NCAA Guts Penn State's Prestige

The NCAA slapped the Nittany Lions with sanctions that will reverberate through College Station for the next four years and beyond. They gutted the revenue earned this year from the Penn State football program, banned the team from bowl games for the next four years, and "vacated" all wins from 1998 through 2011, effectively destroying the legacy of Joe Paterno, who is no longer the "winningest coach in history."

So the football team survives and players can play the game, but the prestige is gone along with Joe Pa's statue, and that's fitting. Why should a team and a university have bragging rights when the so-called "ethical" leaders were nothing but apologists and enablers for a serial child molester?

I find all of it very satisfying, since it puts the priorities of the university back where they should have been in the first place.

Penn Live

Penn State will be banned from bowl games for four years. It will lose 20 scholarships a year for four years. It will pay a $60 million fine -- a year's average gross annual revenue for the football program. That money will be used to fund programs to prevent child abuse. Penn State can't pay that fine with academic money or by cutting other athletic scholarships.

And the Nittany Lions 109 wins between 1998 and 2011 have been vacated. Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest Div. I football coach of all time.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said the NCAA crafted the punishment as a consent decree, which the university has signed. No appeal is expected.

The penalties are meant to carry a message, Emmert says. Big sports he said, have become too big to fail, and in some cases, too big to question.

At Penn State a Statue Falls

Penn State took down the statue of Joe Paterno this morning with little ceremony beyond the sound of jackhammers on a Sunday morning. They had the area cordoned off with barriers and blue tarps so little could be seen. The plaques of football players on the wall behind him were also removed, but his name will remain on the library. Now the town of College Station awaits tomorrow's announcement of possibly strict sanctions from the NCAA. For football fans and supporters of Paterno still in shock over the Sandusky scandal, it's hard to say which day will be the hardest.

Philadelphia Inquirer: Twitter Response to the Statue

Here’s iconic image of Paterno statue coming down. twitter.com/ClayTravisBGID…

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravisBGID) July 22, 2012

From Centre Daily News:

By 7:45 a.m. this morning, jackhammers rattled behind a metal fence covered by a blue tarp. The statue was tied to a forklift. The fence shielded the statue, covered in clear plastic and protective packaging materials.

The statue was removed at 8:24 a.m. The forklift carried it into the stadium's Gate A as about a dozen workers followed.

A moment later, a man in the crowd started a "We are Penn State" chant. After it finished, another man yelled, "We love you, Joe."

An hour later, Penn State workers began removing lettering and plaques from the wall behind where the statue stood.

From Huffington Post - Onlookers React

Many of those watching the removal stared in disbelief and at least one woman wept, while others expressed anger at the decision.

"I think it was an act of cowardice on the part of the university," Mary Trometter of Williamsport, who wore a shirt bearing Joe Paterno's image. She said she felt betrayed by university officials, saying they promised openness but said nothing about the decision until just before the removal work began.

. . . Derek Leonard, 31, a university construction project coordinator who grew up in the area, said the construction workers on the project told him it was like watching a funeral when the statue was lowered onto the truck and then rolled away. He didn't completely agree with the decision but worried more that the NCAA would shut down the football program.
"It's going to kill our town," he said.

Richard Hill, 67, West Chester, a Penn State alumnus, said, "If you punish the football program or Joe Paterno – they're tied together – this town is going to suffer. The revenue does an awful lot to keep this town viable and lively."

Colby Walk, 40, who grew up in the Penn State area, wondered why an NCAA punishment was necessary, given the criminal charges, officials fired or forced out, Paterno's death and now the statue's removal.
"It's kind like we already have the death penalty," he said, referring to the worry that the NCAA would shut down the Penn State football program.