Penn State gets $60 million fine; Paterno wins vacated
Workers remove the statue of Joe Paterno from outside Beaver Stadium Sunday. (AP Photo/Centre Daily Times, Christopher Weddle)
The NCAA on Monday imposed severe sanctions against Penn State in the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal but stopped short of imposing the “death penalty.”
NCAA President Mark Emmert said the penalties would include a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban, a reduction in football scholarships from 25 to 15 for four years and the vacating of all victories from 1998 to 2011. Football scholarships will be capped at 65, 20 fewer than the normal 85.
Emmert also said that any Penn State athlete who wants to transfer to another school can do so and be eligible to play immediately.
Emmert, speaking at a news conference at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, said the $60 million fine equals one year’s revenues for the Penn State football program.
“These funds must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university,” the NCAA said in statement.
Emmert said the penalties are in response to “an athletic structure that went horribly awry” but acknowledged that no penalty could undo “the tragic damage that has been done to the victims and their families.”
Penn State officials said they would not challenge the penalties.
“Against this backdrop, Penn State accepts the penalties and corrective actions announced today by the NCAA,” Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement. “With today’s announcement and the action it requires of us, the University takes a significant step forward.”
The NCAA’s action comes less than two weeks after a report from former FBI director Louis Freeh found the late Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials covered up years of sexual abuse of young boys by Sandusky, the Nitanny Lions’ former defensive coordinator.
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229 comments Add your comment
ed
July 23rd, 2012
11:00 am
How many college teams are flying coaches out or making calls as we type?
Artie
July 23rd, 2012
11:01 am
What they got was about right.
GFY
July 23rd, 2012
11:01 am
Hey Suckey:
Too bad for the football players having to suffer with a bowl ban……they still have their scholarship and they are in school to receive an education, correct? Think about the real victims before you spout off about the football players being hurt.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:04 am
Somebody told me that Joe Paterno’s final words before he had to fake his death and sneak out of that hospital dressed as a woman (ugly-style) were: “Jerry & Those D – - n Kids!”
I don’t know that for sure, but that is what I heard.
brad
July 23rd, 2012
11:06 am
Heard from the voices in your head.
Samantha
July 23rd, 2012
11:07 am
Because of all of the KNOWN child molestation..Penn State should lose ALL financial aid and their accreditation! It is sick how people knew what was going on and nobody said a word.
Dee
July 23rd, 2012
11:07 am
Who cares which team has won the most games???????????????????????????????? How can the victims receive help for the YEARSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS of institutionalized rape???…….I pray that the young men will find it in their hearts to forgive at some point.
Big Crimson 75
July 23rd, 2012
11:07 am
Penn St deserves receiving these harsh penalties. They deserve the harshest penalties since the Pony Express. Paterno knew He had a Monster on his staff & decided to turn the other cheek.(sorry)
These penalties will set Penn St back a minimum of 10 yrs.
SMU has still not over-come their penalties from 25+ yrs ago.
The NC2A no longer uses the term “death penalty”, however this is it for Penn St.
Next up for the NC2A is the U. The U will likely get something similar to Penn St minus the $60mil fine. Miami will probably lose 10 scholly’s per season over the next 4 or 5 yrs plus a minimum 3 yr Bowl Ban.
On a personal note, I hope Bobby Bowden will rightfully re-claim the title of winning-est College Football Coach, unless of course someone has something on Mickey Andrews!!
Every game Paterno won with Sandusky on the staff should be vacated.
Dee
July 23rd, 2012
11:08 am
Are championship teams more valuable than humans? God HELP our twisted society……
Paddy
July 23rd, 2012
11:09 am
Tdawg……the NCAA is not over-stepping their bounds. They are chartered to do just what they did today. And no, PSU will never go into civil court to fight the NCAA on this. If the new presdent of PSU ever mentions a lawsuit against the NCAA, it will be his last day on the job. The Board of Regents are fed up with this mess and want it behind them. The will hide in their holes and hope they can win a couple games in 2023.
BamaDawg
July 23rd, 2012
11:11 am
Some interesting point to this sad situation:
- Southern Cal has demonstrated that having scholarships reduced to 15 doesn’t necessarily mean the program is doomed
- As of today, Penn State currently has more in-state top 10 players committed than UGA has in Georgia…wonder if it will stay that way?
UA80
July 23rd, 2012
11:12 am
Statue Truth: You’re dead on. Wish my alma mater had not erected a statue of Saban.
