# Does The NCAA Have the Authority to Punish Penn State w/r/t/ the Sandusky Affair? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2012, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313 "2012-07-15T17:22:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 1:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/21 "2012-07-18T13:18:58Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > One year is plenty, with the ‘death penalty’, believe me. SMU has still not come anywhere near recovering after, what, fifteen years? And maybe never will. [snip] Time flies. It’s been 25 years. They are recovering however. It’s arguable that the best college quarterback in Texas is Garrett Gilbert at SMU. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/22 "2012-07-18T14:03:11Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > [snip] > Time flies. It’s been 25 years. They are recovering however. It’s arguable that the best college quarterback in Texas is Garrett Gilbert at SMU. Strewth. I’m a little surprised they weren’t asked to join the Big 12. ---
**Author:** ![Victor\_Charlie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/7ea924/32.png) [@Victor\_Charlie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Victor_Charlie)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/23 "2012-07-18T14:26:26Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > One year is plenty, with the ‘death penalty’, believe me. SMU has still not come anywhere near recovering after, what, fifteen years? And maybe never will. When you get the death penalty, _all_ your scholarship players flee the jurisdiction like rats fleeing a sinking ship. (What are they going to do–stay and pay for a year of their schooling? When other schools will be happy to take them on? Anybody who made the PSU team will be more than good enough for most other schools.) Then, you have no team to point to when you start recruiting again the next year. Most good players will prefer to go almost anywhere else than join a program that will be rebuilding for years–possibly even to Division IA or even Division II schools. So your program ends up with a handful of athletes who mostly aren’t capable of competing at the Division I level, especially in a tough conference like the Big Ten. Your team goes 1-11 (0-8 conference), and your recruiting the next year is even tougher. Eventually, you’re forced to drop out of your big-time conference and join the MAC or something, and your program is second-tier forever. I will say that Penn State would recover a lot faster than SMU. Penn State is a large school with a rich football pedigree. SMU, on the other hand, is a relatively small school that had spotty football success until they got consistently good only in the five or six years before they got whacked. Even their “success” these days is limited to mediocre Conference USA opponents. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/24 "2012-07-18T18:16:54Z")
If you suspend the program for a year - you essentially tell the lower-level employees like McQueary, and any mediocre scholarship players, that they are out of a job next year and their career is basically flushed. There’s an incentive for someone like McQueary to report an incident to anyone. IIRC they still haven’t identified the boy in the shower; the major fall-out is from the fact that Paterno and the administration were told years ago and did nothing. If it weren’t for McQueary’s report, this would just be another guy charged with stuff he did out at some charity, who happened to be connected to the college. So if they suspend the whole football program, the moral to anyone else in a similar position is “don’t report it, don’t make waves, just back quietly out of the room before anyone knows you’re there, and start polishing your resume before the shit hits the fan…” ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/25 "2012-07-18T18:18:57Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > So if they suspend the whole football program, the moral to anyone else in a similar position is “don’t report it, don’t make waves, just back quietly out of the room before anyone knows you’re there, and start polishing your resume before the shit hits the fan…” What punishment could they give to the program that would make someone want to come forward and get the program punished? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/26 "2012-07-18T18:55:25Z")
Barring the school unless the responsible parties left its employ. ---
**Author:** ![That\_Don\_Guy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/that_don_guy/32/538_2.png) [@That\_Don\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/That_Don_Guy)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/27 "2012-07-18T19:29:53Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > When you get the death penalty, _all_ your scholarship players flee the jurisdiction like rats fleeing a sinking ship. (What are they going to do–stay and pay for a year of their schooling? When other schools will be happy to take them on? Anybody who made the PSU team will be more than good enough for most other schools.) This makes the assumption that every scholarship player plays just football. Under NCAA rules, if you are on scholarship at a Division 1 school and play football and any other sports, you count only against the limit in football, so some scholarship athletes may decide to stay - assuming, of course, that the school has any scholarships remaining in one of the athlete’s other sports. If the athlete just plays football, there would be no rule against the school giving him a scholarship, as it wouldn’t be considered an athletic one. Another problem: while players can transfer without having to sit out a year, what other schools have any scholarships left? In FBS football, all scholarships count as full scholarships toward the limit, so you can’t just divide the 90 scholarships among 100 players by giving each one 90% of the full value. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/28 "2012-07-18T20:49:53Z")
> [@SCSimmons](#): > > It would take five minutes for some wit to go from American Collegiate Athletics Organization –\> ACAO –\> All Childrens’ Asses are Ours, and they’re sunk forever. Oh, man! Is it _wrong_ to laugh at this? Classic! ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2012, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313/29 "2012-07-18T22:00:08Z")
> [@Nars\_Glinley](#): > > What punishment could they give to the program that would make someone want to come forward and get the program punished? Maybe… punishing just the people responsible, not the whistleblowers and innocent bystanders as well? Unlike say, some college deciding that they would bend the rules severely to give scholarships - this is not a case of collusion by senior staff. We have reports that 2 officials and the coach knew and did nothing. At least 1 or 2 employees who actually tried to bring the case forward and seemed to hit a brick wall - in McQueary’s case, after 2 separate discussions with responsible officials, including the man in charge of the campus police. We have no evidence that the team in general or a lot of the staff there knew and decided to cover up the situation. Whereas when you either break the rules to “hire” ineligible players for scholarships or break the rules to pay them under the table, offer inducements or whatever - that’s something that’s pretty hard to do without the knowledge and cooperation of a large contingent of the university and team heirarchy. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/does-the-ncaa-have-the-authority-to-punish-penn-state-w-r-t-the-sandusky-affair/628313.md?page=1)