PSU Sanctions

[Hawk]

I can't fault any football player that wants to leave Penn State.
The punishment Penn Sate received is something that isn't going to change.
Coach O'Brian deserves a huge amount of Kudos and support because he knew something like this could / would happen and he STILL took the job !
Go Penn State !

[lonewolf]

'Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, accused of covering up sexual abuse allegations in Jerry Sandusky case, lands security job with federal government'

http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ss ... nt_gr.html

I am really biting my tongue here. I mean seriously biting it..

I feel alot safer now

Spanier is an ivory-tower liberal with absolutely no background in security issues....except maybe for hiding PSU officials' salaries, amongst other things. He is a perfect candidate for a security position in the Obama administration.

[Hawk]

'Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, accused of covering up sexual abuse allegations in Jerry Sandusky case, lands security job with federal government'

http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ss ... nt_gr.html

I am really biting my tongue here. I mean seriously biting it..

I feel alot safer now

Spanier is an ivory-tower liberal with absolutely no background in security issues....except maybe for hiding PSU officials' salaries, amongst other things. He is a perfect candidate for a security position in the Obama administration.

Gee, you completely changed my mind about all of politics... I'm sure you have everyone on your political side...

So you have no need to post political crap any more...

[RobTheDrummer]

I wouldn't say it's a political post, he's just saying dude landed a national security gig, and uh, he couldn't even protect kids on his campus. Ivory tower liberal- just a fact. And yes, the Obama admin is the current admin- another fact. He didn't go after your throat Bill, relax brother!

[songsmith]

My current opinion is that my opinion will change nothing about this story.
I simply feel grief and loss for everyone involved, except Sandusky. I'm especially grieving that the saddest story in all of sports history, any sport ever, happened 30 miles away, and one man's depravity caused so much destruction.
It's still a good school. The players still worked hard towards their goals. What was going to build their resumes will now be omitted.

I think the NCAA should get the death penalty. All of the NCAA. They created a cash cow that brings in billions of dollars, on the backs of students who aren't allowed to receive anything but Nike swag. They figured out a way to make unpaid slaves compete against one another, for the enjoyment of the masses, like Rome. Well, Rome fell, and so must the NCAA. Kids will still play sports, we don't need suits involved in it.

[Banned]

No school is forced to play in NCAA events. No student if forced to take those scholarships. A four year scholarship which includes tuition, and room and board is probably worth in excess of $60,000, which is certainly more than nothing.

Most schools offer club sports (I believe rugby is currently a club level sport at PSU) and a large variety and competition levels of intramural sports. If those students really need to get their athletic on, they do not need NCAA sanctioned events.

[Jim Price]

+1 songsmith

[lonewolf]

Gee, you completely changed my mind about all of politics... I'm sure you have everyone on your political side...

So you have no need to post political crap any more...

I was working there when they hired him...the PSU motto went from "EXCELLENCE" to "DIVERSITY". You can get excellence from excellence, but who knows what you'll get from diversity or the policies that follow it.

I saw 1st hand as an employee and as a student how the school changed for the worse under his tenure. What was once a low-tuition school that low-income Pennsylvanians could afford to get a quality education (as it was intended) has become a high-tuition school more interested in research grants and the highly paid professors who can bag them.

Besides Bill, I will post whatever the hell I want about "public figures" and if you don't like it, you can either rebut or you can go pound sand.

[bassist_25]

What was once a low-tuition school that low-income Pennsylvanians could afford to get a quality education (as it was intended) has become a high-tuition school more interested in research grants and the highly paid professors who can bag them.

Research-oriented universities aren't always the best places to seek undergraduate education, unless you want the prestige of the name on the diploma and to have your lectures delivered to you by graduate assistants. I wasn't around when Penn State was the low-cost, teaching-oriented university that you remember. Personally, though, I'm not as concerned, since Pennsylvanians have fourteen other reasonably-priced, teaching-oriented four-year institutions from which to choose - some of them even having high quality graduate programs. So I think having a respectable research university in our state is a good thing.

Of course, I'm not sure how much longer PASSHE universities are going to be affordable to the working class, first-generation college student crowd. But that's definitely opening up the politics can of worms.

[lonewolf]

What was once a low-tuition school that low-income Pennsylvanians could afford to get a quality education (as it was intended) has become a high-tuition school more interested in research grants and the highly paid professors who can bag them.

Research-oriented universities aren't always the best places to seek undergraduate education, unless you want the prestige of the name on the diploma and to have your lectures delivered to you by graduate assistants. I wasn't around when Penn State was the low-cost, teaching-oriented university that you remember. Personally, though, I'm not as concerned, since Pennsylvanians have fourteen other reasonably-priced, teaching-oriented four-year institutions from which to choose - some of them even having high quality graduate programs. So I think having a respectable research university in our state is a good thing.

