The NCAA announced Monday a series of unprecedented sanctions — ranging from a $60 million fine to the vacating of 14 seasons worth of victories — against Penn State University’s football program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal and alleged cover-up by several of the schools top leaders. As Steve Yanda reported:
The penalties include a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, an annual reduction of 10 scholarships over a four-year period and five years of probation.
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The NCAA slammed Penn State Monday with an unprecedented series of penalties, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
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Former Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington says the NCAA sanctions placed on the university Monday are necessary steps toward helping the institution rebuild itself.
But perhaps the most significant individual sanction in the context of college football history is that all of Penn State’s wins from 1998 to 2011 have been vacated, which means that Joe Paterno, who oversaw the Nittany Lions’ football program for nearly 46 years, no longer is the sport’s all-time winningest coach.
As a result, Paterno’s win total decreased by 111 to 298. He now ranks No. 12 on the all-time coaching wins list. Eddie Robinson, who coached at Grambling University for 57 years, now ranks No. 1 among high-level college football coaches with 408 victories.
The NCAA also announced Monday that current and incoming Penn State football players will be allowed to transfer from the school immediately without penalty. Typically, players who transfer from one Division I school to another are forced by NCAA rule to sit out one season.
The NCAA is considering waiving scholarship limits for any football program that takes in a Penn State transfer. Teams typically are limited to 85 scholarship players.
The school has signed what NCAA president Mark Emmert described as a “consent decree” and will not appeal the sanctions.
“Penn State accepts the penalties and corrective actions announced today by the NCAA,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a written statement released by the school. “With today’s announcement and the action it requires of us, the University takes a significant step forward.”
Reactions to the wide-ranging penalties spanned from pundits who lauded the NCAA for taking a stand against the institutional failures exposed by the Freeh report to those who felt the NCAA should have issued the so-called “death penalty.” Washington Post columnist Tracee Hamilton found the sanctions sufficiently harsh:
If this is the new, muscular NCAA, let me be the first to say I like it. And I hope this won’t be the last time we see the organization many — including me — had all but given up on for having barely a bark and a nearly toothless bite flex its collective biceps and deliver a knockout blow.
That’s certainly what happened to Penn State on Monday when the NCAA meted out sanctions that arguably have as much bite as what many feared: the death penalty.
Penn State — for allowing its football program to run roughshod over its common sense, the law and finally basic human decency — will lose 20 scholarships and be banned from postseason play for four years. It will be fined $60 million, which will be used to establish an endowment to help the victims of child sexual abuse around the country (not just the victims of Jerry Sandusky, who are still free to sue the school). It set up an ethical oversight board and reserved the right to further punish anyone involved with the program once the dust settles from the current charges.
The penalties include a $60 million fine, a four-year postseason ban, an annual reduction of 10 scholarships over a four-year period and five years of probation.
Video
The NCAA slammed Penn State Monday with an unprecedented series of penalties, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Video
Former Penn State linebacker LaVar Arrington says the NCAA sanctions placed on the university Monday are necessary steps toward helping the institution rebuild itself.
But perhaps the most significant individual sanction in the context of college football history is that all of Penn State’s wins from 1998 to 2011 have been vacated, which means that Joe Paterno, who oversaw the Nittany Lions’ football program for nearly 46 years, no longer is the sport’s all-time winningest coach.
As a result, Paterno’s win total decreased by 111 to 298. He now ranks No. 12 on the all-time coaching wins list. Eddie Robinson, who coached at Grambling University for 57 years, now ranks No. 1 among high-level college football coaches with 408 victories.
The NCAA also announced Monday that current and incoming Penn State football players will be allowed to transfer from the school immediately without penalty. Typically, players who transfer from one Division I school to another are forced by NCAA rule to sit out one season.
The NCAA is considering waiving scholarship limits for any football program that takes in a Penn State transfer. Teams typically are limited to 85 scholarship players.
The school has signed what NCAA president Mark Emmert described as a “consent decree” and will not appeal the sanctions.
“Penn State accepts the penalties and corrective actions announced today by the NCAA,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a written statement released by the school. “With today’s announcement and the action it requires of us, the University takes a significant step forward.”
Reactions to the wide-ranging penalties spanned from pundits who lauded the NCAA for taking a stand against the institutional failures exposed by the Freeh report to those who felt the NCAA should have issued the so-called “death penalty.” Washington Post columnist Tracee Hamilton found the sanctions sufficiently harsh:
If this is the new, muscular NCAA, let me be the first to say I like it. And I hope this won’t be the last time we see the organization many — including me — had all but given up on for having barely a bark and a nearly toothless bite flex its collective biceps and deliver a knockout blow.
That’s certainly what happened to Penn State on Monday when the NCAA meted out sanctions that arguably have as much bite as what many feared: the death penalty.
Penn State — for allowing its football program to run roughshod over its common sense, the law and finally basic human decency — will lose 20 scholarships and be banned from postseason play for four years. It will be fined $60 million, which will be used to establish an endowment to help the victims of child sexual abuse around the country (not just the victims of Jerry Sandusky, who are still free to sue the school). It set up an ethical oversight board and reserved the right to further punish anyone involved with the program once the dust settles from the current charges.