In the wake of the uproar over the conduct of Jerry Sandusky, the NCAA imposed a massive penalty on Penn State’s football program.
The rationale behind the NCAA sanctions was that the failure of Penn State university and football figures was a “failure of institutional and individual integrity.”
Among the measures taken by the NCAA were: a five year probation, a four year ban from bowl games, the vacating of all wins from 1998 to 2011 and a $60 million fine.
Today the organization announced that the Penn State football program will be eligible to participate in bowl games this season and that the remaining 85 scholarships that were being withheld next season will be returned.
The Sandusky scandal has become perhaps the most hot-button issue in Pennsylvania, which contains a large number of PSU alumni.
The NCAA released the news minutes after it was announced that Ray Rice had his contract terminated, suggesting the collegiate body was trying to bury the announcement.
3 Responses
There’s something we agree on, Doctor – the NCAA’s attempt to change history was, in my mind, the most egregious part of the punishment. Take all of the program’s profits for the next ten years, I don’t care, but don’t try to tell those young men who worked so hard and had nothing to do with those terrible crimes that it somehow didn’t count.
NCAA is capitulating to Corman/McCord to assuage the judge not to rule against them because if they’re neutered that way, it’ll be the death penalty to all NCAA sanctions.
To PSU/JoePa fans, “…the vacating of all wins from 1998 to 2011” remains the sticking-point.