Big Crimson 75
July 23rd, 2012
11:16 am
TechRon — I’m no NCAA fan, but they had no choice.
You have to make a statement. At the end of the day, it’s Penn St U that has to suffer for the wrong-doings of their DC & HC(for being part of a cover up).
What happened @ Penn St cannot be tolerated — a quick decisive strike had to come down.
Often times with NCAA sanctions, the ones that are guilty are long gone when the punishment comes.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:17 am
Coach Mark Richt used to work for me, but he’ll get fired at UGA long before he ever gets close to my coaching record.
Tucker
July 23rd, 2012
11:19 am
If the NCAA is now in the business of penalizing universities for covering up criminal activities, the whole drug use by athletes issue should keep the NCAA busy and cut down on the number of teams eligible for the new football playoff series.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:20 am
Will Coach Saban have to fake his own death as well before all the scandals during his time at Bama come to light, or will he have moved on to the Texas Longhorns by then?
Bowden vs Bear
July 23rd, 2012
11:22 am
Seasons: Bowden 33. Bear 26
National Championships: Bear 6, Bowden 2
Conf Championships: Bear 14, Bowden 12
Sept 1989, Bowden can go to SEC or ACC. It is his call. What did the spineless S&** do? Check FSU vs ACC and FSU vs SEC prior to 89.
Bear had better results in shorter time period in tougher conference. Oh, Bowden had a losing record to EVERY CANE coach with a winning record (5)
Moot Point
July 23rd, 2012
11:23 am
Larry/sorrynot – Standing ovation!!!!!!!!! Your comments are so true.
pbt dawg fan
July 23rd, 2012
11:23 am
AuqaGirl
This is not about ‘what about the football players” this is about punishing people that was elementary school when all this happen. Not only are the Football players being punish, the fans, students (incoming and present) teachers, business onwers (who generate reveune from saturday football games) are also being punish. Building on Penn State campus are built because football, funds for program on Penn State are generate because of Football. Should ever college program be punish for the act of a Few. What Jerry Sandusky did does not Define Penn State, but some people want to make Penn State out to be a bad place. But Its not. Joe Pa didn’t just do some good things for Penn State. HE MADE PENN STATE. Pleas allow the Penn State community to heal.
pbt dawg fan
July 23rd, 2012
11:29 am
@ bowden vs Bear
Bowdon had to build a program from rock bottom. Bama was already good when Bear got to Bama. Bowdon and Bryant kinda coach in different times when Bowdon was coming in Bear was going out. Bear had some bad record against some teams also. Check bear bryant record against Notre Dame.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:33 am
Enter your comments here
UA80
July 23rd, 2012
11:33 am
They were both great coaches. It’s not a mutually exclusive proposition.
Atlantan
July 23rd, 2012
11:34 am
No Death Penalty – they got away with it! AJ Greene missed more games due to a jersey than anyone on Penn State will miss. Heck GT had a championship vacated due to nonsense and lost schollys.
The NCAA only cares about money in the end….
Bowden vs Bear
July 23rd, 2012
11:35 am
pbt you conveniently missed the part about Bowden choosing to go the ACC vs SEC. And Bowden had 6 more seasons to get the program built.
Oh, Bowden had a 40% success rate in NC games. I’m sure the Bears was much better. No way the coaches compare.
Aquagirl
July 23rd, 2012
11:41 am
Pleas allow the Penn State community to heal.
A great way to heal is to stop worshiping football. This school, from the president on down, took their game too seriously. There was too much at stake to upset all those things you list, like construction of buildings and other programs. There was too much money, too much momentum, and too much identity wrapped up in football to let a possible scandal out of the bag.
People who cry “it’s too big to fail” don’t get that.
Students can go study or do a billion other things.
Coaches can get jobs at other universities, or God forbid, get a real job.
Business owners can adjust, it’s not like all those students would sit in their dorms all weekend.
Players can transfer or God forbid, stop playing football.
I know that last one is what really brings the howls because some of y’all can’t imagine anything worse. IT’S A GAME. Being denied a chance to play football is so unthinkable y’all freak out over unwarranted “punishment.”
That alone tells you why those running the program decided kids took second place to people with twisted priorities like yours, who say football must continue because it’s too important to stop.
And as far as Joe Paterno….well, you’re only supposed to say good things about the dead. He’s dead. Good.
Bowden vs Bear
July 23rd, 2012
11:44 am
Paterno. Prior to 88, his teams finished in the 5 eleven times.
After 88, 3 times but Penn State refused to let him go. Why? The all time record. Let’s take a moment to laugh. We are…..Penn State!
