As horrific of an event as this was, it does not appear that there was a direct link to cheating by anyone on the field. Unless it's uncovered that players knew and actively looked the other way or were paid as part of the cover up, or it affected recruiting, or eligibility in any way, as noeynox said, there doesn't seem to be a rule on the books barring anything that happened. None of this involved things like agents, paying players, academic infidelity, or anything else that the NCAA regulates.
Think back to the Baylor basketball scandal. They didn't receive penalties from the NCAA after one player murdered another player, another horrific event, it was only when it was uncovered that the coach was paying the tuition of two players, one of whom he lied to, telling the player he was on scholarship when he was not.
Where I disagree is that this isn't going to hurt the Penn State brand. Their program is going to take a severe hit. They essentially will have to clean house of all of the football staff unless those who were there can prove to a 100% certainty that they never knew anything, and any future hires will have to come from the outside, so no one ever associated with Paterno's staff in any way. Not to mention the hit on recruiting, you have to wonder just how many recruits aren't going to want to play for "Penn State". That term alone is now a very toxic word, and I'd bet a lot of recruits will hang up the phone because they don't want to be associated with that program, even if it's cleaned up. Make no mistake, that program will suffer, even if not from the NCAA.