Re: Penn State alumni resentment hangs over Corbett
If I recall, the NCAA threatened the dreaded “death penalty” if Penn State did not agree. Invoking the death penalty negatively affects recruiting for years to come. When they make you an offer you can’t refuse, you don’t refuse. When the heat of the moment passes you can always go back to court and try to straighten it out.
It matters not what the NCAA says, you cannot erase Joe Pa’s record. You can burn the books but not the knowledge.
EDITOR: Excellent approach, if that were indeed the case. Problem is we have little confidence that is what actually took place.
We were likely the first among the media to read and report upon the NCAA By Laws. There exists a very thorough investigatory process which is subject to appeal from the administration to representatives of all of the universities.
How many universities would have wanted to cede such new powers to the NCAA, powers that do not exist in its constitution? How many would have held Penn State’s football program responsible for what an errant retired professor was suspected of having done in its field house?
We think that Gov. Tom Corbett did not want the type of thorough investigation that the NCAA By Laws required and which, at the appeal stage, would have become public.
It was his pleading (through surrogates) for an immediate decision that caused the NCAA to impose draconian penalties. The NCAA had no choice because they were not allowed to perform a normal investigation.
