Penn State To Pay $60 Million Fine, No Bowl Games For 4 Years

[Wales2004]

I guess they'll be fighting to keep some of that contract money when the civil suits start.

ITA with the fake concern about athlestes. I find it annoying that when some NCAA violation occurs involving students or whenever March madness begins, the "pay the athletes" crew comes rolling out to say how the players are really employees who should be compensated. IA with some sort of trust fund for using an athlete's likeness in video games or on video game covers but not a salary. I don't believe that the coaches who are getting paid millions is justification. Personally, I don't think some of the coaches should get paid as much as they do but the fact that they do does not mean all coaches across the board are adequately compensated. Further, not every school is making millions of dollars if anything at all.

If they cared so much about the athletes, they would advocate for communication classes and money managrement (especially for those headed for the pros). Instead they let their contempt for the "system" blind them and they use their "concern" for the athletes to mask that contempt.

[Eric83]

Ok I sat down and read about the details of the case and investigation and I more or less have the same opinion about the issue. I haven't said I felt sorry for Paterno or his legacy but at the end of the day I don't see what paying millions of fines and invalidating wins is supposed to do? Everything that went on was sick and disgusting but I can't help the way I feel on these penalties.

[dragonflies]

I think it's right on. I also cry BS that anyone was told and didn't do anything. Anyone with common decency and morals wouldn't let it stop there, they'd keep going until someone did listen.

I think they haven't been punished enough, but this is a start

[Ann_SS]

Okay, I will take a stab at explaining although I find it incredulous that anyone who fully understands what happened at Penn Sate does not understand the extent of their failure as an educational institution by covering up child sexual abuse.

1)The $60 million over five years is going to organizations that support victims of child sexual abuse and prevent child sexual abuse. Of course, the Big Ten also censured and penalized Penn State today. Penn State will not be allowed to play in championship games and their share of the revenue approximately $13 million will also go to support victims of child sexual abuse and prevent child sexual abuse.

2) Invalidating the wins from 1998 is aimed that taking away the benefits that Penn State got by covering up the child sexual abuse.

3) Overlooked by you also, are the institutional controls that the NCAA and Big Ten are putting in place Penn State to ensure that this never happens again. They are hiring an external compliance officer and keeping a close eye on Penn State which shown that it absolutely no ability to govern itself as it let is greed and addiction to football and money subsume its duty to education, nurture, and protect children on its campus. Its Board of Trustees failed completely in its duty to govern. It ran out of town one of its few compliance officers to stand up against Paterno, Vicky Taponey.

4) Next up will be the extensive penalties (likely in the millions) from the Department of Education for Penn State's violations of the Clery Act. This is punitive for Penn State breaking the law.

5) Then, the victims will get their millions which punitive for Penn State enabling the victimization of children at its on campus facilities.

All in all, this is all about forcing Penn State to change its cultist weird sick football culture and to see that its purpose it to educate its students and prepare them to enter the world, not win football games and deify its coaches. It will take years for Penn State's culture to change. This is a good start.

[Roman]

You saw that BS as well. Good. That is why I had to stop watching ATH. First loudmouth Jay Mariotti destroys his career (and life) and now this clown that garbage. makes me sick.

Yep he sure did. Under his breath, but it was heard. It's clowns like that that have destroyed ESPN. It's not a sports channel anymore. It's the Fox News of sports.

[Wales2004]

We've been conditioned in society to fall back on the idea that nothing is ever going to make a difference. Sports talk shows are rife with experts/analyst saying that money is the problem because no one wants to ever take responsibility.

We have a state uninversity in which administrators, coaches and others in a position to stop a pedophile didn't. It's not just what Jerry Sandusky did, it's also what others did not do and what they knew took place on the college campus.

While I understand the concern for football players, fans and others that stand to be affected by the sanctions, it does not mean the university should not be penalized. This whole "too bad about the victims but they'll be compensated" position makes it seem as if money can fix any and everything and I can guarantee that it will not fix the lives of all of those victims and those who love and care about them. So if vacating wins, losing scholarships, bowl eligibility and paying a penalty helps in any way to keep another program from doing or even thinking of doing the same thing, then it's worth it. At the very least, it shows victims that someone does care enough to do something. The collateral damage is worh it.

Selfish behavior is part of what brought some of this on in the first place and it's amazing how it continues. If something like this happened to my child, am I supposed to care that some football player on a team where the coach and administrators could have done more to halt pedophilia, now cannot count all the victories team had? If that's the worst thing that ever happens to any of those players is that their bowl wins are vacated, then they'll have it a lot better than some of those scarred victims. You cannot place a monetary value on a child's inncocence.

It's almost sad to believe that had Jerry Sandusky done something heinous to animals and this was covered up by Penn State that there would be a whole lot more people who would feel differently and they would have marched on that school and demanded that statue be taken down from day one.