PSU fans- be angry at Sandusky, Paterno, Spanier, Curley and the others that stayed mum (and worse) and grinned as Paterno received commendation over the last 15 years.
This is not the death penalty, but one of Dan Patrick's staff is calling it the "Walking Dead Penalty"...and I like the terminology. In spite of declarations of loyalty by current PSU players, I'd think that many might re-think the way they handle the next few years of their life and where they spend them. Most of these guys who I've heard speak/tweet thought of themselves as truly elite athletes. Not having any opportunity to compete for championships changes a lot.
The ramifications on PSU's recruiting will be massive. Think for a moment about Purdue's Mollenkopf facility- bowl banners, photos of Tiller, Burtnett, Young and Mollenkopf are throughout the entrance of the facility...and their attachment to big rivalry wins, bowl wins and national recognition define the program. If Purdue had to remove all of the remnants of Tiller, Burtnett, Young and part of Mollenkopf's best seasons, what would Purdue's program hang its proverbial hat upon? No history...no legacy...just a void.
PSU will be dealing with exactly that scenario. 45-plus years of definitive wins really can't/won't be talked about to recruits and their families.
We'll see what the B1G does in :15 minutes.
Addendum: The B1G fines PSU an estimated $13million over four years- their share of bowl revenue in addition to the $60million the NCAA has already leveed. Not surprisingly, PSU will not be able to play in the football conference championship over the next four years.
Along with aOSU's punishment, that means the Leaders Division is a four team race in '12, and a five-team race in the ensuing three seasons.
According to the Chairman of B1G Presidents, Sally Mason, the conference never discussed removing PSU from the conference.
According to Delany, PSU players will be able to transfer within the conference and still receive scholarship.
10 comments:
Too bad JoPa didn't live to see these past 2 days! All that he protected is being bulldozed, as it should be.
Regarding the division races for the next year, I felt this was appropriate...
The trustees are all up in arms now about this punishment, saying they weren't consulted... weren't they part of the problem to begin with?
I am as disgusted as the next guy at this. But, with family members who own a restaurant in that area, I do feel for the restaurant owners and employees, hotel owners, business owners, etc who will be inevitably hurt in the collateral damage...
Anon- they probably will be hurt by this...but from what the EsPN ticker is saying, this could have been much worse.
I think the pain is part of the punishment (of course it's not possible to punish only the people involved and not affect anyone else) ... the idea being that if the next set of bigwigs thinks about preserving their skins rather than doing the right thing, public pressure, in general, will be to do the right thing and not screw up the restaurant trade for the next four years.
This probably isn't going to affect things too much; I don't know for sure, and without better knowledge of the area, I could certainly be wrong. I'm just basing my guess on the fact that Penn State won't miss any home games, and I don't believe attendance is driven by performance as much as it is at Purdue.
It could also turn out that other people who suffer end up blaming the NCAA rather than the jerks who protected a rapist. There's not much you can do about that - someone will be pissed no matter what you do.
Poll question idea... Purdue plays Penn State for the next five years in a row. How many of those will be wins vs. losses?
I say Purdue goes 2-3 against PSU despite all the sanctions.
I think PSU will still field a good team next year. After that? Train wreck for 3 to 5 years. Three more under sanctions, then rebuilding. I think we loose next year, then take the following three. After that, who knows.
So, more news today ... apparently the NCAA had a four-year death penalty in one hand and said "or would you rather sign this paper and accept what we have in the other?"
Also, pretty much every I-A team is recruiting Penn State heavily, or so they say. That could change things significantly over the next year or two, especially because they won't count against anyone's scholarship cap.
If enough guys decide to go somewhere else, O'Brien might be fielding a MAC-level team this year. Ordinarily I'd say that'll give Purdue a couple of easy wins, but Purdue under Hope isn't the kind of team that consistently blows out underdogs. A crippled PSU team, especially at home, can still give the Boilers fits.
I think they'll go 3-2 against PSU: split the first pair because aaaaargh, win the next two as lack of scholarship depth begins to wear on Penn State, and then lose the last one as the next coach manages to get some talented walk-ons who can hang around for scholarships after that. (I can't see O'Brien lasting through this. It will be a grind, dealing with the constant hostility toward the NCAA at home and what I expect will be constant hostility from everyone else on the road.)
If you've checked out the PSU message boards, the Nut Cases are out in force. Really makes Penn State appear worse than Bobby Knight fans.
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