It may not be the death penalty but, as one previous report noted, Penn State may wish the looming NCAA sanctions had been.
With NCAA president Mark Emmert set to announce “corrective and punitive measures” for the Nittany Lions football program Monday morning, Yahoo!‘s Charles Robinson has added a little detail to the looming penalties. Per Robinson, the penalties, already described as “unprecedented,” will be “staggering.”
How staggering? A source told Robinson that the “sanctions will include a ‘multiple-year’ bowl ban and ‘crippling’ scholarship losses.” Additionally, Brett McMurphy of CBSSports.com tweeted that “Penn State will be fined [between] $30 million to $60 million,” with the “record fine [going] to endowment benefiting children causes.”
The exact number of years of being banned from postseason play -- including the Big Ten championship game -- and scholarship losses was not detailed in Robinson’s report. In the wake of the Reggie Bush imbroglio a couple of years ago, USC was slapped with historic sanctions that included a two-year bowl ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years.
Rivals.com recruiting guru Mike Farrell told Cory Giger of the Altoona Mirror that "[i]f it’s 10-plus [scholarships stripped] for four years or five years, that’s absolutely crippling.” If it’s more than that?
“If it’s 20, you might as well give them the death penalty. That’s more than crippling. That’s a death blow,” Farrell said.
Based on the Freeh report and the incomprehensible cover-up of crimes against defenseless children, a death-blow may very well be warranted. And justified.