Also a PSU Alum
July 23rd, 2012
11:47 am
@ PSU Alum – You’re right, he was not a coach at the time. He was just treated as if he was, with all the privileges and access to the facilities to inflict his damage on kids. You compare this to a program being punished for a player’s DUI. Penn State and the football program are not being punished for the actions of Sandusky, as your comment implies. They are being punished for “looking the other way” and knowingly allowing the abuse to continue (and even facilitating it through perks) when it was apparent there were serious problems “over and over” again, over many years by people at all levels of power at the university who had the ability to stop the actions.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:47 am
Vacate Your Football Wins Since Your Covered Up Pedophilia to Protect Your Legacy Here
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:50 am
If the NCAA was smart, they ought to look into how many of them 9/11 hijackers were working for Joe Paterno at the time.
Joe Paterno kinda looked like one of them Libyans to me.
Mike
July 23rd, 2012
11:55 am
I sincerely pray that those of you who say Penn State should lose all financial aid and degrees should lose all accreditation are kidding. I wouldn’t put it past a bunch of redneck UGA fans to truly believe that though.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
11:56 am
For all his faults, evil and sickness as A MAN, at least Sandusky THE COACH can still say that his Defense was good enough to stop Herschel Walker and beat Vince Dooley’s Georgia Bulldogs for the National Title.
woodrow
July 23rd, 2012
11:58 am
I don’t believe in the ‘punish everyone’ idea here. I think the punishment needs to target the people involved and what happened. Spraying blame everywhere is just stupid.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
12:01 pm
I wonder how longer Mrs. Paterno will keep up that grieving-widow charade before she decides to “retire” to Argentina and join Joe on the beach there.
In other news, tourism to Sandusky, Ohio is down drastically this summer.
7576DAWG
July 23rd, 2012
12:03 pm
Peterno was a great coach and he loved Penn State. When you live on campus and you give millions to your University and sign a contract every year for millions less than the going rate of other winning programs, then you can’t prove your love any more. Paterno loved Penn State.
THEN, you lie, or cover up or look the other way one time and all that go’s away. The problem with what Paterno and others did was once you started down that road of enabling a Pedophile or child molester then the lie,cover up, or looking the other way continues from the time of the incident to the time it was found out. And a great coaches entire life become meaningless like it never happened.
By far the largest scandal , crime, cover up ,however you want to phrase it, EVER in College sports. Nothing will ever top this.
NCAA got it right, Penn State got it right .
7576DAWG
July 23rd, 2012
12:06 pm
Sorry, The big Ten got it right also.
Bobby Bowden: Winningest Coach of All Time
July 23rd, 2012
12:07 pm
JoePa will NOT be vacating his National Championship Victory & Sugar Bowl win over Herschel Walker and Georgia, just so you know, Bulldog Fans.
Dawg'88
July 23rd, 2012
12:09 pm
Hypocrites abound here, sportswriters, in the NCAA, and America in general:
Where is all of the outrage when 1,000,000 children are killed every year and over 40,000,000 in the last 39 years by dismembering them and crushing their skulls? Make no mistake the legal practice of abortion (murder) is the tearing off of the limbs of the child and crushing its skull to remove the baby.
Its disgusting and immoral. But its the Truth of abortion: dismemberment.
All of this disgust is appropriate for the heinous crime but then the same folks calling for PSU’s punishment turn a blind eye towards the killing of the unborn. Their voices are silent in the face of gross moral evil.
Of course the old argument will be…”its legal”. Segregation was legal, denying people the right to vote was legal. But people stood up and challenged what was immoral and indecent.
Don’t want to read one more disgust post or article without the same outrage over those facts listed above. It is time to call it like it is: Hypocracy! Where is your voice for those who most innocent children who should be safe in their own mother’s womb. Silence from these outspoken judges and juries. That silence is deafening!
pbt dawg fan
July 23rd, 2012
12:15 pm
AquaGirl
Ok, i understand you may be upset, but wishing somebody dead is not going the to fix what happen. You talk about football like its a bad Decease,sometime sports does help with the healing process, just ask the people in New orleans that. I pretty sure that students can find other things to do besides going to football games, but that not what the students want to do. They want won’t to go to football games. Apparently you don’t understand whats happens on a football saturday. You don’t understand about the family, and fellowship thats also included in college football games. Maybe you should talk to those business owners before you speak on their behalf about the lose in reveune from football saturday. Whether you like it are not football in apart of american society today. I am not taking up for Penn State, but people shouldn’t wish for bad things to happen to people that didn’t have anything to do with the problem. You can’t blame penn state fan for being passionate about football. Playing football will help that community heal, i’ve seen happen before. Sandusky is going to prison for life. Joe Pa is dead. Please let Penn State move on. People blame Joe Pa for this. but ask this question. Why didn’t the person that witness the crime go to the police?
