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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We Were????

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Hey, Sports Illustrated. You’ve got another thing coming and we’re here to deal you a large load of Turkey poop. Your July 30 cover bites the big one.

“Is this the end for Penn State? Hardly. We aren’t going anywhere. We are, and always will be, Penn State.” —Rodney Erickson, Dave Joyner, and Bill O’Brien in a letter to Sports Illustrated

The blackness, the beat up helmet, and the prominent presence of the four words “We Were Penn State”, along with a quote fragment from the NCAA’s Mark Emmert’s pontification, “An unprecedented failure of institutional integrity…”, publicize the feature article by Alexander Wolff. It is entitled “Is This the End for Penn State.”

Wolff howls the following (the “moon” is implicit):

“With its loyal fan base and location in the heart of a state that loves the game, the program has a chance of recovering. But it’s going to take at least a decade, and in the meantime Penn State football will look a lot like Indiana football.”

Reports of our death are greatly exaggerated. This fine institution is not about to die because of a few football sanctions levied by the sinister NCAA after a rush to judgment. What a bunch of baloney! You’re just fueling the fire with the Penn State haters out there. You want to sell magazines? Put some 98% naked babes on the cover. (Oh, wait. You’ve done that for decades with the Annual Swimsuit Issue.) Leave Penn State out of the sensationalism.

Penn State has responded to this slur in a letter to Sports Illustrated by President Rod Erickson, AD Dave Joyner, and head football coach Bill O’Brien. Read more in StateCollege.com.

 

Four PSU Trustees Appeal Sanctions

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Even though NCAA spokesman Bob Williams declared last week that the Penn State sanctions are not subject to appeal, four trustees, led by retired Navy SEAL Ryan J. McCombie, who was elected to the board in June have filed a letter of appeal with the NCAA. ESPN is reporting:

Trustees and a person with first-hand knowledge of the discussions said the move is a precursor to a federal lawsuit asking a judge to invalidate the sanctions, because trustees expect the NCAA to reject the appeal.

Essentially, McCombie is saying that the NCAA did not follow its usual investigation and enforcement procedures with Penn State, that the consent decree is unfair because it relies on the Freeh report (which contains some disputed unproven conjectures) and that the sanctions are “excessive and unreasonable”, inflicting “permanent damage to an entire generation of student athletes and coaches who were innocent of any wrongdoing during their time on campus…”

McCombie retained the Boston law firm of Jackson Lewis to file the appeal. He wrote a letter to trustees Monday afternoon asking for their concurrence. Three immediately hopped on board. There was no comment as to whom, but I think we can probably guess at least three of them pretty quickly.

McCombie wrote to the trustees that it was his belief that the matter required board approval and that the board should engage in a full and complete review.  He went on to write, “Furthermore, only after we have given all involved the opportunity to be heard can we move forward together as one university.”

No comments were to be had from either Penn State or the NCAA.

Well, this should drive a wedge into the board. These are interesting times. If the NCAA does shut down the appeal, which is I think about 105% likely, and the federal courts get involved, the case could broaden and get into all kinds of great anti-trust issues with the NCAA. They deserve to be slapped down by somebody, and who better than a Federal court to do it? Maybe pay liquidated damages to all the members and then reorganize into a helpful adjunct, rather than a dictatorial Kindergarten teacher.

I’m going to have my cookies and milk and think about this a little more.

Meanwhile, for those who want to read the actual appeal, I have it available here for downloading. PSU_trustee_appeal (pdf – 174K).

Changing the football culture

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Oh, yeah. The more the football culture changes, the more it remains the same. The hypocrites at the NCAA really outdid themselves with their mandate to change the dreaded football culture at Penn State.

“Still, six coaches on a private jet provided by a car-dealer booster and a desire to helicopter a seventh off a cruise ship: this is how the NCAA is changing Penn State’s, and America’s, ‘football culture.’” —Mark Wogenrich, themorningcall.com

Sure, Emmert exacted sanctions upon the Nittany Lions that would somewhat force a lessened role for football in relation to academics, but in doing so, gave other schools the impetus to take a quantum leap in fortifying their own football cultures, which are growing like bacteria in a Petri dish.

Illinois sent a cadre of coaches to State College to let it be known that Illinois would provide a safe haven for any PSU player who wanted to transfer. Meanwhile USC, still on probation, unleashed its entire arsenal in pursuit of one player: Silas Redd. Big donors, private jets, emergency meetings — they spared no expense. The staid, conservative folks in State College never knew what hit them.

Mark Wogenrich of Nittany Lines provides details of the USC pursuit game, which was all legal under the sacrosanct NCAA rules.

Players are leaving Penn State to advance their careers, not because Penn State has sanctions against it. Well, that’s what Former Nittany Lion wide receiver Graham Zug Tweeted, anyhow. Not much of a difference there. The sanctions make these guys less visible to the honchos at “the next level”, and the sanctions also enable them to transfer to more visible (read “winning”) programs with impunity. I can say a lot about team spirit and sticking together, but these young guys have a life they’re just starting, and they must make decisions now that will affect them over the next 50 years. ???? ????? ????? It’s easy to sit on one’s ass and pontificate about them being traitors, but we all have to look out for our own interests sometime!

Practice begins Monday, so the transfers are likely to abate for a while. At the end of this most interesting season, we’ll undoubtedly be touching on this subject again. ???? ??? ???? A major exodus of experienced talent with remaining football eligibility could be forthcoming at that point.

But I digress, as usual.

A Sunday article by Ivey DeJesus of the Patriot-News asks the big question: Does the university’s football culture need to change? The Freeh report demanded it, as you know, and the NCAA in the personage of president Mark Emmert reiterated that demand. But DeJesus writes:

A change agent for a university like Penn State and others like Tennessee, Alabama and Michigan, where football is pre-eminent, is more likely to be a streak of losing seasons and the loss of football luster, as opposed to dictates from independent authorities.

That’s right. There’ll be no revolutionary changes if the guys on the field do their job and the coaches do theirs. ????? ???? That’s what they’re hired to do. (The coaches, anyway. bites tongue) However, at this juncture for Penn State, the NCAA has created an epic fail scenario for the football team for perhaps up to a decade. Will the students, alumni, and fans weather the storm and come out stronger, or will their actions (i.e., half-filling the 108,000 capacity stadium) dictate that the program be formally de-emphasized?