Wow.
Part of me understands it, part of me thinks that this decision is a lot like the Supreme Court decision in Bush V. Gore, where it was so "Unprecedented" and needed a measure to match it. NCAA really stepped into a grey area with what they did. They bypassed their own due process (which whenever any other school was alleged to violate rules, "due process is needed to be done to ensure fairness and protocol is followed"...whatever the Hell that means) as well as relied on an independent report to determine the punishment. Before I deconstruct why I think there's a lot that stinks about the entire process, I'll summarize what Penn State got:
-Have to pay $60 million in fines that allegedly will go to charities (I"ll believe that when the NCAA opens their books, but as far as I know, that money will go to the 'presidents pockets' charities).
-Can't play in Bowl games or postseason games (The new playoffs starting next season) for four seasons. Big ten added that Penn State can't play in the conference championship game for the same time period.
-Penn State has to reduce the number of scholarship players for next four seasons. So Penn State will have to rely more on walk-ons next few years.
-The school is on probation for five years, and during that time the NCAA will hire a watchdog group to track the school and make sure all conditions of the probation are followed. This part the NCAA was hazy on, and has me concerned.
-Members of the team now can transfer wherever they want without the one year sit out penalty, and if a player chooses to not play at all the school has to honor the scholarship. The real kicker to me is that the NCAA waived all their recruiting/tampering laws so any school can poach Penn State's roster. Mind you, if a coach even looks at another school's player, that's a violation. Now the NCAA has sanctioned what they call illegal the day before. Amazing.
-All wins from 1998-2011 vacated. That was a shot at Paterno and it takes him off the all wins list and puts Bobby Bowden, who's pre-game ritual was to pick up his players from the local jail, at the top of the list. Sorry Eddie Robinson doesn't count to me as far as all-time wins. He got his wins against lower competition in 1-AA. It's apples to oranges, and he isn't the all-time winner if he didn't do it at the pinnacle of the sport.
Now to what I thought was wrong with the ruling. First of all go fuck yourselves if you even think that "You're not thinking of the victims MAAAAN", and give me that fake elitist attitude of "Imagine how those rape victims felt MAAAAN" garbage. PEOPLE WHO TALK ABOUT THIS RULING MOST LIKELY DO KNOW AND FEEL BAD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED. People are allowed to speak about this ruling and should not have you dumb cunts whining about the victims. WE GET IT, WE KNOW IT HAPPENED, AND WE HOPE SANDUSKY GETS HIS IN JAIL IF THERE IS ANY GODDAMN JUSTICE IN THIS WORLD. I especially hate how all these "experts" who come from schools of questionable backgrounds like Miami (Who like USC should BY NCAA LAW have gotten the "death penalty" as repeat offenders), Ohio State, or SMU telling Penn State about "moral ethics".
Now to the hypocrisy of the NCAA. Penn State, who hasn't been under any scrutiny of The NCAA gets damn near killed off for this, and it was a major issue don't' get me wrong, yet schools like Miami, USC, Ohio State-schools who openly and blatantly violate NCAA laws repeatedly, get nothing more than slaps on the wrists. It's disgusting that these schools who are nothing but problems are allowed to go business as usual but others get the goddamn book thrown at them. I know that PSU is the scapegoat in some pathetic crusade by NCAA, which is supposedly going to try to get the "sports first" schools in line and make the sports deify coaches stop, but I don't think the cowards in the NCAA will even go after another school. That's why I think it's like the Bush v. Gore ruling, they can go "this was a one time thing that needed an unprecedented ruling." If the NCAA were men of their words, then I expect to see half the major schools get sanctioned real soon. but we all know how spineless the NCAA is, so nothing will happen.
My other issue is what was used as the basis of the punishment. The NCAA, rather than conduct their own investigation, relied on the Freeh report-a report paid for by the PSU board of trustees. This is the report that said everyone form the coaches to the president of the school was involved (also sounded like throwing them under the bus as well). But the thing is that this report had no subpoena power, so whoever the investigators talked to could have simply been talking out of their asses. Also it relied on emails and correspondences, which unless they specifically state all that the people are looking for, could be open to interpretation. I could write to someone about an interview simply in an email just "I killed it." If someone's looking into me for animal abuse and looked through my emails and saw that, they could say "SEE??? He admits it!!"
Along with this fact, everyone involved that is being accused is not the position to talk fully/try to defend themselves:
-One of them (Joe Paterno) is dead
-Two of the vice presidents, and the president at the time are lawyered up getting ready for a purgury trial, so they wouldn't want anything on record before the trial.
-That idiot assistant coach (Mike McQueary) I am certain cut some deal to damn near get off scott free in all this. He should have reported it to the cops himself or contacted someone right then and there, not go run to his daddy, sleep it off, and say something a couple days later.
Rather than wait for the judicial system take it's course, where they would get more data and facts to consider for a ruing, they rushed to judgment using partial facts. Funny is whenever a student/authority figure from scumbag schools get in trouble, the NCAA says "we have to wait for the judicial system to take its course before we can do anything."
All I am saying is this: as horrible as the crimes were, the people who covered it up and did it should be punished. blanket punishments and sanctions against those who were not a part of the problem is almost as wrong as the crime. What the University is going through now is not fully warranted or right. I look forward to when all the facts are out so the entire puzzle can be put together. Then, and only then can we see who or what deserves the punishment.