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Monday, July 23, 2012

The Effects of the NCAA Sanctions on Penn State Football

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Picture with Joe Pa days before his removal.
Sunday marked one of the saddest days in Penn State history, as alumni and students surrounded the tarp-covered fences that surrounded what once held the symbolic statue of Joe Paterno.  Sure, Joe made some terrible mistakes and should have done more to stop Jerry Sandusky (who will rightfully spend the rest of his life behind bars), but he was the spirit and light of Penn State.  He was a man that brought scholars and athletes together and supported academics as much as he supported the football team itself.  Joe set some amazing records and should be held in college football history forever.

But forever ended today, as the NCAA made an attempt to end Penn State football.  Today, they wiped fourteen years of Penn State football from their records.  Personally, I do not see how this will prevent child abuse.  For those that believe that Joe Paterno should be removed from football history because he knew about Sandusky’s crimes, should the hundreds of students that were involved in this program watch their scores go to dust?  Neither Jerry Sandusky nor Joe Paterno actually scored a touchdown during their time as coaches.  It was the students that did the work.

In addition to destroying the records of former Penn State football players, the NCAA has announced that for four years, the football team will not be able to go to any postseason game.  FUTURE STUDENTS THAT HAVE NOT EVEN STEPPED ON THE CAMPUS YET ARE BEING PUNISHED FOR THE IDIOCY OF ONE DISGUSTING MAN!  How does this punish Jerry Sandusky, whom will be in prison, or Joe Paterno, who is not even alive?  Does the NCAA believe that punishing students will prevent child abuse?

In addition to erasing the records of many innocent alumni, the NCAA has fined Penn State $60 million.  Those knowledgeable of economics will be able to figure out what this means.  When it costs a company more to make its product, the consumer will pay the difference, not the company.  Penn State tuition is already exceedingly high for a public school at $28,066 for out-of-state students.  This does not even include boarding.  Tuition costs can only rise, and the NCAA are ensuring that they will.  

Perhaps one of the things that angers me the most is the fact that the NCAA ordered the loss of twenty scholarships per year for the next four years.  The cost of college is rising every year, and as I previously stated, Penn State is very expensive for a public college.  Through this ruling, the NCAA is simply making more victims of Jerry Sandusky, as future students’ lives are destroyed because they cannot afford to attend Penn State.

To make these sanctions even worse, keep in mind that the NCAA president actually appointed Graham Spanier, former Penn State president, whom received no punishment for not reporting the child abuse conducted by Jerry Sandusky.

In addition to this, the NCAA removed 111 of Joe Paterno’s 112 winning games as head coach from their records, but only removed 19 of the 309 wins that Jerry Sandusky received while he was directly involved with the team as a coach.

A survey on LA Times shows just how negatively people are reacting to this issue.  The child abuse conducted by Jerry Sandusky was an extremely terrible crime, but these people want suffering for Penn State.  At the time of writing this, 835 of 2,069 people that took this survey (http://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-penn-state-sanctions-poll-20120723,0,5104942.story
said that penalties were too light.  This is approximately 40 percent!  These people may have not even stepped on the campus or known any students that went there.

I had the honor of visiting Penn State earlier this year.  It was after the Jerry Sandusky allegations were made public, but students continued to have spirit in the school, as if it was a place where nothing bad happened.  As I toured the campus, the words “WE ARE” rang throughout the campus.  Penn State students have a relationship with their school that is incomparable to any other and for this reason, it is one of the schools that I am considering for my secondary education.  While the NCAA and many other organizations are trying to kill the beloved campus of Penn Staters because of one insane man, the students are becoming closer than ever.

Feel free to share your opinion of the NCAA’s rulings in the comment section below.


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