re: Freeh report is out: "PSU showed 'total disregard' for Sandusky victims"

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Did Penn State literally gain an advantage by JoePa & other officials covering Sandusky's wrongdoings? No, but the coverup allowed business to go on as usual which prevented the scrutiny & fallout we are currently seeing.

Stevie Wonder can see that if the child sexual accusations & charges were brought up when they were initially noticed, that fallout from those charges would have an affect on the Penn State football program as well as their ability to recruit top prospects... The decision to coverup wasn't a decision based on a moral obligation otherwise those in charge would have made a totally different choice. The decision was based solely on football & the potential fallout around the program.

Just as in any other case involving investigations & punishments by the NCAA, the program gets investigated & punished for the sins of people in authority or players who pretend not to know any better. If the NCAA finds that Penn State violated any code of ethics within their guidelines, then they should be punished just as any other member should be.

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Clarity and truth go hand in hand. Well-said.

I cannot believe the NCAA can possibly just walk away from this PSU institutional monstrosity without dropping the big bomb. I'm sad for the Nittany Lion Nation, but I'm sadder for the kids and for those in power at Penn State (including JoePa) who chose to just look away from the awful truth and do virtually nothing when they were in a position to do something about it.

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The point of sanctions is that if the program did things to gain an advantage on the field by paying players or boosters giving money and favors the program is punished. This is a criminal and civil matter and not an athletics matter though it took place in the football program. The crimes were criminal in the abuse and the coverup. This wasn't about cheating at football to win games.

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I'm not professing to be an expert by any stretch, but listening to comments made by Emmert and others (when this 1st broke in 2011), PSU stands to be at greatest risk with Accreditation issues and reviews that are sure to pop up now that the Freeh report has been made public. Article 3.2 of the NCAA bylaws is where the "catch all" of acting/behaving in a manner representative of Higher Learning Institutions and how they tie to NCAA membership in good standing relative to Accreditation may be the stickywig.

Go back and look at how the SACS hit Auburn University for in 2004 and how they repeatedly slammed the inefficiency and inability for the Board of Trustees to maintain control and adequately distribute a system of checks/balances as a reason for possible sanction. In Auburn's case, it took an act by the Governor to keep them only in a probationary status. The Freeh report repeatedly criticized PSU and the Trustees for what I see as even more severe infractions than that of Auburn. The cover up of criminal activities is inexcusable, and based on the charges the University President, Vice President, and Athletic Director are presently facing, not to mention several charges which could be added based on the Freeh report, this is going to be looked at. BTW, the NCAA pressed again for responses to preliminary questions submitted to Penn State.

I'm just spit-balling here, but it would not be far fetched for the NCAA to attempt to seek some sort of sanctions based on concerns relative to an Accreditation problem - Remember, this criminal activity was allowed to continue on University Property and in University Facilities. It is a "culture" of looking the other way that is the issue.

I know I am rambling, but there are pieces of several by-laws which are of concern. It is not one specific "Black and White" violation, but rather a systematic lack of decentralization of power and checks and balances which have become at issue. This is where everyone's ties to Lack of Institutional Control relative to it's member institutions are going to come into play. Remember, it was not that USC specifically knew about payments, it was that they SHOULD HAVE KNOWN about the supposed payments.

JMHOFWIW -

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Did Penn State literally gain an advantage by JoePa & other officials covering Sandusky's wrongdoings? No, but the coverup allowed business to go on as usual which prevented the scrutiny & fallout we are currently seeing.

Stevie Wonder can see that if the child sexual accusations & charges were brought up when they were initially noticed, that fallout from those charges would have an affect on the Penn State football program as well as their ability to recruit top prospects... The decision to coverup wasn't a decision based on a moral obligation otherwise those in charge would have made a totally different choice. The decision was based solely on football & the potential fallout around the program.

Just as in any other case involving investigations & punishments by the NCAA, the program gets investigated & punished for the sins of people in authority or players who pretend not to know any better. If the NCAA finds that Penn State violated any code of ethics within their guidelines, then they should be punished just as any other member should be.


Clarity and truth go hand in hand. Well-said.

