Two years after handing down sweeping sanctions against Penn State’s football team, the NCAA relented on many of the restrictions on Monday (September 8). The penalties — imposed following a sexual abuse scandal that rocked the football program — were initially supposed to last for four years, but were lifted two years early.
In addition to a ban on postseason play and loss of scholarships, Penn State was ordered to pay $60 million — said to be as much revenue as the football program pulls in annually — to “external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims.” That money was supposed to go into an NCAA endowment, but on Monday, the athletic association announced that it would be redirected to a Pennsylvania endowment, overseen by the state.
Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach at Penn State for three decades, was convicted In 2012 of sexually assaulting 10 boys; the 70-year-old was found guilty on 45 counts. He was sentenced to 30 to 60 years behind bars.
Just a month later, the NCAA handed down sweeping sanctions against Penn State’s football team. But by Monday, they had reversed course.
So, why is the NCAA changing its tune now?
For one, those directly involved in the sexual abuse scandal have since been dismissed by the school, and Penn State has shown “progress toward ensuring its athletics department functions with integrity,” as the NCAA put it. Those factors may have contributed to the NCAA easing their sanctions.
And it’s true, those involved are no longer at the university. It wasn’t just Sandusky who was at fault — multiple officials turned a blind eye to what was going on at the university. An internal Penn State review from 2012 found that:
In order to avoid the consequences of bad publicity, the most powerful leaders at the University — [President Graham B.] Spanier, [Senior Vice President-Finance and Business Gary C.] Schultz, [Head Football Coach Joseph V.] Paterno and [Athletic Director Timothy M.] Curley — repeatedly concealed critical facts relating to Sandusky’s child abuse from the authorities, the University’s Board of Trustees, the Penn State community, and the public at large. The avoidance of the consequences of bad publicity is the most significant, but not the only, cause for this failure to protect child victims and report to authorities.
Paterno was the school’s head coach for an astounding 45 years and had become an institution himself; a seemingly untouchable commodity. He was fired in 2011, shortly after news of the allegations broke. He died the next year. All of his wins from 1998-2011 have been vacated by the NCAA.
Spanier was forced to resign and is awaiting trial. Schulz and Curley both resigned in November 2011, days before Paterno was fired, and now are awaiting trial on multiple charges, including failure to report abuse and child endangerment.
So, yes, those culpable are no longer employed by Penn State and are facing criminal trouble.
There’s one major thing that hasn’t changed though. And it probably wouldn’t have changed had the penalties remained for the next two years as planned: Our amateur athletes (particularly football players) are lionized, and football programs are given and give passes for behavior that would otherwise be unacceptable. That’s something far more deeply ingrained in our society, and it’s symbolic of a college football culture that turns a blind eye to to reprehensible behavior for the sake of the program.
And what results, then, is what happened at Penn State. At Florida State, where a city and university completely dropped the ball on a rape investigation of a star football player — because that football player had the talent to win the Heisman Trophy and lead that school to a national championship (and did). At the University of Montana, where football players accused of rape were “allowed to get away with anything” and treated like “gods.” What results is the suicide of Lizzy Seeberg, a St. Mary’s student who was pressured by teammates of a Notre Dame football player to not report a rape. What results is what happened in New Mexico, with a mishandled rape investigation of a football player. What results is too many cases like these.
But, hey, that’s what happens when the highest paid public (read: government) employee in 40 out of 50 states is either a college football or basketball coach. It’s what happens when small towns and cities place such enormous value on their local amateur teams, turning high school and college kids into local celebrities.
In 2012, former FBI Director Louis Freeh spent months investigating what had gone on at Penn State, and found that there was a “culture of reverence for the football program that is ingrained at all levels of the campus community.”
In many ways, that’s to be expected. But that reverence could probably often be classified as obsession. And until we’re able to put the lives, well-being and safety of our young people ahead of protecting and championing amateur athletics, it’s hard to believe that any sanctions — no matter how great or long-lasting — will create the necessary impact.
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