# Has any sport ever had a worse year than college football this year? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [November 9, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339 "2011-11-09T00:37:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/1 "2011-11-09T00:37:21Z")
In the past 12 months, college football has gone through numerous recruiting scandals including Cam Newton pay for play, Oregon recruiting, Miami boosters, and Ohio State memorabilia and the downfall of Tressel. In addition, although it started in 2010, we have the complete unraveling of conference affiliations. These recruiting scandals and schools whoring themselves out for the most money are news items you’d likely see in any given year. But now we have the Penn State abuse issue, a far more serious issue. Has any sport ever gone through such a bad year? I can’t think of any. Baseball during the Black Sox scandal or the Olympic figure skating judging scandal weren’t as bad as the year college football has had. ---
**Author:** ![pancakes3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ba9def/32.png) [@pancakes3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pancakes3)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/2 "2011-11-09T01:53:57Z")
pro basketball is going to give it a run for its money ---
**Author:** ![Apex\_Rogers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@Apex\_Rogers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apex_Rogers)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/3 "2011-11-09T01:54:00Z")
I think the year without NHL has to be considered, alongside with other sports’ strike-shortened seasons. For baseball, it took a couple of roided-out bashers to bring back for example. That said, I agree that NCAA FB is not looking good this year and probably beats the others out. ---
**Author:** ![R.P.McMurphy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7993a0/32.png) [@R.P.McMurphy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/R.P.McMurphy)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/4 "2011-11-09T05:03:36Z")
\*\*The emperor has no clothes. \*\* So few people ever took the real lesson from that tale. ---
**Author:** ![Jim\_s\_Son](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19adc/32.png) [@Jim\_s\_Son](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_s_Son)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/5 "2011-11-09T13:28:18Z")
The second year of the NHL in 1919 had the Stanley Cup cancelled by an outbreak of Spanish influence that killed Hall of Famer Joe Hall, > **[1919 Stanley Cup Finals](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1919_Stanley_Cup_Finals)** > > The 1919 Stanley Cup Finals was the ice hockey playoff series to determine the 1919 Stanley Cup champions. The series was cancelled due to an outbreak of Spanish flu after five games had been played, and no champion was declared. It was the only time in the history of the Stanley Cup that it was not awarded due to a no-decision after playoffs were held. > The series was a rematch of the 1917 Stanley Cup Finals and the first since the armistice to end World War I. Hosting the series in Seattle wa... 1972 Summer Olympics ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/6 "2011-11-09T14:47:42Z")
I’m going to say no, simply because what’s going on at Penn State is probably the single worst sports related scandal I can think of. The '72 Olympics, mentioned above, is probably close, but I still think this year in NCAA football is the worst ever. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/7 "2011-11-09T15:26:22Z")
I guess English soccer in 1985 could make a good claim. [In May, 39 Juventus fans were killed at Heysel Stadium in Brussels](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heysel_Stadium_Disaster) when a wall collapsed during a riot by/poor crowd control of Liverpool fans (pick one as desired), then in June [56 Bradford fans died](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradford_City_stadium_fire) when a stand burned down. And as a direct result of the Heysel incident, English teams were banned from European football. I’d say that’s a pretty bad two months. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/8 "2011-11-09T15:47:45Z")
Speaking as the father of a 7 year old boy AND as a football fan who once admired Joe Paterno… The Sandusky scandal at Penn State is a thousand times worse than most standard college sports scandals. A booster slipping star athletes money under the table is NOTHING compared to what Jerry Sandusky did. Coaches recruiting illiterate athletes is NOTHING compared to Joe Paterno and the Penn State administration turning a blind eye to what Sandusky did. Players getting cars or no-show jobs from rich fans is NOTHING compared to what happened at Penn State. If Cam Newton was paid 100 grand at Auburn, that wouldn’t amount to a hill of beans compared to what happened at Penn State. All the usual college football scandals that Joe Paterno used to denounce are small potatoes to the crime and the coverup at Penn State. Only a handful of incidents at other schools even compare. Not since the rapist/thug Lawrence Phillips was coddled by Nebraska fans and coaches, while the woman he assaulted was vilified, have I been so disgusted by a major college football program. Paterno is a thousand times worse than Jerry Tarkanian, Barry Switzer, Dennis Erickson, Pete Carroll, Butch Davis, Jackie Sherrill, or ANY of the run-of-the-mill corrupt college coaches Paterno used to look down on. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 3:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/9 "2011-11-09T15:59:57Z")
Paterno just announced that he’s retiring at the end of the season. ---
