Those wishing Penn State to be kicked out of the Big Ten for the Jerry Sandusky scandal, you’re allowed to get excited for about 10 seconds. Then you’ll have to come back to reality.
According to the Chronicle of Higher Education (which requires a subscription to read), Big Ten leaders are considering a series of proposals in an 18-page plan prompted by the current situation at Penn State. Among the ideas being thrown around include removing the university from the conference.
Currently, the league’s Council of Presidents and Chancellors must approve any decision to suspend, expel, or place any member on probation. The Big Ten handbook requires at least a 60 percent vote for expulsion, though a Big Ten spokesperson told the Chronicle that number will increase to 70 percent (or, eight members) for 2012-13. If a recommendation is made to expel a member, that institution would have to show cause why it should not be expelled.
To vote Penn State out of the Big Ten would be unlikely, but the fact it’s reportedly being considered is some serious stuff nonetheless.
Additionally, the plan would also allow Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany to enforce financial penalties, suspensions, or fire individual athletic officials, including coaches, should their actions merit it.
News of the proposal comes days after NCAA president Mark Emmert said he would not rule out any punishment against PSU, though he doesn’t have the authority to do anything himself. Interim university president Rodney Erickson said the school will respond to NCAA requests for more information within the next week.
Updated 3:45 p.m.: In an email obtained by the Associated Press from Big Ten headquarters, the idea of a plan giving Jim Delany the authority to punish or outright fire an athletic individual is simply that -- an idea -- and not finalized.
“It is a working document intended to generate ideas, not draw conclusions,” according to the email. “One provision in the document addresses `emergency authority of the commissioner’ - it is just one of many ideas.”
The Big Ten did not officially comment on the matter to the AP, though.
The statement corroborates how this 18-page plan should have been viewed to begin with: a discussion of last resorts for extreme cases. If Delany and Big Ten presidents agree to fire an athletic individual -- if they’re actually given the go-ahead to do so, that is -- it has to be over actions that “significantly harm the league’s reputation”, and that’s assuming the member institution hasn’t already taken action.
Same idea applies with expelling an institution. It would seem there would not only need to be a cause worthy of expulsion, but an equally blatant disregard for any kind of self-discipline by the university.
The Big Ten is doing what it should: addressing a case of institutional failure on an astonishing scale.