Of course, I'm not sure how much longer PASSHE universities are going to be affordable to the working class, first-generation college student crowd. But that's definitely opening up the politics can of worms.

PASSHE is woefully inadequate for the needs of modern society. While they may be great schools, there is not an engineering college amongst them. Aside from a few science & technology majors, these schools are almost exclusively liberal arts, education and general science schools. I didn't realize that 3 colleges constituted a university.

[Hawk]

Gee, you completely changed my mind about all of politics... I'm sure you have everyone on your political side...

So you have no need to post political crap any more...

I was working there when they hired him...the PSU motto went from "EXCELLENCE" to "DIVERSITY". You can get excellence from excellence, but who knows what you'll get from diversity or the policies that follow it.

I saw 1st hand as an employee and as a student how the school changed for the worse under his tenure. What was once a low-tuition school that low-income Pennsylvanians could afford to get a quality education (as it was intended) has become a high-tuition school more interested in research grants and the highly paid professors who can bag them.

Besides Bill, I will post whatever the hell I want about "public figures" and if you don't like it, you can either rebut or you can go pound sand.

I don't doubt what you say relative to your experience with him in THIS post, but I recognised bait when I saw it in the post I responded to. And equally, I will call you a troll when I see you trolling.

[Jim Price]

A Freeh Report insider criticizes the NCAA's use of the report in punishing PSU:

http://chronicle.com/article/Freeh-Grou ... es/133213/

[bassist_25]

PASSHE is woefully inadequate for the needs of modern society. While they may be great schools, there is not an engineering college amongst them. Aside from a few science & technology majors, these schools are almost exclusively liberal arts, education and general science schools. I didn't realize that 3 colleges constituted a university.

While they are slanted more towards the liberal arts side of things, they aren't Berkley or the New School. The emphasis is creating paraprofessionals. While not having its own engineering school, for example, Lock Haven does have a 3-2 engineering program (as well as its own physician's assistant program).

If you want high level science, then you need the high dollar programs with the high-level graduate students and post-docs, which means an emphasis on research and grant money, which takes us back to the original issue; you can't have your cake and eat it too on this one.

[lonewolf]

PASSHE is woefully inadequate for the needs of modern society. While they may be great schools, there is not an engineering college amongst them. Aside from a few science & technology majors, these schools are almost exclusively liberal arts, education and general science schools. I didn't realize that 3 colleges constituted a university.

While they are slanted more towards the liberal arts side of things, they aren't Berkley or the New School. The emphasis is creating paraprofessionals. While not having its own engineering school, for example, Lock Haven does have a 3-2 engineering program (as well as its own physician's assistant program).

If you want high level science, then you need the high dollar programs with the high-level graduate students and post-docs, which means an emphasis on research and grant money, which takes us back to the original issue; you can't have your cake and eat it too on this one.

Yes, I saw Lock Haven's 3-2 program...it requires the final two years at *clears throat* Pennstate or Maryland. You may as well just do a 2-2 program at pennstate and save a year. A college of engineering has no need for "high dollar programs". Some equipment & labs, perhaps a graduate program or two. A little research doesn't hurt, but in the final analysis, engineering is just another field of study that can be taught at the undergraduate level by qualified professors. I don't know what gave you the impression that it was anything else.

[lonewolf]

A Freeh Report insider criticizes the NCAA's use of the report in punishing PSU:

http://chronicle.com/article/Freeh-Grou ... es/133213/

Thanks Jim. Google "pennstate scandal" and I doubt this would even get listed.

Do you suppose that this is the beginning of round 2: "hindsight is 20/20"?

[f.sciarrillo]

My current opinion is that my opinion will change nothing about this story.
I simply feel grief and loss for everyone involved, except Sandusky. I'm especially grieving that the saddest story in all of sports history, any sport ever, happened 30 miles away, and one man's depravity caused so much destruction.
It's still a good school. The players still worked hard towards their goals. What was going to build their resumes will now be omitted.

I think the NCAA should get the death penalty. All of the NCAA. They created a cash cow that brings in billions of dollars, on the backs of students who aren't allowed to receive anything but Nike swag. They figured out a way to make unpaid slaves compete against one another, for the enjoyment of the masses, like Rome. Well, Rome fell, and so must the NCAA. Kids will still play sports, we don't need suits involved in it.

O.k, hold on to your seats - I agree Johnny. Except for the unpaid slaves part. But other than that, good post.

[f.sciarrillo]

'Legal experts say according to the NCAA constitution, the association may've violated its procedures when it delivered tough sanctions against Penn State Monday.'

http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=388502

[onegunguitar]

'Legal experts say according to the NCAA constitution, the association may've violated its procedures when it delivered tough sanctions against Penn State Monday.'

http://wearecentralpa.com/fulltext-news?nxd_id=388502

It was so nice to see the PSU administration just accept the sanctions against them from the NCAA....way to take a stand for the current student body. Let's punish the kids that are there now that had nothing to do with all this bullshit....

