Penn State Goings-On

[Barrister]

I'm curious about a couple of things...I thought in 1998 the police were somehow notified and did an investigation, but for some reason didn't pursue anything. In 2001 Sandusky was seen in the shower. With that timeline, why punish back to 1998? Was Joe Paterno supposed to lead a lynch mob against the guy?

Also, Penn State is a non profit educational institution, supported by taxpayers. Football scandal aside, it is apparently a good one. What good does transferring $60m from it to other charities do (like say, the second mile)? I know Penn State wouldn't do so because of the PR implications, but giving lower income Pennsylvania students $60m in scholarship opportunities to Penn State would seem to be a very solid charitable gift.

The police were surprised that the '98 case wasn't prosecuted. I'm betting that Paterno influenced that.

Only indirectly.  The theme throughout the entire case was that the culture of Penn State and College Station was that the football team was sacrosanct.  Nobody would need to influence the DA - the DA knew that you simply did not do anything that might bring the football program into disrepute.

[alfred russel]

The police were surprised that the '98 case wasn't prosecuted. I'm betting that Paterno influenced that.

I'm betting that Paterno had suspicions going back to at least the early 80s about Sandusky but didn't speak up. Lets erase those seasons too!

[katmai]

Wtf does Texas a& m have to do with this Beeb?

[Barrister]

Wtf does Texas a& m have to do with this Beeb?

Wouldn't you like to know.

So where is Penn State located?  I obviously mis-remembered the name of the town / county.

[katmai]

State College, PA.

[Barrister]

State College, PA.

Ah.  I didn't think I was far off.  Danke.

[MadImmortalMan]

I don't see how punishing the future members of the program is useful. They had nothing to do with it.

[Barrister]

I don't see how punishing the future members of the program is useful. They had nothing to do with it.

Then the only answer is to do nothing.

Look - any time you punish anyone, or anything, there will be collateral victims.  If I put some dipshit in jail it means he can't pay child support for his kids.  If you fine a company you are taking money away from any expansion plans.  If you take a drunk drivers license away it means he can't go visit his mother in the nursing home.

[Valmy]

I don't see how punishing the future members of the program is useful. They had nothing to do with it.

In that case the NCAA should just not have rules because they could never enforce them.  Cheating for everybody!

[MadImmortalMan]

They vacated all those wins going back to '98. That's not nothing.

[Barrister]

They vacated all those wins going back to '98. That's not nothing.

Yes it is.  It's almost the definition of nothing.

[MadBurgerMaker]

They vacated all those wins going back to '98. That's not nothing.

That's really just symbolic.  The penalties that hurt are the scholarship losses and the bowl/championship bans.

[sbr]

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/big-ten-donate-penn-states-150011470--ncaaf.html

And the Big 10 conference piles on announcing Penn State will lose "an estimated total of $13 million in league bowl revenue shares from Penn State, or about $3.25 million from 2012 through 2015."

Also they are relaxing rules on players transferring within the conference.  I'm not exactly sure what this means though:

"Players who are eligible won't be restricted by another institution's scholarship limits if they choose to transfer, nor will they have to sit out a season as is customary for players transferring from one FBS program to another."

I assume it means schools can go over the 85 scholarship limit to take PSU kids, if that is the case it is brutal.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Also they are relaxing rules on players transferring within the conference.  I'm not exactly sure what this means though:

"Players who are eligible won't be restricted by another institution's scholarship limits if they choose to transfer, nor will they have to sit out a season as is customary for players transferring from one FBS program to another."

I assume it means schools can go over the 85 scholarship limit to take PSU kids, if that is the case it is brutal.

Yes, that's what that means.  I also saw somewhere that they have an unlimited number of campus visits, etc, as well.  The NCAA/Big 10 are simply making it much easier for them to get out of PSU and get to a place where they can actually play for something.

[MadImmortalMan]

It means the other schools get to swoop in like vultures and take the cash. Or maybe just the conference. It doesn't say if they're gonna give it to anyone else.