Yesterday, the NCAA announced its punishment for Penn State, based on the findings from the Freeh Report that they grossly mishandled the JERRY SANDUSKY child sex abuse scandal for more than a decade.
--The NCAA did NOT impose the "Death Penalty," which would've meant banning the school from competing in football for a year.
--The only football program that's received that penalty was Southern Methodist University in the late '80s, and they've never really recovered. That "death penalty" was handed out after the NCAA found evidence SMU was paying its players.
--Instead, here are the penalties they levied on Penn State . . .
--A $60 MILLION fine, which will go toward a fund for victims of sexual abuse. That money is about the equivalent of one year of football revenue.
--A four-year ban from competing in any bowl games.
--A reduction of scholarships from 25 per year to 15 per year for the next four years. That's looked at as a significant hindrance in their recruiting process.
--Any current players or committed recruits are allowed to transfer immediately. Normally NCAA rules make a player sit out one year when they transfer, but all Penn State transfers can skip that and play somewhere else immediately.
--And finally, all of their victories from 1998 through 2011 have been vacated. That moves JOE PATERNO from 409 career wins to 298, which drops him from first place on the all-time list to 12th place.
--ESPN's Big Ten blogger says that the financial aspects of this punishment won't cripple Penn State, and the vacated victories are really just symbolic. But the transfer rules and reduced scholarships COULD significantly impact the program.
--They won't be able to have a roster made up entirely of scholarship players until 2018 . . . so it could take until after 2020 for Penn State to be a football power again. Not that any of that will make Sandusky's victims sleep better.
