I don't know what the proper course of action is on this situation. You have individuals that were culpable and one has been prosecuted and sentenced, a couple are waiting their day in court and another is deceased. It seems the people responsible for the entire fiasco are going to be punished within the framework of the legal system. At this point what do the sanctions and fines levied against Penn State accomplish? I know it feels like something should be done due to the heinous nature of the crimes, but the criminals are being tried and my guess is that they will all be punished. I don't see Spanier and Schultz not serving time right along with good ol Jerry.
So, the fines and sanctions will now penalize PSU students, recruits, businesses that had absolutely nothing to do with the crimes of 14 years ago. The current students were somewhere between 4 and 8 years old while this was occurring. There are going to be civil lawsuits from each and every victim of Sandusky and I'm certain the remuneration handed out will approach 1 billion dollars before its all said and done.
I'm a Pitt graduate and there's no love lost with the PSU football program, but I'm not certain that this is accomplishing anything positive. The players who have signed on to play at PSU are being given the option to seek scholarships elsewhere, but what if other colleges don't see their skill set as one that fits into their program? This year's seniors, what are they going to do? Does the scholarship loss affect the Title IX scholarships that are awarded? It seems there is more down side to this and I have yet to rationalize an upside.
The perpetrator is being punished and his enablers will be tried and dealt with legally and one of them is dead. The victims will be compensated which is the best that anyone can do for them now. It would be nice to go back in time and stop Sandusky before he committed the heinous acts, but we can't, so the best society can do is compensate the families and that will be done. Punishing the current students, former students, local businesses, the University itself seems fruitless in my humble opinion.
The PSU football program may never be relevant again and I'm not sure if that's good or bad. SMU has never been a relevant football program since they received the death penalty in 1987 (I think). Their transgressions were NCAA football related, they were not criminal and they deserved what they received. In this case, it's deviant behavior and the cover-up of the behavior which isn't really football related at all. It could have just as easily been a professor of the engineering department and the director of the department and the president of the university covering it up because, the professor was one of the best mechanical engineers in the country.
I guess, something had to be done, but I'm not sure this is the answer. Couldn't the University been made to start some type of foundation to raise awareness of child molestation and fund the foundation nationally, not just in Centre county Pennsylvania? Wouldn't that be more beneficial to more people?
Who benefits from this decision?
Anyone at all?
Students? No
Athletes? No
Business? No
Parents? No
The victims? No
Current administration? No
NCAA? No
I just don't see anything positive out of this decision.
Pappy
Exactly in line with what I have been saying. THis was the NCAA avoiding the media and destroying a lot of good at Penn Sate so they would "appear" to be doing the right thing. Nothing they did was right!
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