Just yesterday, the NCAA lifted its postseason ban on Penn State University’s football program, – effective immediately. They eradicated the scholarship reduction as well for next football season.
About a year ago, I wrote extensively on this subject, and even began a petition to ease the punishments on Penn State – you can read this here. Since I have written the article – more accurately, perhaps, since the ban itself was instated – this is the first true step of progress the NCAA has made into simply doing what is right.
Before I continue, I want to reiterate my disgust for the entire Penn State Scandal as a whole. What was done by Spanier, Schultz, Curley, and especially Jerry Sandusky was evil. Each and every possible punishment should be handed down to them, and they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent.
That being said, I now want to congratulate the NCAA for making this step. While I still believe that more must be done in order to truly stop punishing those who are not even remotely at fault in this horrific situation, I recognize that this was a monumental step forward.
Still, however, exists what I feel was the most ridiculous repercussion that Penn State was given: the vacating of 111 wins of the late Joe Paterno. In fact, just after it was revealed that some punishments would be eased, Penn State trustee Anthony Lubrano – who is fighting to have the wins reinstated – said, “What you still have is a consent decree that was extracted illegally by an organization desperate for a public relations success that had no legal authority to act, and that organization needs to be help accountable.”
Besides the fine – the only punishment I feel to be justified because the money is helping victims of sexual abuse – the vacating of these wins is the only other penalty that is currently being implemented on Penn State University. That has to change.
If the NCAA does not reinstate Paterno’s wins, then essentially nothing has changed from my original point of view. Yes, the NCAA has stopped punishing some of the innocent people who are involved with Penn State, and yes I absolutely am happy for the current football team and its members. But there are still the innocent football players who played in those 111 wins who are being chastised for crimes when they were not even cognizant of the fact that they were taking place. Very few people were knowledgeable of that fact, and each of them is either on trial, in jail, or deceased.
The fact that this punishment still exists also continues to make this situation about football when it is about a sexual pervert and the people who enabled him.
As I said, I applaud the NCAA for taking this step, but I still believe more must be done, and to be perfectly honest, I believe it will be done. But it is up to the NCAA to do so. – Andrew Domencic