re: why would LSU take 8 scholarships from themselves??

It is always... always.... lesser penalties if you:
A) self-report
B) self-penalize with the report.

Now we skipped step A here. So were a little hard on ourselves (in LSU's view based on what the NCAA has penalized for same infractions in the past in general).

In all fairness, it was hard to self-report the OBJ stuff. It happened on camera during a celebration on the sideline. Bahansen did anyway, but I don't think we got the credit for it.