There was a minor story in the height of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State last week that the family of Amos Alonzo Stagg was considering speaking with the Big Ten about Paterno’s name being on the Stagg-Paterno Championship Trophy, awarded to the winner of the Big Ten championship game.
Well, consider the awkwardness taken care of. Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany announced today that Paterno’s name has been removed from the title of the trophy. The decision comes after Paterno and PSU president Graham Spanier were fired last Wednesday as part of a house-cleaning of institutional and athletic figure heads in the wake of the Sandusky scandal.
“We believe that it would be inappropriate to keep Joe Paterno’s name on the trophy at this time,” Delany said in the statement. “The trophy and its namesake are intended to be celebratory and aspirational, not controversial. We believe that it’s important to keep the focus on the players and the teams that will be competing in the inaugural championship game.”
The Big Ten also pointed to the 23-page grand jury indictment against Sandusky and the U.S. Department of Education’s investigation into Penn State’s response to the allegations of sexual abuse by Sandusky as motives behind the move.
This isn’t even a choice. People can debate until they’re blue in the face -- many already have -- about Paterno’s role in the Sandusky case, but it doesn’t matter. The Big Ten can’t run the risk of associating with this scandal, so this was 100 percent the right call.