**Author:** ![kidchameleon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@kidchameleon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidchameleon)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/10 "2011-11-09T16:02:09Z")
Does the NCAA have any jurisdiction to lay down punishment on Penn State for the scandal? ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/11 "2011-11-09T16:08:47Z")
I’m not sure. The alleged abuser and the administrators who covered it up could find themselves in jail, Paterno is leaving, and the university president may be following him out the door. That seems more appropriate than slapping sanctions on the program. I agree that college football looks especially dirty this year, but there was a plane crash in Russia earlier this year that killed several dozen hockey players, and there have been a couple of accidents like that over the last few decades. This Penn State thing is despicable, but the other issues in college football are not nearly on that level. Isn’t the death of several dozen athletes worse than a couple of recruiting scandals and a bunch of nonsense about conference affiliations? The NBA might cancel its season, baseball gone through several steroid crises, and the NFL had its issues with handling concussions, not to mention several high-profile players getting into big trouble with the law. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/12 "2011-11-09T16:24:59Z")
> [@kidchameleon](#): > > Does the NCAA have any jurisdiction to lay down punishment on Penn State for the scandal? I would assume the lack of institutional control rules would apply to this type of situation. I doubt the NCAA will do anything, though. They’ll probably say something about letting the law take care of it. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/13 "2011-11-09T16:54:46Z")
What’s happening at Penn State then? ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/14 "2011-11-09T16:56:06Z")
> [@Jim\_s\_Son](#): > > The second year of the NHL in 1919 had the Stanley Cup cancelled by an outbreak of Spanish influence s That cracked me up. I had images of a load of Spaniards teaching Canadians new and more exciting ways of playing hockey, causing the fuddy-duddy purists to lose it and cancel the competition in protest. ---
**Author:** ![astorian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ad7895/32.png) [@astorian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astorian)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/15 "2011-11-09T17:02:23Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > What’s happening at Penn State then? The same kind of pedophile scandal that’s plagued the Catholic Church in recent years. A prominent football coach at Pen State University was molesting boys. His superiors and other people in the administration apparently knew and did almost nothing about it. Penn State University and their head coach Joe Paterno are almost unknown in Europe, but among American football fans, Paterno and his program have always been held up as a shining example of amatuer sports at its best. They were widely seen as models of rectitude, as a football program free of scandal. That only makes the revelations worse. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/16 "2011-11-09T17:06:52Z")
I think this is probably the worst because I suspect that Sandusky is a moustache-twirling pure criminal sociopath who, instead of murdering people and keeping their eyeballs in a jar, rapes young boys. He enjoys it. He enjoys flaunting it. He established homes for needy children which he used to choose children for sex. He used to bring children who he had raped the night before to Penn State games. When he was interviewed about this at his house, he came to the door and, instead of collapsing in a heap of quivering shame, he sort of proudly faced the media and said something along the lines of “Well, I’m not really supposed to talk about all that.” He admitted abusing a child to his mother’s face, for fuck’s sake. He was caught raping a child in the showers of the PennState locker room. He’s a soulless BTK-style freak. Somehow, a true Ted Bundy-type predator has wormed his way into one of the most nominally upstanding college programs in the country - one of the true traditional foundation stones of the entire sport - and completely rotted it to the core. It’s like a bad movie. I have a hard time believing this is happening. ---
**Author:** ![Ogre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecb155/32.png) [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/17 "2011-11-09T17:14:55Z")
I should acknowledge all the other scandals in the past year, I guess, but really, getting paid for autographs is peanuts compared to what’s happening at Penn State right now. ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/18 "2011-11-09T17:50:04Z")
I’d still vote for the Black Sox. People forget (91 years later) that the entire basis for the sport was being seriously questioned-gambling had corrupted things to such a degree (the Black Sox were just the tip of the iceberg) that pundits at the time weren’t sure if the sport could recover. Then Babe Ruth and Mountain Landis came along, energizing the fans and laying down the law respectively, and it did recover. The Penn State thing affects just one university and in no way threatens the core of what college football is all about. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/19 "2011-11-09T17:56:46Z")
Woah. Thanks for the explanations guys. That’s nasty. ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339/20 "2011-11-09T18:00:40Z")
Of course in the very, very old days, college football was so violent that it was sometimes fatal for players. In 1905, _19_ players were killed because of formations like the Flying V. There was some talk of banning the sport entirely. Instead, wholesale changes were made to the rules- including the introduction of the forward pass. The NCAA also evolved because of those issues. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-any-sport-ever-had-a-worse-year-than-college-football-this-year/602339.md?page=2)