The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Did Erickson Need Approval of the BOT?

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Onward State’s Kevin Horne has written an excellent piece about the possibility that Penn State President Rod Erickson might have broken a standing order of the BOT by signing the consent decree agreeing to the NCAA’s sanctions that were handed down Monday.

The debate on whether or not the sanctions handed down to Penn State by the NCAA are warranted has been ongoing with Penn Staters and college football fans alike over the last several days. But one area that hasn’t been broadly discussed is whether President Rodney Erickson — without approval and vote from the Board of Trustees — had the authority to sign the agreement with the NCAA essentially accepting the sanctions without even a whimper of a fight.

This Turkey had expected at least deliberation and possibly an appeal before Penn State fell on its sword. However, Erickson had already agreed to the sanctions before they were presented to the media on Monday morning. Why? Whom did he consult? Penn State just rolled over for Mark Emmert and the NCAA. Erickson gets the Neville Chamberlain Appeasement Award* for performing this slick sacrificial move on his own, appeasing the haters (including the NCAA) while totally pissing the rest of us off.

According to provision 2-e of Standing Order IV, the following actions must be approved by the Board: Authorization to borrow money; authorization of persons to sign checks, contracts, legal documents, and other obligations, and to endorse, sell or assign securities.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson’s signature appears on the document that accepts the NCAA sanctions. Certainly, that agreement would be considered a legal document — and one that directly costs Penn State $72 million, with some experts saying it could amount to up to a half billion dollars in losses.

No hearings. No approval from the governing body of Penn State. No alumni input. All President Erickson did was accept the NCAA quasi-dictatorship’s ruling without a fight, and move on.

Some have reported that Erickson was given the choice of a four-year “death penalty” or the sanctions as written. Obviously, he felt pressure to accept the sanctions, but without consultation with his governing body? Isn’t this the kind of rogue action the University is supposed to be curtailing? But wait! There’s more!

However, NCAA Executive Committee Chirman Ed Ray denied Erickson’s claims, saying “I can tell you categorically, there was never a threat made to anyone about suspension of play if the consent decree was not agreed to… That was never even a point of discussion within either the Executive Committee or the Division I board.”

Interesting conflict isn’t it? Either Erickson or Ray is lying, or Emmert and Erickson met in secret to “negotiate” without divulging details either before or after the fact.

I hope this all comes to a head, and divides the BOT so we can all see which trustees are on Penn State’s side and which are siding with our enemies. I further hope that when it hits the fan it results in the conclusion that not only Erickson, but also Emmert, exceeded their prescribed authority limits.

We’re dealing with powerful people here, there are lots more of us than there are of them. Emmert has become too powerful, and Erickson is a wimp. They both should be in deep shit over this. Such chutzpah!

Read the entire article “Erickson May Have Broken Standing Order.”

UPDATE: The BOT  are meeting this afternoon to discuss President Rodney Erickson’s handling of NCAA sanctions, per the Lehigh Valley Express-Times.

 

*Neville Chamberlain was the British Prime Minister who felt that the best way to prevent a major conflict with Germany in the 1930s was to appease Adolf Hitler by signing the Munich Agreement in 1938, conceding part of Czechoslovakia to Germany. He was a doormat who with the Munich Agreement tacitly gave Hitler the go-ahead to invade Poland, prompting Britain to declare war on Germany and starting World War II.

NCAA to Act Today

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Be worried. Be very worried.

From the rumors that have been flying around the Internet, NCAA President Mark Emmert will come down hard on Penn State at 9:00 AM ET when he announces “corrective and punitive measures” against the institution for its lack of oversight and leadership during the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

You’re all aware of the dog and pony show put on by Penn State yesterday with the removal of the Joe Paterno statue, which might have been conceived as window dressing for the NCAA, in view of the impending action and in line with showing that organization the intent by present Penn State leadership to implement positive changes.  I suppose disenfranchisement of Paterno was the most visible symbolic grandstand play the university could complete in the short time frame available; however, in this Turkey’s considered opinion, it looked just like what it was. If the NCAA doesn’t see through this gratuitous gesture, I’ll be glad to eat my one remaining PSU cap in Joseph A. Danks’ window.

It would have been much better to have spent the time rushing into force the required Clery Act compliance protocols, don’t you think?

The preliminary consensus, fueled by leaks, logical extrapolation of past penalties to other schools, and just plain wild-assed guesses, contends that punishment could possibly include:

  • A ban on post-season play. This is almost assured, but the question is for how long. Penn State will presumably join Ohio State, presently in the NCAA doghouse, thus putting one-third of the Big Ten Leaders Division out of contention for the conference championship and any bowl games.
  • A loss of scholarships. USC set the precedent in this area for their transgressions with respect to Reggie Bush. They lost 10 scholarships. Pseudo-wonks are suggesting that Penn State could be docked at least 10 scholarships per year for three years, which would severely cripple the program, making recruiting difficult if not impossible. If the NCAA were to take away more than 10 per year, it would be tantamount to the much bandied about “death penalty.”
  • A ban on TV broadcasts. This would hurt Penn State in the wallet and recruiting. The television revenue loss would hurt not only PSU but also its opponents for each of the non-televised games. Recruiting would suffer because recruits want visibility to their families and to the NFL.
  • A large fine. Wiseguys are tossing around numbers in the seven digit range. Presumably, the proceeds would be channeled to charities supporting sexually abused children.
  • A reduction of Joe Paterno’s victories. There hasn’t been much discussion of this one in public, but you can bet that there are lots of rumblings from the Bowden and Robinson camps. How the number of victories to be vacated would be decided is anybody’s guess, particularly because the transgressions in this case cannot be directly related to a competitive advantage in football games.
  • The “death penalty”. A complete shut-down of the football program for one or more years.

