Wick Sollers, attorney for the Paterno family sent a letter to NCAA President Mark Emmert today stating that the Joseph V. Paterno estate intends to appeal the NCAA decree against Penn State. He continued, writing that the estate “undertakes this appeal to redress the enormous damage done to Penn State, the State College community, former, current and future student and student athletes, Joe Paterno and certain other involved, as a result of the unprecedented actions taken by the NCAA.”
“This matter may be the most important disciplinary action in the history of the NCAA, and it has been handled in a fundamentally inappropriate and unprecedented manner.”
This is something we should have expected from the Paterno family, inasmuch as it has responded to every significant development in the Sandusky Scandal. The question in this Turkey’s mind is whether they have any standing at all to appeal anything as a non-signer to an agreement between Penn State and the NCAA. Is it possible that the Paterno family is sowing the seeds for an eventual civil lawsuit against the University and the NCAA? I have to wonder whether this is going anywhere.
Read the story by Anne Danahy of the Centre Daily Times.
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BigAl says
This suit probably won’t go anywhere. But Penn State might have missed a golden opportunity to blow up the NCAA.
According to ESPN (not the most reliable source), the NCAA President’s committee (only 5 of whom are presidents of schools in BCS conferences) wanted to basically rip the rulebook and impose a 4 year death penalty. Rodney the Rat and his lawyer talked them out of it by agreeing to accept the current sanctions without appeal.
I’ve got to think, that had the NCAA imposed the 4 year penalty, Penn State would have had a decent chance in Federal Court arguing that the penalties were arbitrary and capricious and constituted an unreasonable restraint of trade (major league baseball has an anti trust exemption but the NCAA doesn’t). If successful, this suit could have meant the end of the NCAA as we know it.
The NCAA is basically a parasite that leeches off the sports programs of approximately 70 large universities to subsidize their own bloated payroll and hundreds of small schools.
The BCS schools would be better off dumping the NCAA and forming their own sports association, And replacing academicians like Emmert with professionals to establish and enforce the rules.
The Nittany Turkey says
I never believed that four year death penalty threat was anything but a bluff by Emmert, but further thought (and paranoia) suggests that it might have been a contrived cover story agreed upon by Emmert and Erickson to save some face for Erickson, knowing that his P.R. would be taking a big hit for signing the consent decree with no resistance.
My simplistic reasoning originally held that the NCAA would be cutting off its nose to spite its face by meting out death penalties or TV bans at this juncture. Not only would the NCAA be hurt, but other member schools would get nailed financially as well.
Your analysis makes more sense. If the Division I-A schools were to bail on the NCAA and form a more benevolent cooperative, then any attempt by the NCAA to impede the move could possibly be a violation of the Sherman Act.
Wonder why the school presidents haven’t proposed it.
In other news, I logged into my LinkedIn account this morning to accept a connection request and what did I find? In the section where LinkedIn tells me who looked at my profile, I found the name of the pre-eminent Vicky Triponey. That can only mean that she is aware of the Turkey and his gobbling about her and everything else. Vicky, if you’re reading this, hiya, Kiddo! How about leaving us some comments about the whole fiasco at Penn State?
—TNT