Penn State/ Joe Paterno/Football Program-ALL COMMENTS HERE! (record, university, programs)

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by DiogenesofJackson

Well, when we really get down to it, the whole punishment handed down to Penn State actually punishes the potential recruits still in high school who may have wanted to play at Penn State.

That really has nothing to do with fans of opposing teams not being able to see their team due to what PSU did.

[DiogenesofJackson]

Originally Posted by Gatornation

That really has nothing to do with fans of opposing teams not being able to see their team due to what PSU did.

I think it does because your post claimed that a no TV sanction against Penn St. would punish those teams not involved in the scandal. Well, that's how most NCAA sanctions work--they punish people who didn't commit the offenses.

SMU once got the death penalty, only after some of the best players had gone pro. I think several SEC coaches had committed egregious offenses in the 90s, who were fired by their respective schools. But the NCAA still handed down sanctions applied to the coaches and players who came in after the recruiting offenses had occurred, and who actually had taken no part in the offenses themselves (and in some cases, the offending coaches took jobs at other colleges or went to the NFL). This is how NCAA sanctions are applied.

I think the mainstream media's televising Penn St. because they have no shame. They know that the PSU situation is a train wreck and they're televising their games so everyone can see the train wreck, because that's what we as human beings do. We drive by a grisly wreck and we look for the blood rather than averting our eyes. I think the same principle is at play here.

When I worked in print media there was an adage that was sad but true-if it bleeds it leads-because folks want to read bad news in the newspapers. It sells.

I think the NCAA could have undercut the media's shamefaced interest in trying to generate ratings and more ad revenues by putting a TV ban on PSU football games for at least one season. And the team sucks anyway. It makes no sense that they're televising PSU and Ohio U. That game would, in an ordinary PSU season, be buried on ESPN 8 (the Ocho) or something. But last week, it was a featured game on a national network. Same deal with the Va. game yesterday.

[Mr. GE]

I'm not rooting against PSU... But I do not feel bad for them one bit!

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by DiogenesofJackson

I think it does because your post claimed that a no TV sanction against Penn St. would punish those teams not involved in the scandal. Well, that's how most NCAA sanctions work--they punish people who didn't commit the offenses.

SMU once got the death penalty, only after some of the best players had gone pro. I think several SEC coaches had committed egregious offenses in the 90s, who were fired by their respective schools. But the NCAA still handed down sanctions applied to the coaches and players who came in after the recruiting offenses had occurred, and who actually had taken no part in the offenses themselves (and in some cases, the offending coaches took jobs at other colleges or went to the NFL). This is how NCAA sanctions are applied.

I think the mainstream media's televising Penn St. because they have no shame. They know that the PSU situation is a train wreck and they're televising their games so everyone can see the train wreck, because that's what we as human beings do. We drive by a grisly wreck and we look for the blood rather than averting our eyes. I think the same principle is at play here.

When I worked in print media there was an adage that was sad but true-if it bleeds it leads-because folks want to read bad news in the newspapers. It sells.

I think the NCAA could have undercut the media's shamefaced interest in trying to generate ratings and more ad revenues by putting a TV ban on PSU football games for at least one season. And the team sucks anyway. It makes no sense that they're televising PSU and Ohio U. That game would, in an ordinary PSU season, be buried on ESPN 8 (the Ocho) or something. But last week, it was a featured game on a national network. Same deal with the Va. game yesterday.

If a player wanted to go to Penn State they alteady have some tie to the school. The Michigan alum who has nothing to do with PSU shoul be able to watch their team play on TV.

[DiogenesofJackson]

Originally Posted by Gatornation

If a player wanted to go to Penn State they alteady have some tie to the school. The Michigan alum who has nothing to do with PSU shoul be able to watch their team play on TV.

So the fans of PSU's opponents wouldn't "take one for the team" er uh, whole NCAA community?

You really didn't get the gist of my post--NCAA sanctions punish those who don't commit rules violations, they punish the programs and its entire community (unless of course, the rule violators have since left the community where they committed rules violations). And the part about watching a car-wreck, er uh, PSU football and media vulturism didn't resonate with you at all, huh?

