KYBear_74
Well-Known Member
Obviously, footballing sanctions come a distant second to obtaining justice for all of the victims of the abuse and their families. But here's a little bit of background on how the infamous Penn State case was resolved. Notice that, the first thing they did was to ensure that only the best-qualified, independent people were involved in the investigation. ...
Jerry Sandusky - Assistant Coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions football team - sexually abused ten young boys over a period of at least 15 years, from 1994 to 2009. Officials at Penn State purportedly failed to notify law enforcement after learning about some of these incidents. An internal investigation into Penn State's actions - led by Former FBI Director Louis Freeh - was launched.
Freeh announced that the team assisting him in his investigation would include former FBI agents and federal prosecutors. As the Sandusky trial proceeded toward conviction in June 2012, it was announced that Freeh's report would be released to the trustees and the public simultaneously, without being reviewed by the school's general counsel's office.
Three Penn State school officials - School President Graham Spanier, Vice-President Gary Schultz and Athletic Director Tim Curley were charged with perjury, obstruction of justice, failure to report suspected child abuse, and related charges. Shortly after the scandal broke, Spanier resigned. The Penn State Board of Trustees terminated the contracts of Curley and of the longtime head football coach, Joe Paterno.
Shortly after the release of the Freeh Report, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Board gave its' President - Mark Emmert - the power to take corrective and punitive action relative to Penn State, forgoing the NCAA's normal investigative protocol. On July 22, 2012, the NCAA announced that it would impose "corrective and punitive" sanctions against both the Penn State football program and the institution as a whole the next morning.
On July 23, 2012, Emmert announced the following sanctions against Penn State:
* Five years probation.
* A four-year postseason ban.
* Vacating of all wins from 1998 to 2011. A total of 112 wins. This had the effect of stripping the Nittany Lions of their shared Big Ten titles in 2005 and 2008. It also removed 111 wins from Paterno's record, dropping him from first to 12th on the NCAA's all-time wins list.
* A $60 million fine, the proceeds of which were to go toward an endowment for preventing child abuse. According to the NCAA, this was the equivalent of a typical year's gross revenue from the football program.
* Loss of a total of 40 initial scholarships from 2013 to 2017. During the same period, Penn State is limited to 65 total scholarships - only two more than a Division I FCS (formerly I-AA) school is allowed.
* Penn State was required to adopt all recommendations for reform delineated in the Freeh report.
* Penn State must enter into an "athletics integrity agreement" with the NCAA and Big Ten, appoint a university-wide athletic compliance officer and compliance council, and accept an NCAA-appointed athletic integrity monitor for the duration of its probation.
Many of those sanctions were rescinded later. (Wikipedia, I know...) This post is a good summary of the overall sanctions at the beginning but, in the end, politics and money won out. Yes, even over the welfare of children. (What's new, really? History is full of this)
Also, the NCAA is hardly a bastion of morality or fairness. Although, to be fair, I've hardly ever seen more biased and obviously tainted decisions and coverage coming from any organization like it comes from the sports ruling bodies and media in Scotland with regards to Rangers these past few years.
None of this is in any way to take away from this particular post or the more important overall topic at hand, just wanted to provide some additional info you may not know if you're not on this side of the pond.