[Banned]

PSU can ignore the fine and sanctions and drop out of the NCAA. No one is forcing them to stay.

[StumbleFingers]

Why was the NCAA in such a rush to punish PSU anyway? It all happened so quickly. Was there really a compelling need to rush through it?

[Banned]

Nothing is resolved. Sandusky, Paterno, Penn State, the jackhammered statue, the Freeh report, the NCAA sanctions -- all of it rushed, unfinished, provisional. The Grand Experiment fails and the race to forget begins. The contract extension kicks in, the civil suits line up, the opportunists circle the parking lots, and we're talking about money and Hawaii and which players stay and which players go as if it were all over. Tim Curley and Gary Schultz don't have trial dates yet. Jerry Sandusky hasn't even been sentenced.

"It's time to punch back." All due respect coach, but are you out of your mind? The penalties fall and the punishments drop -- none of them even a week old -- and already the language rings defiant, as if there's been a persecution, an injustice done against Penn State football. Who are the real victims here? And who are the martyrs?

"We took a lot of punches. Penn State has taken a lot of punches over the last six months," Bill O'Brien said at Big Ten media day, "and it's time to punch back."


Against what? Against whom? Against the monster this program harbored for so long? Or do you mean to punch back against the critics and those who said maybe football was less important than atonement?

Where's the effort at reconciliation? The restoration of trust in your own community? Where's the contrition? Financial compensation, no matter how lavish, is not by itself restitution. Money alone heals no one.

Penn State missed the chance to voluntarily suspend football operations until it knew where it stood. Until it knew what happened and for how long and to whom. Instead it rushes into another season without knowing where the next accusation is coming from, or where the next investigation might lead. In the weeks and months and years ahead, how many more names will be read out in how many more courtrooms?

But no one need miss a single down of football.


Has a single plan been suggested for moral restoration? For spiritual restitution? Across hundreds of pages and scores of recommendations for lost scholarships and better bureaucratic checks and balances, neither Freeh nor the NCAA address the heart or the soul or the mission of the institution itself and what it might do to restore our faith in it.

Nearly every system of philosophy or religion has a mechanism for reconciliation. Atonement. Forgiveness. I keep waiting for any sign that anyone at Penn State understands this. If no one learns anything, it's as if all this misery has come and gone for nothing.

The sports press is complicit in this too, of course, all of us in the zombie media who keep using words like "incomprehensible" to describe what happened. To do so is to let ourselves off the hook. A big college football program covered up the serial rape of children in order to produce more big college football. There is a completely comprehensible truth here for anyone willing to look at it.

Beyond entertainment, the only real value in sports is in how they reveal essential human truths. In what we can learn about ourselves from all that metaphor and overblown poetry. Like so much of human art and science, sports are part of the search for decency.

If your local factory produced something that poisoned people and made them blind, you'd shut it down. We should hold our football factories to the same standard. All the arguments over Penn State and football and money are just that: arguments over money. The loss of Penn State football to the Pennsylvania economy has been detailed and inflated and retold again and again and again. Not yet answered is the one question worth asking:

What's the real price of a clear conscience?

http://espn.go.com/college-football/sto ... nciliation

[onegunguitar]

We get it Joe....you don't like Penn State.

[onegunguitar]

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2 ... n_ref_map=[]

[Banned]

We get it Joe....you don't like Penn State.

I didn't like the cult of personality that grew around a coach who had not won a national championship in 25 years. I feel he had lost his ability to run this great program about 15 years ago. He had so much power that no one at PSU even dared suggest that he step down.

The cult of personality encouraged the good ole boy mentality, and no one could even question a retired coach. If Jeopa had been asked to step down about 15 years ago, like most other organizations would have done, Sandusky would not been able to have gone on with his crimes.

[onegunguitar]

We get it Joe....you don't like Penn State.

I didn't like the cult of personality that grew around a coach who had not won a national championship in 25 years. I feel he had lost his ability to run this great program about 15 years ago. He had so much power that no one at PSU even dared suggest that he step down.

The cult of personality encouraged the good ole boy mentality, and no one could even question a retired coach. If Jeopa had been asked to step down about 15 years ago, like most other organizations would have done, Sandusky would not been able to have gone on with his crimes.

Well,you can believe what you want,even if Paterno stepped down 15 years ago,there's no guarantee Sandusky wouldn't have done the crimes he did. After all,he had access to just about anywhere on the campus-that was included in his retirement plan. And I'd have to say that ANY coach that has too much power in any college sport...that's the administrations fault for letting it get that way.