Emmert could surprise us in either direction, but most of us are girding for the worst based on comments made by the NCAA leader, who described the Penn State scandal as an “unprecedented problem” that calls for consideration of meting out any or all of the penalties enumerated above plus the possibility of the “death penalty.” “I’ve never seen anything as egregious as this in terms of just overall conduct and behavior inside a university,” remarked Emmert in a PBS interview.

Penn State will, of course, appeal whatever is meted out. Michael L. Buckner, a lawyer who blogs about college and high school sports legal issues, thinks that the NCAA is overstepping its bounds, specifically:

  1. The conduct of Penn State and its employees, no matter how egregious, is not a violation of an existing NCAA rule. In fact, according to available information, the NCAA has never interpreted, or issued sanctions under, existing rules to address only criminal violations (or the cover-up of criminal violations). Further, the NCAA has chosen to make criminal activity an NCAA rules-violation in limited circumstances (i.e., Bylaw 10.2 (Knowledge of Use of Banned Drugs) and Bylaw 31.2.3.4 (Banned Drugs))—and the activities described in the report by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh are not addressed in the NCAA Division I Manual.
  2. The NCAA did not establish and publish a process and procedure to address the issues relevant in Penn State’s case. Instead, the NCAA is utilizing an ad-hoc process that has not been explained fully to the membership or the public.
  3. The NCAA is not adhering to its existing enforcement processes and procedures.
  4. The NCAA is treating Penn State differently than other schools that were involved in sexual assault scandals or other serious criminal misconduct.
  5. The NCAA failed to provide Penn State: (a) a written notice of allegations; (b) an opportunity to respond to the notice of allegations; (c) a hearing before an NCAA infractions committee to address the allegations; and (d) a process for an appeal of NCAA findings and sanctions.

Thanks to Mike Robinson for bringing this post to our attention.

On the other hand, we have John Infante, a former compliance officer at two NCAA schools and an expert on the organization’s disciplinary system. He maintains that the NCAA is a private, member based organization that has wide latitude to mete out punishment. “The NCAA is not required to hold to the due process we think of in the criminal justice system,” said Infante.

Now, we wait. This will hurt us fans, no doubt, but even worse pain will be suffered by the Penn State football related businesses in Central Pennsylvania: the restaurants, the hotels, the PSU merchandise stores, and the gas stations. The loss or diminishing of football in the area will create a mini-recession within a long-term national economic slump.

The NCAA is moving swiftly due to criticism of that organization’s long delays in deciding punishment for recent issues at Auburn, Ohio State, and USC, among others. The decision will be announced just 11 days following the issuance of the Freeh Report.

We’ll discuss this some more after we digest the 9 AM announcement.

 

Going… Going…

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Happy Sunday morning, folks. It looks like this could be it for the Paterno statue. The action started around 6 AM, much to the chagrin of the Physical Plant workers and University Police who had to get up early. The Turkey awoke on a premonition, or perhaps because of AS’s snoring.

Penn State President Rod Erickson has issued a statement, in which he defends his decision to remove the statue because it has become a source of division. He said he felt strongly that the Paterno name should remain on the library.

Tweets from people on the scene report that police have set up roadblocks with university garbage trucks and heavy equipment has moved into the statue area. A construction fence covered with blue tarps for privacy is being erected around the statue. No protesters were there. The alleged people who actually were there to observe were purportedly news people.

Obviously, there won’t be any on-site meltdown. I’m pretty sure that the statue will probably be moved to a well-known secret location for a while. Whether that location is secure enough to resist pranksters and protesters is not known at this time. If I were calling the shots, I’d warehouse the thing far away from campus, perhaps in one of those PENNDOT sites next to abandoned Pennsylvania Turnpike tunnels.

Joe Paterno died exactly six months ago and Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 of 48 charges involving sexual abuse of minors one month ago to this very day.

The Penn State Board of Trustees directed President Rod Erickson to make the decision regarding removal of the statue. As rumors piled up, most of them pointing to this weekend, Erickson gave the go ahead.

Erickson will retire next year.

The Centre Daily Times reported that PSU spokesman Bill Mahon and three others, as yet unidentified, are viewing the scene from a skybox inside Beaver Stadium. Workers with yellow and green safety vests and hardhats are busily preparing for the statuary rape.

Sorry for the crappy humor. I haven’t yet had any coffee.

One of the best pieces of irony I encountered was from a reader of one of ESPN’s sports blogs who suggested that instead of removing the statue, they should rotate Joe 180 degrees so he’ll be looking the other way.

Some Tweeters are bitching about “so much for our new era of transparency”. So, what did you expect? Wait for fall semester and announce the event two weeks in advance?

I’ll watch the scene unfold via Twitter, and I’ll be back this afternoon with a recap of the day’s statuetory activities unless something totally weird happens.

Here’s a live TV feed from the statue, courtesy of Centre Daily Times.