Angles: Reaction to NCAA sanctions on Penn State

Monday, in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s conviction on 45
counts of
sexual abuse and the release of the Freeh Report, the NCAA
handed down Penn State’s penalty. Although the “Death
Penalty” was avoided, the sanctions
were severe.

The football program was slapped with a $60 million fine,
vacation of 112 wins from 1998 to 2011 (which reduces
Paterno’s win total to 298 — good for fifth on all-time
list), a four-year postseason ban, a four-year
scholarship reduction and five years of athletic
department probation. Additionally, all current players
on the Penn State roster are free to transfer to other
schools and play immediately.

The staff at Arizona Sports 620 and ArizonaSports.com have
offered up their reactions to the Penn State penalties.

Dave Burns, Co-host of Burns and Gambo

Even though it seems to be of little consequence to most,
I keep going back to the vacated wins. Clearly this is the
punishment, posthumously of course, for Joe Paterno. His
climb to the top of the record books as the all-time
Division I wins leader was a driving force to extend
Paterno’s career. Frankly some wonder if that’s all he was
hanging around for. Stripping him of those wins is akin to
removing Barry Bonds’ name from atop the all-time HR list.
Maybe it means nothing because Paterno is dead or maybe
you find it to be nothing more than a symbol? I think
it’s significant.

As for the rest, it obviously plunges Penn State football
into a deep dark hole. The loss of scholarships will
require the use of walk-ons and will allow for roughly the
same number of scholarship players as a I-AA school. The
postseason ban will make recruiting next to impossible.
But outside of Paterno’s legacy (already shredded before
today’s announcement) who has the NCAA really punished
here? Not Spanier, Schultz or Curley; the ones who
actually covered it up. The current players are certainly
punished but the fact that they’re allowed to leave
without penalty makes up for some of that.

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Paul Calvisi, Arizona Sports 620 and 92.3 KTAR

Punishing only Penn State serves to make only Penn State
suffer – deservedly so. But, we’ve seen enough suffering.
More than suffering needs to come out of this, right?
Beyond punitive action against Penn State, the question
needs to be addressed: how can Penn State benefit others
going forward? Don’t just pay for its transgressions, but
pay it forward.

We wrote nearly two weeks ago that the NCAA should turn
Penn State Football into a non-profit. From PSU into PBS.
Allow the program to generate revenue on behalf of those
worthy of such largesse. Never again should the
university be allowed to profit from football. Play
football? Sure, but only to fund other sports programs.
Sell and market football? Okay, but only to enhance
revenue that will ultimately fund programs to eradicate
the “reckless disregard of children,” as the NCAA termed
it. If only the $60 million fine was imposed on an annual
basis indefinitely…

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Doug Franz, Co-host of Doug and Wolf

I hate hypocrisy.

Either the NCAA has no power to punish Penn State because
they did not commit a violation of the rules or Penn State
should not be playing football.

As it stands right now, selling memorabilia for tattoo
money is a one-year bowl ban. Buying a house for a
Heisman running back’s parents is a two-year bowl ban.
One
adult raping boys in campus showers and four other adults
working to cover up the crime is a four-year bowl ban.

The NCAA rules committee is designed to set the grounds
for equal play. It is not a criminal court. If they can
punish for these crimes, will they start punishing coaches
for a DUI?…other players for sexual misconduct?

If institutional cover-ups are indeed part of the NCAA
umbrella, then why is Penn State playing football? Every
aspect of the heinous acts of these men strips away the
credibility of this University to be trusted in running a
football team. Make them sit for 5 years and PSU football
returns in 2017.

If you want to be a power monger, Mark Emmert, then have
the
guts to use it. If the power is wrong, have the guts to
take the bullets for leaving it up to the court system.
What the NCAA did to Penn State is talk tough and run
scared.

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Adam Green, ArizonaSports.com columnist

The biggest issue with discipline handed down by the NCAA
is that it’s always too late and never enough.

Will this hurt Penn State? Absolutely. Will it punish
those responsible for the horrible things that happened?
Nope.

Banning them from bowl games, a monstrous fine, giving up
scholarships and
vacating wins (whatever the hell that really means) all
sound good to a public that was looking for blood, but
this is a situation that requires justice, and until those
involved are held responsible in a court of law that
simply will not happen.

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Vince Marotta, ArizonaSports.com columnist

I’ve never been a fan of vacating wins as a penalty for
athletic programs that have run afoul of the rules. The
NCAA can add an asterisk, but I still remember those
victories, and Mark Emmert can’t erase my memory.

In this case, I think the vacation of 112 wins is
significant because of how it further affects Joe
Paterno’s legacy. After all, that’s what Penn State was
ultimately protecting in the first place, right?

The penalty handed down was severe, and will certainly
cripple the PSU football program for years to come, which
is deserved.

But I
personally think the “death penalty” was deserved. That
specific sanction has been handed out only once — to SMU
in 1987 for widespread recruiting violations which
included payment of players.

The lack of action in the Penn State case was far more
egregious than anything SMU did. Those in Dallas were
positioning themselves for winning football games. Those
in Happy Valley were covering their butts to avoid shaming
a coaching legend and a storied program, and lives were
destroyed in the process.

Follow @Vincemarotta