pbt dawg fan
July 23rd, 2012
12:18 pm
Mike
I am a UGA Fan and I don’t think that please read my post to Aquagirl
brad
July 23rd, 2012
12:19 pm
So, Dawg88, your thought is that that as long as abortion is legal, no other activity can be morally condemned? I guess that gets James Holmes off the hook.
sourgrapes
July 23rd, 2012
12:31 pm
Just throwing this out there, for all you folks worried about the 85 player scholarship limit:
The NCAA has already announced that they will lift that limit for any school if the 86th and above are PSU transfers.
Fan of the Game
July 23rd, 2012
12:33 pm
First of all my thoughts and prayers still go out to the victims. Many people dropped the ball in this tragedy. Penn St. administration and coaching staff, DFACS and anybody else that approved for Sanduskey to be around kids. I cannot agree with the NCAA. They said it had nothing to do with football, but it did. They gave into pressure and did something before the 2012 season instead of waiting for their own investigation. I know Penn St. agreed with the report but how in the world can it take the NCAA 2 to 3 years to get results on other situations but can come to this conclusion in less than a month. Bottom line is that the student athletes are being punished for absolutely doing nothing wrong. Oh yea the NCAA is good at punishing the innocent and letting the guilty walk. They gave into public pressure. I really wonder what the victims would have like to have happened. Something had to be done but I just feel like they jumped at an answer that they felt everybody had to have. Penn State will survive this and hopefully this will not happen at other institutions over the country. The good Lord brought this to our attention and we need to prevent it and speak up whenever there is any evidence that it is going on.
Harmon Wages
July 23rd, 2012
12:35 pm
Hitler, Bin Laden, Paterno
Melvin Castro
July 23rd, 2012
12:38 pm
The sanctions are an important first step, but I still believe they should have gone further.
I believe all the running water in the football locker rooms should be turned off for four years, and a statue of Sandusky should be permanently erected in the showers as a reminder of what happened there.
Nevar forgit.
Tony S
July 23rd, 2012
12:39 pm
Vacating wins was mistake and too harsh. Jo Pa’s TEAMS won those games fair and square, no violations for playing illegal players, cheating, etc.. He had a Very, Very serious lapse of judgment which had nothing to do with those games, that the NCAA wants to punish the program for something outside the program is theirs to do, but to take away the games should not be, Jo Pa is and will always will be the winningest coach in football, and I know a lot of people dont like that, but again, HIS TEAMS won those games fair and square, on the field
UGA withholding comment until later today on Penn State ruling | UGA sports blog
July 23rd, 2012
12:42 pm
[...] by the news out of Penn State this morning. Jeff Schultz offered his opinion on the ruling and people have been commenting on it on AJC.com all [...]
A.B. Normal
July 23rd, 2012
1:00 pm
If the folks from Penn State had just consulted with the Auburn folks on how to cover up stuff better Jerry’s little indiscretions would probably never have been believed. Sheeesh!
What a shame
July 23rd, 2012
1:05 pm
What a crock this was…..Yes I agree this was not harsh enough and wish they would have gotten the death penalty. There was a COMPLETE lack of institutional control over this program and this university. Since so many individuals were covering up such a horrific crime, this entire school should be razed or at least stripped of its accreditations’. If the president knew this horrific event was going on and did nothing to stop this then what is there to say he did not know of educational issues going on that he did nothing to stop or helped cover up???
ed
July 23rd, 2012
1:09 pm
We are Penn state. No wins since 98.
T Man
July 23rd, 2012
1:23 pm
Me thinks it is a little over the top…….no way over the top! Sure we all think the past events are horrid and should never have happened but what good is 60M going to do? Well sure, it sends a strong message to PSU and others not to tolerate such behavior but do not 99.99% of them already have this philosophy? The other .001% won’t care about fines anyway. I am no PSU fan but I just think it is a typical knee jerk reaction to a bad situation. What of the kids that are there now? Why should they be penalized for something they had nothing to do with? And what about the fans? They had nothing to do with it. Why not fine and punish the exact individuals that were at fault and leave the rest of them alone? The NCAA is just trying to look tough but to me wound up looking politically correct.