<p>Good grief. Penn State Nation is already trying to figure out a way around the bowl ban, cloaking it in charitable intentions. </p>
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<p>[Penn State should host own postseason game for charity | PennLive.com](<a href=“http://blog.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2012/07/penn_state_own_bowl.html”>http://blog.pennlive.com/pennstatefootball/2012/07/penn_state_own_bowl.html</a>)</p>
<p>Spanier is still on the faculty because he is a tenured professor. Ever try to fire a tenured professor? </p>
<p>Interesting how on this thread one unsubstantiated rumor about “the board meeting to fire Erickson” - which turned out to be BS - immediately led to half a dozen posts assuming it was a done deal and castigating the board for it. So predictable…</p>
<p>I posted about that rumor, but I didn’t assume it was a done deal at all. I doubt if anyone else did. A good portion of the posters that did post are in the PSU family.</p>
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<p>Sure sound like assumptions to me.</p>
<p>None of those assume, to me, that it was a done deal. Just comments on the thought of it.</p>
<p>Peoples rush to judgement based on incomplete knowledge and their desire for an immediate outcome or an immediate reaction is becoming a standard accepted practice in todays world.</p>
<p>The media is no longer responsible for only giving out factual information; it appears to me at least it has become more important to be the first to announce any story line and run with it irregardless of truth.</p>
<p>With minute by minute reporting and sharing of information people can be moved to band together before they even know if an event has been fairly portrayed.</p>
<p>The PSU event has been influenced greatly in this regard. </p>
<p>It appears that so much information and public opinion has already been cemented in peoples minds that when those accused finally get their day in court that few will listen and most will have moved on by then; their minds already made up.</p>
<p>When people do care is when they have something at stake. Then they notice.</p>
<p>Spanier, Curley, Schultz and Paterno have never had their day in court. Any decent attorney will have told them in the past to not comment as standard practice in a court case. This case might make it glaringly apparent that this is no longer possible.</p>
<p>I am interested in what they have to say. I am interested in their reasons and explainations of the emails and other facts brought out in the Freeh report. I can wait before I scream for fact “GUILTY” and walk away.</p>
<p>What’s the hurry?</p>
<p>The BOT has been influenced in the same way. They have made some decisions based on little fact and great amount of public pressure. They need to take the time and make thorough, thought out and well planned decisions.</p>
<p>They relinquished some of these decisions to Ericson and now feel like they made a mistake in doing so. Haste has made them look like idiots. Maybe they are inept or maybe they are just feeling rushed into making decisions.</p>
<p>So I guess I’m missing something, but why does this type of mega football program have an integral place on a college campus? I guess it’s about money and power because it sure seems to have nothing to do with academics.</p>
<p>^^According to Wikipedia the first intercollegiate football game was played in 1869. Sports have been interwoven in American collegiate life for a long, long time. The scholar and the athlete statue at UofM were installed in the early 1900s. The athlete looks to left toward the athletic complex and the scholar looks to the right toward Central and North campus. I guess once they stop paying pro athlete’s multiple millions of dollars per game, the importance of collegiate sports would diminish but right now for basketball, football and a few others it is the career path. Very few enter pro-sports directly out of high school.</p>
<p>Annasdad, so this was misreported by USA today? If so, that is a good thing.
