On Monday, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) announced that Penn State University would be charged a $60 million fine for its role in the cover-up of the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal. The announcement comes as the association spent days reviewing the Freeh report, an FBI investigation report that revealed top university officials including the head football coach, Joe Paterno and Athletic Director Tim Curly involved in obscuring former PSU assistant football coach Sandusky in various child sex-abuse allegations.
In addition to the huge fine, the NCAA is taking away all Paterno wins since 1998 and slapping the university with a four year post football season ban. In addition, the NCAA grants any current player at PSU to transfer immediately and become eligible to play anywhere else.
The punishment will obviously affect the University, not just in terms of the finances, but in weakening the once celebrated football program as well as cause irreparable damages to the university reputation.
Mark Emmert, President of NCAA, said, "In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable...No price the NCAA can levy with repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims," according to ESPN.com
Initially there was speculation whether the NCAA would slap the university football program with the "death penalty" i.e. an indefinite suspension, the organization has handed down the sentence only one time in its 106-year existence to the Southern Methodist University in a case that dealt with giving players impermissible benefits. However, Emert says, "This is as systemic a cultural problem as it is a football problem...There have been people that have said, 'Well, this isn't a football scandal.' Well, it was more than a football scandal, much more than a football scandal. We'll have to figure out exactly what the right penalties are. I don't know that past precedent makes particularly good sense in this case because it's really an unprecedented problem," as reported by the Central Daily.
The report released earlier this month, implicated PSU Head Coach Joe Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curly, the University President Graham Spanier, and Vice President Gary Schultz in a cover-up of various incidents in which the 68-year-old Sandusky was accused of inappropriate sexual behavior with young boys. him inappropriately.
The 267 page report was formed over seven months of investigation, more than 400 interviews, and a review of over 3.5 million documents by former FBI director Louis Freeh.
Last month a jury of seven women and five men found the 68 year-old guilty of 45 out of the 48 counts against him for sexual abuse of ten young boys over a span of 15 years. Sandusky, 68, is currently in Centre County prison awaiting his sentencing, which is scheduled to be held in about 90 days. He could face a maximum sentence of 373 years.
