College Football
Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
Published: 2012-07-23 17:08:00
Updated: 2012-07-23 17:31:40
Jul 23, 2012
Raleigh, N.C. — A historian on Penn State University's football program says unprecedented NCAA sanctions imposed on the school will permanently harm the program and that they could have far-reaching effects on those who had nothing to do with the sex abuse scandal that rocked the university and ultimately, the nation.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association on Monday ordered that the university pay $60 million in fines and vacate the football team's wins from 1998 to 2011, after an investigative report found that former Hall of Fame Coach Joe Paterno and other high-level administrators knew of accusations that defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky had sexually abused boys, some on campus, and did nothing about them.
The scandal led to Paterno being ousted as head coach and Sandusky eventually being convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys.
As a result of the NCAA sanctions, the program will also lose 20 scholarships per year, will be put on five years' probation and is banned from four years of post-season participation.
Penn State has already agreed to not fight the sanctions.
"They've devastated the Penn State football program," said Lou Prato, a retired professor and author who has chronicled the football program since 1955. His books include "The Penn State Football Encyclopedia," "Penn State University Football Vault" and "What It Means to Be a Nittany Lion."
"It is going to have a very, very difficult time in the next four to 10 years. They will never get back to the way they were," he added. "It might someday get back to a championship team, but it won't be in my lifetime."
Prato says that the penalties could also have an impact on the local economy of State College, Pa.
"They're going to lose businesses," he said by phone Monday. "Eventually they're going to kill a lot of the economy. There's a lot of people up here that depend on just selling merchandise."
While he agrees with the $60 million fine, which will be paid into an endowment for programs preventing child sex abuse and for helping victims, Prato says he believes the other penalties are based on "a very extremely flawed" report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh.
The $6 million report commissioned by the university found that Paterno and Penn State officials kept what they knew from police and other authorities over the years, enabling Sandusky to continue his abuse.
Prato says the report was full of opinions and unsworn testimony by unidentified witnesses. He believes Freeh had an agenda.
The family of Paterno, who died in January at age 85 from lung cancer, has also criticized the report.
"Based on what I've read and seen, so far, the truth hasn't come out," Prato said. "If the truth comes out and says Joe Paterno was as guilty as everybody believes he is, then I'll accept that. The sad part is that Joe isn't around to defend himself."
Monday's announcement culminated a difficult and emotional weekend for Penn State football fans.
On Sunday, the university removed a 7-foot-tall, 900-pound bronze statue of Paterno that sat outside Penn State's Beaver Stadium since 2001.
Some fans who watched workers remove the statue cried. Others expressed anger.
For Triangle-area Penn State alumni and fans, it marked a sad turning point in what they say was a well-respected football program.
"We have always been very proud of the fact that we went to Penn State and that Joe Paterno had, at that time, such a wonderful, stellar reputation," said Candy Snively, of Cary.
She and her husband graduated from the university in the 1960s and have remained Nittany Lions fans.
"I think we wanted to think the best of Joe Paterno. I had to think that he had a momentary lapse, and now when you see what is going on, it appears that he knew a lot more," Snively said.
"It's like when you see an icon and you realize that they do have feet of clay," she added. "It's very difficult for us to think of this wonderful man. We're very disappointed and very upset."
- Reporter: Amanda Lamb
- Photographer: Terry Cantrell
- Web Editor: Kelly Gardner
Copyright 2013 by Capitol Broadcasting Company. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Most Recent Comments
RE: Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
Many people don't get the point of this punishment. This isn't about Penn State doing something illegal to win, this is about a football based culture so powerful that something as severe as child abuse was seen as a potential PR problem rather than the horrid crime that it is. Whether or not the NCAA applied it or not, there had to be severe punishment. The worst thing that could happen would be for Penn State to start winning in football anytime in the foreseeable future. For Penn State it is time to focus on it's actual purpose, to provide higher education.
- Posted by KevInApex
Only problem is that it isn't an NCAA punishable event. It didn't break any NCAA published rules. A criminal and civil offense, yes... ABSOLUTELY.... but the NCAA is out of their jurisdiction.
But you know all the NCAA rules, and know that they apply...
RE: Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
JoePa is dead and Sandusky in prison. What about all the others in the Penn State administration that covered it up? What about the Board of Trustees, some of whom knew? I sure hope we see some more behind bars.
The crime is vastly different from what went on at UNC-Chapel Hill, but the CYA behavior by those in charge is remarkably similar. Death by a thousand cuts while the UNC admin is still in denial.
Death penalty should have been imposed on Penn State.
RE: Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
veryone talks about the player, well they were just as responsible as the leadership, they knew what was happening as well. This was a great and needed move by the NCAA we have placed to much on winning team, a good education is needed and if a school provides that then that is the school to go to, remember one al' Sh..will wiped out a 1000 at a boy's.
RE: Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
I'm not a college sports fan, never was, but I know a travesty of college sprots rules justice when it's paraded around the block. All the 'adults' who were involved at Penn, are in jail, out of their jobs and disgraced or like Paterno, dead and their histories forever tainted.
However, it's the FUTURE, or the ones who would have been the future, college football players at Penn who will pay the biggest price for YEARS of a cover up. A cover up that started before many of them were born. But the NCAA doesn't care about justice. What they care about, is covering their fat cat behinds, so they can keep their high paying jobs at the NCAA.
It's stuff like this that shows just how corrupt parts of the NCAA are. Too bad.
- Posted by discowhale
It was both the University Administration and the football program that conspired to coverup what was taking place. Both suffered the consequences today. The moral issue is greater than any sports program! The NCAA was right in handing down the sanctions to the football program that enabled such abuse to take place for so many years.
Football players now or in the future can choose to play their sport at other locations. It is not like PSU is the only place to play sports.
Agreed.
RE: Penn State sanctions will be 'devastating,' historian says
The punishment on USC for Reggie Bush's transgressions was devastating too, but that is the way it goes, if you do the crime, you do the time. Joe Pa and the rest of the administration looked the other way while Sandusky was molesting and raping young boys. THEY are the ones with devastating injuries, no-one else. They deserved the NCAA 'death penalty' but didn't get it because they weren't alreay on sanction. They should count themselves lucky!
- Posted by prodigalrn
This is much much worse than the death penalty.
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