Penn State Penalized for Sandusky Scandal

Posted on Jul 23, 2012

AP/John Beale

Workers remove the statue of disgraced former Penn State coach Joe Paterno from outside Beaver Stadium on Sunday. Paterno died in January of this year.

The NCAA, college football’s governing body, hit Penn State with unprecedented penalties on Monday for not taking action after discovering that former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky was molesting young boys.

The sanctions included a postseason ban for the next four years, vacating all wins between 1998 and 2011, a $60 million fine and a significant reduction in football scholarships. In short, Penn State got just about everything except the NCAA’s so-called death penalty.

Sandusky was convicted last month on 45 charges related to the sexual abuse of 10 boys over a 15-year period.

—Posted by Tracy Bloom.

ESPN:

The penalties came a day after Penn State removed Paterno’s statue outside Beaver Stadium, a decision that came 10 days after a scathing report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh found that Paterno, with three other top Penn State administrators, had concealed allegations of child sexual abuse made against Sandusky.

... By vacating 112 Penn State victories over a 14-year period, the sanctions cost Paterno 111 wins. Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will now hold the top spot in the NCAA record book with 377. Paterno, who was fired days after Sandusky was charged, will be credited with 298 wins.

The scholarship reductions mean that Penn State’s roster will be capped at 65 scholarship players within a couple of seasons. The normal scholarship limit for major college football programs is 85. Playing with 20 less is crippling to a program that tries to compete at the highest level of the sport.

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