Penn State paid for Jerry Sandusky’s crimes in a major way when the NCAA handed down its penalties. Even after all this time, I still find the actions taken by the NCAA to be absurd and misplaced. Vacating Paterno’s wins from 1998 is no big deal; JoePa is dead. Forcing a $60 million fine to be given to charities of disadvantaged children can be a good thing. However, the dropping of scholarships from 85 to 65 means 20 fewer young men will have the chance to get a quality education and have an amazing opportunity to play BIGTEN football. 20 men, by the way, who had nothing to do with Jerry Sandusky. Finally, PSU will have a four year bowl ban, again, punishing those who had nothing to do with Sandusky, and many of whom may not even know who he is.
This doesn’t affect just football players. No bowl games and fewer scholarships means a diminished program which used to bring in $60 million a year to the university. That money betters not just the student athletes, but all students at the school. A diminished football season for four years hurts band members, cheerleaders, alumni, coaches, and almost forgotten: many local businesses. Hundreds, if not thousands of local small businesses thrive when they are so closely attached to a storied program like PSU, and a lot of their profits will be wiped away as a result.
The NCAA has overstepped its bounds by punishing future generations of students for the actions of a few on the football team’s coaching staff. It’s not the place for the NCAA to do the job of the judicial system in this country. The NCAA is here to level the playing field between schools, promote collegiate sports, and prevent cheating and rule violations. They are not there to do the job of the police. Put another way, if a football player is cheating the rules in a football game, he isn’t going to be arrested by the police, the NCAA will punish that player. If that same player had raped a girl, the NCAA wouldn’t arrest him, the police would.
When the NCAA throws a net so wide that it hurts everyone except those who were involved, it makes me scratch my head. The guilty parties are either in jail or dead. That should be the end of the story. Our justice system bends over backward to prevent anyone innocent from being prosecuted or sent to prison, but for some reason, people set that fact aside in this case. When people say, “Well, there had to be collateral damage,” the term “collateral damage” is ridiculous and doesn’t fit — there is no need for collateral damage when the guilty parties have been convicted!
Beyond the fact that I don’t believe the NCAA has the authority to pass judgements in cases like this because it was a criminal matter, and already dealt with by prosecutors and police, I don’t understand where the public gets its jollies from punishing those who are not guilty. Where does that mentality come from?
If one of my neighbors committed murder, I certainly wouldn’t want my entire city block put in jail and punished for the actions of one person. I certainly wouldn’t want the murderer to have a whipping boy who receives the judgment. If a history professor was also a campus raper, should the entire history department be reprimanded? Should scholarships for history majors be revoked to “help end the culture of rape” in the school of liberal arts? Of course not. Yet, the public feels satisfied to see so many outside the PSU football program be “cut down to size,” to, “teach them a lesson.” Is that what the standard of justice is? Does that attitude help us sleep better at night? If so, that is a really sad reality. To all who feel they do sleep better now, it’s time to wake up. Until then, sweet dreams.