<p>We (Ohio State Buckeyes) were the most profitable team next to Texas prior to Tressel’s scandal. As a result, we are now not even in the top-10 in terms of football revenues. Still recovering… We used to be #2 most valuable team in the land on Forbes ranking!! lol </p>
<p>Yup, we took a huge hit, but it was the right thing to do!! </p>
<p>At the bare minimum, we need a 5 year death penalty. PSU must learn to live without football in order to rebuild itself into a true university. This is not punitive; this is what Penn State needs to become viable in the long term. The football cult that took over this institution must be dismantled completely.</p>
<p>I agree with you. It will be difficult to implement the changes and the protections in the Freeh report with an active FB program.</p>
<p>I might have felt differently if the current President had already:</p>
<ol>
<li> Put the statue in the basement.</li>
<li> Had the current AD and FB coach stand up and say they fully support the changes needed and they will go above and beyond what the Freeh report wants. There will be no interference by any member of the coaching staff in any academic or disclipanary issues. Any member of the coaching staff who attempts to do so will be sent packing.</li>
<li> Asked the Faculty Senate to send him a public list of what they think specifically needs to be done.<br></li>
</ol>
<p>In short, put academics first, and do so in an open way. Its not happening.</p>
<p>Exactly. It’s impossible to list all the things that the president and board should have done - you’ll keep thinking of more and more.</p>
<p>Even after the scandal broke, and the active coverup had been exposed, they closed ranks, circled the wagons, and continued to try to ride it out - and they’re still doing the same today. Many members of the board are tainted, along with much of the administration. It’s a cancer that took over the entire institution.</p>
<p>The is a flagship state university, and the people of Pennsylvania need to take control and bring it back to its core mission. State residents and alums should be leading the way on this, but the cult is strong, and the football mentality produces a lot of fuzzy thinking. Sadly, PA, PSU and the PSU family are going to need the NCAA and the government’s help to force them to do what they won’t be able to do for themselves.</p>
<p>This probably could have happened at most of the “football powerhouse” schools listed in a few recent posts, but it did happen at Penn State. Penn State needs to be disinfected and rebuilt, and other similar institutions need to take notice, and begin to reign in their own problem programs.</p>
<p>I think why it was more able to happen at Penn State is because Joe Pa had been there for so LONG. It takes that kind of entrenchment to really allow for the kind of systemic abuse that happened there. We adore our James Franklin at Vanderbilt, but this is only his second year and, I can assure you, he isn’t running the university!</p>
<p>It’s been said here that only a few isolated “idiots” at Penn State want to rah-rah their way back to happiness. Only a few nutcases want to just forget the whole thing and get back to what’s most important, football. Almost everyone is in shock and sorrow, and wondering how to prevent this from ever happening again. Virtually no one wants Penn State to fail to learn the lessons. </p>
<p>This is from a website called Bleacher Report:</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>“Football will provide a much-needed escape from reality.” Nothing has changed.</p>
<p>The title of the piece is the most compelling argument for shutting down the program:</p>
<p>I agree. Penn State’s “former glory” was made possible by its former (and unfortunately still current) culture and mindset - a culture and mindset that made putting football above innocent children a thinkable option to Penn State’s leaders.</p>
<p>Bleacher Report is a fanblog and specifically tasked with “homerism”, i.e., rabid fan postings regardless of the author’s talent or knowledge. As I would not put too much stock in newspaper thread posts, I would not think BR is representative of more than the most loyalist PSU fans. A loud minority is still a minority.</p>
<p>The banner airplane was here for a third day, despite thunderstorms. Garban resigned tonight. The 9 students at the Paterno statue said they had no objection to it coming down, they just wanted to protect it from vandals. The state senate is taking up a bill to formally request a federal investigation in to Gov Corbett’s possible role in suppressing an investigation of the Sandusky reports (presumably so as to not interfere with his political aspirations). Students (and most professors) return to campus in a month.</p>
<p>whoever investigated and adjudicated this should be fired. I expect this will get looked at it again since he publicly declared his security clearance (which, from what I read, is frowned upon… generally people don’t go “hi, i’m bob, I have a top secret clearance, nice to meet you”</p>
<p>He’s still a Professor in the so-called College of Health and Human Development. He could march with the Professor Emeritus in the next academic convocation in full regalia.</p>
<p>From what I have seen, looking for anti-football comments on Bleacher Report is like looking for pro-Obama comments on a Fox News site. Few and far between.</p>
<p>Grcxx3, it’s not just Bleacher Report. I have seen precious few anti-football comments from Penn Staters anywhere. The reasons vary, but as far as I can tell, just about everyone in the PSU community wants to keep football. Am I missing something?</p>