[Report:</a> Penn State trustees question signing of NCAA decree ? USATODAY.com](<a href=“http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2012-07-25/penn-state-trustees-consent-decree/56485674/1]Report:”>http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/football/bigten/story/2012-07-25/penn-state-trustees-consent-decree/56485674/1)</p>
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If the Freeh report findings no longer satisfy you, will anything?</p>
<p>From “not Penn State”.</p>
<p>[The</a> Daily Pennsylvanian :: Editorial | NCAA was fair in its punishment](<a href=“http://www.thedp.com/article/2012/07/editorial_ncaa_fair_in_punishment]The”>Editorial | NCAA was fair in its punishment | The Daily Pennsylvanian)</p>
<p>As things move so quickly I always look at not only the date, but the time the article was posted. The USAToday article is from around 6pm yesterday (7/26).</p>
<p>FWIW, the following is from ESPN at 9:25pm</p>
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<p>It does go on to say that “there is a growing movement among some trustees to attempt to challenge the consent decree in court.”</p>
<p>I think that would reflect the minority given the above statement that was as I read it the official party line following the meeting.</p>
<p>[Penn</a> State Nittany Lions – Rodney Erickson said school faced 4-year death penalty - ESPN](<a href=“http://espn.go.com/espn/otl/story/_/id/8199905/penn-state-nittany-lions-rodney-erickson-said-school-faced-4-year-death-penalty]Penn”>Penn State Nittany Lions -- Rodney Erickson said school faced 4-year death penalty - ESPN)</p>
<p>“Spanier is still on the faculty because he is a tenured professor. Ever try to fire a tenured professor?”</p>
<p>No doubt. (Was JoePa was a tenured professor?) But I do think there would be at least one faculty member with the cojones to publicly suggest that s/he would be uncomfortable about walking to an academic convocations with him? Even one?</p>
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The courts can only decide if they are legally guilty or not guilty. These powerful men had a moral and ethical obligation beyond their legal duty to stop/prevent the molestation of young boys.</p>
<p>I hope some things are in the works in terms of Spanier. He should be charged, has he not yet been? And tried. Whatever can be done about Sandusky’s status at the university should be addressed as he has been tried a convicted. </p>
<p>This is PA’s flagship school, and someone in the state have read that report and some sort of action should have been taken. That it is the NCAA to act first, doesn’t seem right to me. Those in the administration who knew about this or who allowed the athletic department so much power that this happened should all resign or be fired. Hopefully all of this is in the works, along with consideration of what to do with the library name. Some cohesive action needs to be taken.</p>
<p>Still, the cry is, “what about the boys?” What are their feelings, what would they want out of this? I would not have sanctioned the football team the way the NCAA did, but made every penny of the money they make for the 20 or however many years, could be determined this was happening, be paid to the victims and child protection groups.</p>
<p>For me guilty is them Seeing Sandusky with little boysfor over a decade and doing what they could to protect him. Legally guilty, not my call, morally bankrupt,myou betcha</p>
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For what? That’s the problem. Maybe perjury, but we don’t really know if there’s a case against him.
It’s already been done–they took away everything except his pension, which they can’t take away by law.</p>
<p>There are sometimes heinous crimes that are so monstrous that the legal systems don’t anticipate them. (Precisely why new international laws were needed after World War II.) I am aware that I keep mentioning criminal conspiracy to commit child sex trafficking. I truly believe the individuals and the university itself (if a corporation is a “legal person” - hmmm. ;)) are likely guilty of both - the criminal conspiracy under the RICO statutes, and child sex trafficking under the Mann Act.</p>
<p>But I’m also aware that neither RICO nor the Mann Act were designed in any way to address cases like this. So it is fitting round pegs into square holes. And the only way there would ever be such a criminal case is if the feds were to charge the former Professor Emeritus under the Mann Act, and why would they do that when he’s already facing 442 years? So (back to my broken record), unless they decide to follow the money trail, or decide to build perjury cases (for which they’d likely get a year or two at most, perhaps suspended), I think we’ll have to leave it at “morally bankrupt” and “institutionally corrupt”.</p>
<p>The job of the NCAA is to protect the interests, practice, and the image of college sports. They did that. I suspect if all comes to be known, there will be egg on their faces. But we’ll just have to wait and see.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, every day the library remains named after JoePa, more wounds are deiberately inflicted on the victims and their families.</p>
<p>From the editorial in The Daily Pennsylvanian:</p>
<p>"Twenty-five years ago, the late Paterno responded to another NCAA sanction involving Southern Methodist University by saying, “It’s unbelievable to think that kind of corruption came right from the top of the power structure. The NCAA did what it had to do.”</p>
<p>Wow. . .just wow-</p>
<p>Just to add to the thought, in my opinion the best help that victims of abuse can get is individual. In this particular case the abuse goes back potentially decades. Millions and millions of dollars are now earmarked to support victims of abuse. Whether direct contributions to organizations that support and advocate to public service announcements to awareness, the money will be directed. The individuals will have at their disposal the criminal and civil legal systems, the wheels that have already been put in motion. I have to trust that some of the abused individuals as adults will feel empowered and speak out. Others may remain silent and they have that right. I feel fairly hopeful that the university will figure out ways in incorporate education and awareness of sexual abuse into the day to day operations and scope of the Penn State university system. I’m not sure what else can be done to assuage people’s fears or raise other’s awareness.</p>