I cannot believe the NCAA can possibly just walk away from this PSU institutional monstrosity without dropping the big bomb. I'm sad for the Nittany Lion Nation, but I'm sadder for the kids and for those in power at Penn State (including JoePa) who chose to just look away from the awful truth and do virtually nothing when they were in a position to do something about it.

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I agree with the majority of what you said with the exception of the bolded part.

The personal relationships between Sandusky and Paterno and the legendary status of Sandusky around PSU made this also a story about personal relationships and hero worship gone wrong. Sandusky was viewed as an all time great coach and honorable man and that made this about more than just football. It is no small thing to tear down an icon who you loved and respected... even when he turns out to be a monster

I still see Penn St people mentioning the word "but the football program" more than anything else related to this case, which is exactly why they need to give them a 2 year death penalty. The football program was the core of this thing getting out of hand in the first place, and the power given to those who were at the head of that football program ruined lives for a damn sport.

Football should be the last thing a Penn St. supporter mentions, sickens me to see otherwise.

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Pretty casual assessment for a motive don't ya think?

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You must be pretty dense if you don't think that if JoePa & the other Penn State officials would have exposed Sandusky & his criminal deeds, the Nittany Lion brand wouldn't have taken hit publicly especially the football program.

For one, several of the incidents between Sandusky & these young boys took place in Penn State football facilities. Secondly, the acts were done by a coach who was embedded in the football program & the culture surrounding it. Lastly, Sandusky was not just any coach. He was a close personal friend of JoePa who was also at one point labeled as JoePa's future replacement.

So it isn't inconceivable to believe that these highly educated, highly powerful men weren't aware of the black eye outing Sandusky would bring to Penn State. Now if they indeed would have outed Sandusky, the biggest difference would be that after the initial shame & disgust from the public wore off is that all officials including JoePa would be being praised for being proactive. Instead they are being heavily scrutinized & on top of that facing criminal charges as well.

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There's this major assumption going on right now...that outing Sandusky and his deeds would have been a major detriment problem for PSU and that covering it up for some reason...didn't appear to ever cross their minds that such actions would be a problem/detriment.

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You should read the full Freeh report then & pay close attention to the emails shared by all parties associated with the coverup. All parties were well aware of the problems they could face outing Sandusky as well as if they sat on the information they knew.

I feel sorry for a guy like Jay Paterno. He has to sit there and say something. Brutal watching this.

The other people who allowed this to happen and did not report and covered things up need to be brought to justice, but why should the current football program be punished?

Yes crimes were committed and justice needs to be done, but this wasn't about cheating at football through bribes, payouts, academic fraud and so on.

Sandusky is in jail which is good and others need to be brought to justice, but how is this about football now? Yes you had very bad people who did horrible things, but it wasn't about cheating at football. Are there people now actively involved in the program who committed theses crimes? If so then bring them to justice.

The crimes were not protecting children and that should go punished, and Paterno's image is rightfully sullied and so is the image of Penn State football. I'd have no problem with the University on its own putting curbs on the program and deemphasizing football.

The same reason any other program's current players get punished for previous transgressions. What makes this any different?

This was a complete Penn State University cover-up.

Punish the Penn State University as a whole.

Give Penn State University the Death Penalty as a whole.

Don’t start the Death Penalty until after the last current recruit who signed a letter of intent is finished.

Any new recruit who signs after set date, willingly and knowingly signs to Penn State University accepting the conditions set in place.
Don’t argue that other Penn State Sports Programs shouldn’t pay for these Penn State University mistakes, when these programs accept revenues acquired by the Football Program. They shouldn’t be able to claim the benefits gained as being part of Penn State University, without accepting the punishments handed to Penn State University.
These crimes, and the cover-up by Penn State University, are far worse than anything committed by anyone who has received the Death Penalty.

Just my opinion… Again

Why aren't more people mad at Mike McQueary? he heard the "slap slap slapping" sound and observed Sandusky with a young boy. Here's my take:

mistake #1: He told Paterno rather than he police to protect the universiy
mistake #2-2,000) Even after he saw nothing happened to Paterno, he continued to see Sandusky on campus and didn't do anything

Dude needs to get the shite kicked out of him...kinda wish he had to drink his meals for a while.