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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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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Statue will/will not be torn down this weekend

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Jeez. I thought it would be a peaceful Friday. Went out this morning  to try out a couple of kayaks. Wound up buying two. Had a nice lunch with AS. Came back home. Read the news. What? The statue is coming down? The statue isn’t coming down? People thinking they know what they’re talking about not knowing what they’re talking about? WTF?

Some are saying that the issue has already been voted on. Others say that only Erickson is involved, not the BOT. Erickson said that he knows nothing about no steenking statue comeen down.

Well, if I were Erickson, I would do two things. First, I would decide to take the statue down. The reason is simple: appease the NCAA. For if Penn State doesn’t jump through enough hoops before the beginning of the football season, the NCAA is liable to ensure that there will be no football season. Second, I would swear everyone to secrecy. It seems that secrecy is an ambiguously implemented concept on the Penn State campus. A child rapist can be kept secret for 16 years, but at other times the ivory tower seems to leak like a sieve. This is one instance in which a leak to the ever hungry media could be  dangerous.

If the statue does come down this weekend as the leaks suggest, you can be sure there will be an organized protest. That’s a good enough reason for secrecy. Hell, we students used to guard the Nittany Lion shrine all night to protect against marauding Orangemen from Syracuse. I think we should expect that if the approximate timing — or even the date — of the statue removal is known, there will be a contingent of students to conduct an “over my dead body” vigil on the statue site. It could get ugly.

The argument in favor of removing the statue is that it will be a show of earnest intent by the sitting administration to absolve itself of the sins of the past. Coupled with the resignation of former trustee Steve Garban, the gesture might be enough to avoid the so-called death penalty. Or not. But Penn State has to make some visible progress beyond the sordid past of the Sandusky scandal.

Garban was chairman when the Sandusky scandal broke, so his resignation is a logical step. He still holds the title of Senior Vice President of Finance and Operations/Treasurer Emeritus at Penn State. His term would have ended in 2013. Garban was captain of the Nittany Lions football team in 1959 and worked for the university for 33 years. He was senior vice president for 12 of those and he was elected trustee in 1998. Many thought that he and Paterno were good friends.

Back to the statue, to leave it stand is to send a message of defiance to the NCAA. That’s perhaps the last thing Penn State needs to do right now. While this Turkey had recently advocated keeping the statue and moving it to a proposed Paterno exhibit in the All Sports Museum, it occurred to me that the NCAA might be specifically looking for this kind of symbolic “sacrifice” to appease the gods on high.

Will a Garban sacrifice and a posthumous Paterno defilement, along with implementation of the recommendations of the Freeh report, be sufficient as a show of good faith for the NCAA? This Turkey thinks that with a little more housecleaning on the board of trustees, it just might be.

Somebody needs to caulk up Old Main to plug those damn pesky leaks. The statue take down needs to happen under a cloak of secrecy to avoid a riot similar to that which occurred after Paterno’s dismissal last November. Students really don’t need much of an excuse to riot, but the statue removal would be a definite trigger.

Still, Penn State can’t allow itself to be held hostage by the threat of a student revolt, so it must act as Rod Erickson decides, and not change course in mid-stream.

Decisive leadership is essential at this juncture.