• Welcome to BGO! We know you will have questions as you become familiar with the software. Please take a moment to read our New BGO User Guide which will give you a great start. If you have questions, post them in the Feedback and Tech Support Forum, or feel free to message any available Staff Member.

Penn State Scandal: The Freeh Report

Share away, BB. I'm interested to hear what you have to say, and I'm sure the mods will move as needed.
 
I have heard rumors (on FB mostly) that students and alumni connected with PSU are upset about the harshness of these penalties. Anyone have any confirmation of that?

my understanding is that most of them are upset about the wins being vacated. they see the problem as not being one that gave any advantage on the field, etc etc.

now, i disagree with that, and i'm not a PSU student, faculty member, or alum. i do not speak for them at all. that's my opinion of why most of them are upset. i think most them are ok with the rest of it; and by ok i mean understanding of why they are dealing with it.

i also think most of them feel as though the NCAA doesn't have 'jurisdiction', but that's another issue entirely.
 
Worse than the death penalty? No chance. They will still get to field a football team (albeit a non-competitive one) and will get the associated revenues. They should not be able to benefit from football at all after this tragedy.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device
 
This is much worse than the "death" penalty. PSU will not have a full compliment of scholarships for the FB team until 2020. Combine it with the other sanctions and it will take more than a decade to recover - depending on the word "recover" itself. It's relevant term obviously.

I'd like to request that this thread be moved to PA. I have some thoughts from my perspective as an educator.

I disagree.

I think the civil suits, the pending legal actions against high ranking officials (even rumors of the cover up extending up the political chain in PA), etc. will be what dooms the program. I feel that, in hind sight, the NCAA punishments will be seen as minor in the large scheme of things. PSU is far from in the clear on this one. They're looking at hundreds of millions in civil suits, investigations from the DoJ, the DOE (or is it DoE, i forget which one is dept of education), and other groups.

That said, I think these NCAA sanctions are just garbage.

The SMU penalty was the death penalty because SMU wasn't a school that could recover from it. SMU had a student body of 7k people. They had to cheat to stay competitive. They didn't stand a chance of fielding a competitive football team without cheating, hence them not being able to recover. PSU compares to SMU in exactly 0 ways.

PSU can recover from the NCAA sanctions alone. in 15 years everyone will still remember the SMU death penalty, and most people will remember the PSU scandal - but I don't think many will be able to recall the actual sanctions against PSU by the NCAA, we'll see if I'm wrong on that in time. My point is that if the NCAA sanctions were the only punishments for PSU, I think they could rebound from this quite quickly.

So, I'm very upset with the NCAA and Big 10 sanctions. Especially the Big 10 which made it perfectly clear that their interests are in keeping the money flowing - at least the NCAA made an attempt to hide it, the big 10 didn't even try.

Children were raped. It was covered up to protect a lucrative football program (which in itself is illogical - exposing it would have done minimal harm, and possibly have done good for the program). It was then allowed to continue for a decade an a half.

PSU should have lost their football program for a year minimum in my mind. At some point in time society needs to figure out what is more important. Unfortunately we've already decided football is more important than education; just see who runs these schools with elite football programs. I'm hoping we're not actually admitting that it's also more important that protecting innocent children. Unfortunately, these punishments strike me as just making PSU not competitive for 4-6 years, which isn't enough for me.

But... thats just my opinion on the situation. take it for what it's worth, which isn't really much :)

edit: and I may be way over the top. i don't follow college football, so it's completely possible i don't fully understand the ramifications of these punishments.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
My other problem with the NCAA's actions on this one, and it may be a bit off topic, is that they just set the ceiling for punishment.

At no point in the next 100 years is anyone going to be to look at what a school does and say - 'well, that cheating was worse than raping little boys in the shower'. I mean the university would have to sponsor a terrorist act to be considered worst.

So that's what they've said - this is the worst possible punishment you can get. 4 years of being banned from bowls, and losing 35 scholarships a year.

Seems pretty weak to me.

edit: by the way, indiana was hit with a 4 year bowl banning in 1960.
for recruiting violations.

recruiting violations.
 
Yes, worse than the death penalty. Penn St. is large enough to forgo a year of football and return intact. There would be some small and residual effects, but the program would quickly recover.

Tshile - see the previous paragraph for any comparisons to SMU. By giving these sanctions to PSU instead of the death penalty, the program will be impacted severely for the remainder of the decade. A one year moratorium would do little other than what was said a few sentences ago.

As for the civil suits to come (and they will come - no doubt about it), PSU has a substantial number of large insurance coverages to handle these losses. The premiums would skyrocket for a decade or so, but little else.
 
Last edited:
I thought they should get the death penalty for four years.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device
 
I don't see how anyone can argue Penn State got off lightly. They got absolutely hammered here. They deserved it and they got it.
 
