Popper: NCAA got it wrong this time with Penn State (Archive)

This article was originally published on July 24, 2012.

Hidden behind hastily constructed panels and a tarp, Penn State University took down the statue of Joe Paterno in a symbolic gesture Sunday morning. A day later, the NCAA took down the university, doing it as an expensive, crippling — but still symbolic — gesture.

After decades of the school’s inaction over real infractions and a history of punishing the slightest infractions by needy student-athletes with tone-deaf penalties, National Collegiate Athletic Association president Mark Emmert handed down devastating penalties on the football program. Penn State will pay $60 million in fines over the next five years, lose scholarships, be blocked from postseason bowls, and live with a five-year probation.

And it raises another question: Who asked the NCAA, anyway?

What the massive penalties exactly are for is not quite clear, other than allowing the NCAA to step forward and display a shiny sword as the arbiters of right and wrong.

That there were horrible problems at Penn State is inarguable. Jerry Sandusky was a monster, a serial rapist of children, and he’s already in jail, where he will die. And we have learned from the Freeh report, which detailed the flaws of leadership, that there were other monsters at Penn State.

How else do you describe Paterno and any other member of the staff who knew of Sandusky’s crimes and allowed him to continue to walk free. They hid cowardly with their silence — protecting their reputations and jobs by keeping the ugly secrets swept under a rug. Even as the punishment was meted out, the Paterno family continued its mad grasps at salvaging the reputation of the deceased coach.

Jail for Sandusky and whatever penalty comes for the rest of those involved will be a slight step of justice for the children whose lives were altered. Maybe the $60 million fine headed toward endowment for external programs addressing child sexual abuse or assisting victims will make a difference in a life.

Just as the criminal courts took down Sandusky, the criminal and civil courts should have their day with Paterno’s legacy — the head coach having passed away shortly after he was cut loose in the wake of the scandal — and judge those implicated in the Freeh report, too, such as former PSU president Graham Spanier, vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley.

But they’re all gone. So who is the NCAA punishing? A program? Anyone involved should face criminal charges, and if the NCAA wants a pound of flesh, ban anyone who covered it up or is found to have known of the crimes and looked the other way. It’s not hard to imagine them unfit to work with kids — and they’re still kids — at Penn State or at any school.

As flawed as the college athletic landscape is, this wasn’t an infraction by a football program. It was a sickening act by individuals — a predator in Sandusky and the cowards who protected him. The problem is the fine line that football programs have walked — and Penn State no more so than any major program across the nation — as more powerful than anyone or anything at the institution.

When Emmert handed down the penalties, he said, “Our goal is not to be just punitive, but to make sure the university establishes an athletic culture and daily mind-set in which football is never placed ahead of educating, nurturing and protecting young people.”

It certainly won’t for a long time at Penn State. But what about every other school that is lining up to ravage the Nittany Lions’ roster with word that players were free to transfer without penalty? How’s the culture at those schools? Will they have it all in perspective as they woo players with promises of bowl games?

Sure they will. Understand, games will go on every weekend on fields across the nation, and how soon before we forget the children who were victims of the criminal acts? Sadly, too soon.

Penn State will pay a price — including every sport that relies on the money raised by football. Scholarships will be lost. Revenue will be spread to other parts of the university in small increments. And the industries that blossomed in the wake of the NCAA money machine — stores, bars and restaurants dependent on the Nittany Lions for their existence — will suffer.

There’s no denying that college athletics are out of control, but this is an attack on a criminal action by a handful of people, not the correction of a renegade program. The sanctions are greater than those given to the Baylor men’s basketball program when the murder of a player revealed a horrid coverup and lies. The hallowed Paterno legend gives way as the all-time win leader in Division I football to Bobby Bowden — who had his own academic scandal at Florida State and a nearly $2 million lawsuit lost over the death of one of his players in an off-season workout.

So why this symbolic bloodletting by the NCAA? Who benefits? The NCAA’s pious reputation, for sure. And Penn State, already crippled at every level by this scandal, gets to push it aside and move forward — and halt the investigations right where they are before any other disclosures and ugliness for the board of trustees.

That’s an ugly little secret, too. The NCAA never mentioned Paterno, Sandusky or Spanier — the college president who has served on councils and committees appointed by Emmert. The only mention of individuals was during the final point by Emmert, when he said, “Finally, the NCAA is reserving the right to initiate a formal investigation and disciplinary processes to impose sanctions as needed on individuals involved in this case after the conclusion of any criminal proceedings.”

The NCAA didn’t wait for the investigations to conclude before imposing its sanction on the program. But they tore down a statue Sunday. Sometimes when you break up the concrete, you find the rats living underneath.

The NCAA waves its sword and moves on to its next autumn Saturday afternoon, focusing again on 100,000-seat stadiums.

Email: popper@northjersey.com