This kind of crazy fanaticism associated with a cult of personality kind of coach reminds me of the Bob Knight situation at Indiana. He assaulted a player and Indiana didn't get rid of him. Then he assaulted a student (yeah, who was probably asking for it), and then Indiana school officials waited around and figured the press would be bad, so they went on and fired him. Students/fans were up in arms, screaming bloody murder. Then Knight gets the job at, where? Texas Tech?

In this value deficient world of NCAA sports, it seems few ever really get punished.

[Gatornation]

Originally Posted by DiogenesofJackson

So the fans of PSU's opponents wouldn't "take one for the team" er uh, whole NCAA community?

You really didn't get the gist of my post--NCAA sanctions punish those who don't commit rules violations, they punish the programs and its entire community (unless of course, the rule violators have since left the community where they committed rules violations). And the part about watching a car-wreck, er uh, PSU football and media vulturism didn't resonate with you at all, huh?

This kind of crazy fanaticism associated with a cult of personality kind of coach reminds me of the Bob Knight situation at Indiana. He assaulted a player and Indiana didn't get rid of him. Then he assaulted a student (yeah, who was probably asking for it), and then Indiana school officials waited around and figured the press would be bad, so they went on and fired him. Students/fans were up in arms, screaming bloody murder. Then Knight gets the job at, where? Texas Tech?

In this value deficient world of NCAA sports, it seems few ever really get punished.

I got it. Comparing a PSU recruit and a fan of another team is just a poor comparison.

[2nd trick op]

One more alum's two cents:

I'm a senior (Busuness Logistics '71) grad who was on campus when it all started, plus two years in Happy Valley as a working adult in the mid-Seventies, but like a lot of people, my connection to the University began to wane as my own circle drifted apart. I haven't attended a PSU game since 1994, and sometimes a year or more passes between the times I set foot in Centre County.

Like almost everybody else, I had occasional contact with people affiliated with the football program, so like most alumni, I recognize that Happy Valley is a special, somewhat over-shelteing environment, not subject to some of the pressures which were applied so viciously by outsiders who smelled the blood in the water last November.

And I have not been the least bit enthused by the tacky commercialism and sclockmeister-ship which began to infect my alma mater during the 1980's, When I learned that, in return for donatons that seemed like little more than a bribe, my own College of Business Administration was "renamed" for alumni I didn't even recognize, I was not receptive.

With regard to "the facts", I can accept Jerry Sandusky's guilt without question and admre the jury's willingess to place the facts before reputation. I can also believe that Paterno might easily become so obsessed with his own legacy that he could be manipukated into participating in a cover-up.

But I am not prepared to subscribe to the theory that Paterno was the spider at the center of some conspiratorial web. I am willing to believe that his immediate family knows more than has yet been brought to light, and I would urge them, no matter how great the possible damage, to make a clean breast of it now.

But there are so many unanswered questions --- the possiblilty of ill will between Paterno and Sandusky, the person who lost the most when Paterno began to fight retirement. And as was disgustingly depicted by some of the behavior at yesterday's rally, there is a substantial clique of the Very Politically Correct on the Board of Trustees who, in their desire to turn PSU into a watered-down version of Harvard, (or maybe just Bucknell) would have no reservations about throwing an aging, vulnerable Paterno "uder the bus."

Penn State has over half a million living alumni, many just entering their most productive years. The nature of campus life provides each of us with our own exposure, and our own view of what this University really stands for. With that diversity, it would be impossible for any cover-up, sanitized to serve the purposes of a manipulative few, to hold together.

And we have all the time in the world to discover what really happend -- without the aid of a lynch mob.

[ScoPro]

If Paterno's family is in the possession of exculpatory evidence, what's keeping them from releasing it?

Whatever they claim to have or think, rebutting the evidence brought out by the Freeh investigation will be darn near impossible.

[texdav]

I don't think anyone is surprised by sandusky turning out to be a predator as we are used to such exposures. Its the number of people and their positions who covered it up and let in continue for years. Scum is all that comes to mind 'really.

[ScoPro]