My Thoughts on the NCAA Sanctions on Penn State

I am very happy with what the NCAA did for the punishments, and for those who may not know what they are here they are:

1.)    $60 million dollar fine that will for: "external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university." (http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8191027/penn-state-hit-60-million-fine-4-year-bowl-ban-wins-dating-1998)

2.)    Four year bowl and post season ban on the football team

3.)    The amount of scholarships will be reduced over the next four years

4.)    The wins, including six bowl games and two conference championships will be erased from the years 1998 to 2011, Paterno goes from 1^st all-time of NCAA football wins to twelfth (he loses 112 wins) (http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8191027/penn-state-hit-60-million-fine-4-year-bowl-ban-wins-dating-1998)

I agree with all of these punishments, however I wish the NCAA had made the death penalty as part of the punishment (it had been talked about, and four years was the highest number thrown around).  Before I dive into that again, I want to point out that the fine that will be used to help the victims of child sex abuse and also to prevent it from happening is my favorite sanction.  I am glad that no tax dollars will be used for the fine, because it should not be put upon tax payers.  Another great part of the sanctions is that any Penn State player can transfer to another school and play without having a year off (which is a NCAA rule).  The students should not be punished for wanting to leave because now they cannot play in bowl games.

Back to the death penalty issue, I still think a death penalty should have been imposed.  If SMU had a year off for paying players then Penn State should have had at least four for allowing boys to be raped and then letting Sandusky to still use the facilities after he retired to continue to harm young boys.  I do not care if the sanctions already imposed are great in of itself, because they are, but the team and school had knowledge this was going on fourteen years ago, and yet it took thirteen for this to be discovered.  The Penn State police department just told him to stop when he admitted that he had in fact sexually abused a little boy (it was a Penn State PD detective). 

While I am angered that the death penalty was not part of the punishment, however I think that the NCAA needs to know that a death penalty should be used, I plan on writing a letter to the NCAA and tell them the death penalty needs to be used.  I urge the same of my fellow readers.

Not only is the school tarnished, but so is Joe Paterno, just because the media has shamed Sandusky, Paterno, and Penn State does not mean that the school does not mean that the school has suffered enough.  I feel for the students and teachers that had no involvement, but for those who worked at the school and knew this was going on, shame on you for allowing this to happen.  I hope that anyone who was involved that has not been fired, arrested, or punished in any sort of way is in some form. 

I truly do not believe any sanctions will ever take away what happened at Penn State for all of those years that Jerry hurt innocent young boys.  I think the schools football plan will suffer, because I know for a fact that when I see Penn State on TV playing football I will not forget what has come to light. 

Some say that the death penalty will set the team back for years to come, personally I think this incident will do that for itself, not to mention the four year bowl game and post season ban.  That does not change how I feel, because the death penalty should be used.   As I have said before many times, if SMU got the death penalty for one year (they took another year off on their own) for paying players then Penn State deserves much more then they got as sanctions from the NCAA. 

Here is a link with all the information to contact the NCAA:

http://www.ncaa.org/wps/wcm/connect/public/NCAA/Home/Contact+the+NCAA