Yep, just saw Blackistone on PTI and he suggested they should have had their connection to NCAA dropped all together, and they would have had to reapply in January to get it reinstated, and gone through a vote process at that point. I think that's over the top, but I think they got what they deserved.

And anyone connected that doesn't see how this is just is nuts. IMO.
 
well...as a PSU grad.....

1) I don't care on one plane: they whitewashed an academic fraud (Michael Mann of global warming infamy) so this is payback. too bad...so sad. corruption begets corruption.

2) on the other hand...civil and criminal penalties are being paid...what the ever virtuous NCAA also achieved includes

- hurting hundreds of innocent local businessmen

- frauding hundreds of players from 1988 onward who had nothing to do with the criminal acts and cover-up

- hurting hundreds of potential future scholarship winners

- hurting hundreds to thousands of students who will be left in the lurch as the University encounters financial problems
 
All of which pales in comparison to what just one of that ****'s victims has experienced. Technically, I agree with you. But the message that is being sent, that if you cover up wrongdoing, you will pay a steep price, is entirely warranted in my opinion. It's unfortunate that there will be collateral damage - but that's the way life works.
 
Not strong enough in my opinion. The $60 million will come from boosters....not from past wages paid to those who helped cover this up.

4 years of no bowls is a joke. That should be ten years.

And as someone already mentioned, it's now going to be nearly impossible to impose a "death penalty" on any other team in the future.

Let's see how many of these people actually do time, or who are at least fired in the future.
 
Sorry Boone, I agree with McD5. They got off light relative to the heinous nature of the crime.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device
 
Maybe it was light in consideration of some fs62 mentioned.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device
 
Antwan Randle- El on 106.7 the fan talking about the next bombshell being that Sandusky preyed on minority boys, predominantly African Americans aka Blacks is going to make this very interesting when it comes to recruiting.
 
Some girl on TV said "it's like a witch hunt and they won't stop until they erase him from the history books"

It's too bad all those kids who were raped aren't able to erase it. He did nothing and knew. They deserve no quarter.
Posted via BGO Mobile Device

At this point I think it is up to the university to make some kind of statement to the current students and alums that they are better than making the kinds of ridiculous comments that I've seen online the last couple weeks. To the outside world, they are only further hurting their own reputation by not addressing this factor.
 
these ones..you think that Al and Jesse are going to look at this if it comes out and go "nah, we wont bother with this one"?

HELL NO! theyre already salivating I bet and just waiting to pounce.

edit: and Im not saying ARE is a racist. just the ones who will run with this story is.

Okay...I thought you meant ARE was a racist. Al & Jesse may speak out on this issue, but since Sandusky is already in jail for the rest of his life, it will hopefully be more about preventing this in the future.
 
I can tell this opinion isn't going to be popular here but I think the NCAA should have stayed out of it. Completely. This was not an academic or athletic issue. It is a criminal issue and as such they have no jurisdiction, nor should have any.

Local authorities are going after the men responsible for the cover up, non of whom still work for Penn State, and the Feds appear to be investigating the institution.

The NCAA has no business getting itself involved in a criminal investigation. This is just another power grab, much like we see the government doing all the time, and it is being made on the backs of the victims.
 
I can tell this opinion isn't going to be popular here but I think the NCAA should have stayed out of it. Completely. This was not an academic or athletic issue. It is a criminal issue and as such they have no jurisdiction, nor should have any.

Local authorities are going after the men responsible for the cover up, non of whom still work for Penn State, and the Feds appear to be investigating the institution.

The NCAA has no business getting itself involved in a criminal investigation. This is just another power grab, much like we see the government doing all the time, and it is being made on the backs of the victims.

Neo, you kind of surprised me with this. I'm neither agreeing or disagreeing with your position at this moment because I haven't thought it through yet, but I wonder if the NCAA's involvement is-at least in their eyes-justified due to the criminal activity originating in the athletic department and thereby falling under their (the NCAA's) jurisdiction? The NCAA oversees college athletics and by extension the university as a whole as administrator of the athletic programs and very serious infractions, or as in this instance criminal actions and the hiding of them-casts such a pall on college athletics that the NCAA as a supervisory body most likely felt compelled to involve themselves and seek punitive action lest their raison d'être itself be questioned.

One question I would have; was there, in your estimation, a point at which the NCAA should have, say, bowed out of the situation? I'm just asking to get a feel for where you're coming from on this. I understand the abstract concept of a regulatory agency aggrandizing power-I only wonder if this incident, due to its severity, would be considered a "special case" demanding extraordinary response or not.

A very interesting stance here, Neo, and I believe it's the first I've seen like it.
 

Users Who Are Viewing This Thread (Total: 1, Members: 0, Guests: 1)

Help Users
As we enjoy today's conversations, let's remember our dear friends 'Docsandy', Sandy Zier-Teitler, and 'Posse Lover', Michael Huffman, who would dearly love to be here with us today! We love and miss you guys ❤

You haven't joined any rooms.

    You haven't joined any rooms.
    Top