic program." Further, that includes "the responsibility for the actions of its staff members."

Read on about how "coaches. . . should adhere to fundamental values [which] should be manifest. . . in the broad spectrum of activities affecting the athletics program."

All in the name of "Institutional Control."

Now, as for the "Death Penalty," I don't see it happening. Too many widespread and permanent repercussions. BUT, the NCAA simply must "do something" to persuade the general public that they, too, are pissed off at PSU.

A possible punishment? Identify the years/seasons between when McQueary reported the shower incident and the time when all hell broke loose. Take away all PSU victories and trophies for that period. Punishes PSU, denies Joe Paterno the "official" record (most wins), gives new coach and administration a clean slate. The Paterno worshippers will call it bogus, the hullabaloo will die down, and the cash registers will continue to go ka-ching, ka-ching, ka-ching.

No way PSU sues the NCAA if punished along these lines. It would come across as whiney sour grapes and keep this unpleasantness alive. I believe they would digest it, belch, and move on.

I will now move on and turn my attention to the Olympic Games.

 

[doggydaddy]

Don't take Doggydaddy too seriously. He's just being a pain because his lovable snout is out of joint about something else.

Gee, really? Ya think??