<p>There is no statue of Bo Schembechler near the stadium in AA but they put one at the Cardiovascular center and I assume it’s still there.</p>
<p>I also occurs to me that it would be a shame to punish football players who chose to play for PSU because of its squeaky-clean reputation. I guess I’m assuming that there may be such people.</p>
<p>Well, color me educated. I had no idea there were so many statues of college football coaches in this country. Take 'em all down! ;)</p>
<p><<i was="" wondering="" how="" long="" it="" would="" take="" before="" someone="" started="" dragging="" other="" successful="" programs="" into="" this="" issue.="" alabama="" and="" wisconsin="" have="" nothing="" to="" do="" with="" covering="" for="" a="" pedophile.="">></i></p><i was="" wondering="" how="" long="" it="" would="" take="" before="" someone="" started="" dragging="" other="" successful="" programs="" into="" this="" issue.="" alabama="" and="" wisconsin="" have="" nothing="" to="" do="" with="" covering="" for="" a="" pedophile.="">
<p>Until 9 months ago, Penn State was considered to have a successful program with no hint of scandal. So, I think it is very relevant to think about the football culture that exists in all the universities mentioned (and many others) and it is certainly something the administration (BoT) at every one of these universities should be thinking about.</p>
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<p>those that do not have statues have portraits, or a dedicated building, or some type of recognition. Most schools have places where portraits of past presidents/ deans of schools, and other prominent people are recognized. </p>
<p>So “take them all down” will not really work, and I am not sure it is justified.</p>
<p>That was not to be taken seriously. :)</p>
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<p>Geez. Get a grip on it. The post was in response to what other colleges have statutes of coaches. Both Alabama and Wisconsin have had problems IN THE PAST with their programs. They were not similar IN ANY WAY to PSU.</p>
<p>“Imagine if–as an example–Sandusky had been an embezzler, and that he had stolen money from both Second Mile and PSU, and that it had been covered up in the same way.”</p>
<p>Now let’s imagine that the surrogate President of the University did not only cover up, but enabled the crime for 14 (30?) years - signed the checks over, doctored the bookkeeping, perhaps bought off investigators, and paid for his job at a bank, from which he continued to embezzle money… And that he embezzled the money directly from orphaned 11 year olds who had no other source of income.</p>
<p>“Pinning a gold medal to his chest because he didn’t dirty-recruit sounds like pinning a gold medal to my chest for not cheating on my husband.”</p>
<p>But it was the dirtiest recruiting in the history of college football.</p>
<p>“I’m not necessarily saying PSU shouldn’t have its program suspended–I’m still on the fence about that–but doing that doesn’t really address the systemic problem.”</p>
<p>Giving Penn State the death penalty for a long enough period that it is no longer dependent - either for its image of itself or for money - on football would address the systemic problem better than any other possible solution. (It goes a bit further than taking away the Professor Emeritus’ football tickets…)</p>
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<p>And the military industrial complex will suffer if we stop invading other countries or stop giving out “foreign aid” in the form of arms contracts…people will be laid off. On the other hand, people will be killed. Including American kids. And quite possibly by the very arms we sold. To use a more obvious analogy, when we close a military base, surrounding economies are very negatively impacted. Is that a justification for continuing to spend federal dollars on them?</p>
<p>While one has sympathy for the businesses, does it justify looking the other way?</p>
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<p>Again, only a tiny minority of athletic programs make money, and the nation is full of colleges and universities that sponsor such athletic programs without the benefit of football or basketball profits. Explain why Penn State could not do the same?</p>
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Well, maybe. But isn’t the death of Paterno likely to mean that PSU is not the most likely place for a recurrence of this kind of problem? It seems to me that a lot of these calls for the most dire punishments for PSU are really based on a wish for retribution for these really awful crimes, which is understandable–but I’m not persuaded that they’re being aimed at the right people.</p>
<p>Perhaps there should be term limits for football coaches.</p>
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<p>True enough, but NCAA has never had to deal with a scandal like this before. Both TV and print journalists are saying this is the worst scandal in the entire history of college sports. And they’re right. It is. For NCAA to appear weak in dealing with it would weaken NCAA itself.</p>
<p>You’re right, NCAA action would be unprecedented. But unprecedented scandals require unprecedented actions to clean them up.</p>
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<p>Wrong again. Those programs would be defunded only if the school in its short-sightedness chose to. There are plenty of colleges that don’t even have a football program that still produce Olympians in other sports.</p>
<p>Here’s a piece making a case against the death penalty.</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State football doesn’t deserve ‘death penalty’ - News](<a href=“http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/688164_Penn-State-football-doesn-t-deserve--death-penalty-.html]Penn”>http://lancasteronline.com/article/local/688164_Penn-State-football-doesn-t-deserve--death-penalty-.html)</p>
<p>from recefn’s post</p>
<p>“And here’s a possible NCAA violation few are talking about: Didn’t Penn State in fact derive a competitive advantage that would fall under the NCAA’s purview from the massive cover-up of the Sandusky sexual assaults? Penn State created an entirely false image of high integrity and impeccable character under Paterno that allowed it to recruit some of the best players in the country, generate hundreds of millions of dollars in football revenue and keep Paterno, thereby providing unprecedented coaching stability that no doubt was attractive to the nation’s top recruits.”</p>
<p>yes, exactly!</p>
<p>“Well, maybe. But isn’t the death of Paterno likely to mean that PSU is not the most likely place for a recurrence of this kind of problem?”</p>
<p>You asked how one would best address the “systemic problem”. I think the “problem” is that Penn State is dependent upon football for its image and for its revenue, so I think the death penalty, for a long enough period that this is no longer the case, is the best solution.</p>
<p>"“And here’s a possible NCAA violation few are talking about: Didn’t Penn State in fact derive a competitive advantage that would fall under the NCAA’s purview from the massive cover-up of the Sandusky sexual assaults?”</p>
<p>It’s A LOT more than coverup. They used a pedophile who was likely child trafficking at the time (taking a child across state lines for illicit purposes) to recruit (and at the very time he was committing the federal crime.)</p>
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<p>So what? Did anyone cry buckets for local Highland Park / Dallas businesses when SMU received the death penalty? Are we suggesting that punishments SHOULD take into account local economies? </p>
<p>Yes, death penalty for a school impacts people who had nothing to do with the bad thing. That’s the point. It’s supposed to be a deterrant because one is supposed to care about others to the extent of not putting others in a position where they might be harmed. If I am contemplating whether or not to steal that hubcap, ideally the deterrant should be that it’s morally wrong for me to steal something that isn’t mine - but if that doesn’t work, the deterrant of “I’ll go to jail and thus my innocent family will suffer” is supposed to be a deterrant too. </p>
<p>This attitude is part of the problem - that football is so important in and of itself that it has to be preserved at all cost. That’s precisely the mindset that led to “keep our predator on the down-low because it might jeopardize the image and hence the revenue of our football program.”</p>
<p>When Spanier is indicted for perjury and hopefully child endangerment, I wonder if his national security clearance will be revoked?</p>
<p>Tsdad–re: Big Ten–I fervently hope they expell them. I never felt that PSU fit into the conference well to begin with when they were added, and I don’t think any fans of other members would be sorry to see them go.</p>
<p>From the COHE today–penalties also include expulsion</p>
<p>“The league’s presidents and chancellors could consider that idea as they debate possible sanctions against the university, one Big Ten leader told The Chronicle. And a new set of proposals being circulated among top conference officials would give James E. Delany, the league’s commissioner, more power to punish programs that step outside the lines, including firing coaches himself.”</p>