USA TODAY: …The NCAA acknowledges it did not conduct its own investigation nor follow its typical procedures for infractions, but it said the severity of the violations as outlined in the Freeh Report prompted it to take immediate action through the NCAA executive committee.
“The executive committee has the authority when it believes something is of a big enough and significant enough nature that it should exercise its ability to expedite the process of reviewing cases,” Ed Ray, chairman of the committee and president of Oregon State, told USA TODAY Sports last month.
Erickson signed the consent decree to avoid a potential four-year death penalty which would have shuttered the football program entirely. Ray said some members of the NCAA executive committee did vote initially to impose the death penalty, and that would have become a strong possibility — in addition to the other penalties — had Penn State rejected the consent decree and opted to go through the infractions process… (more)
EDITOR: That the NCAA claims it was planning to bypass its own ‘By Laws’ by dispensing with an investigation sheds new light on the matter, although it seems farfetched. The timing of the NCAA comments suggest desperation on the part of Erickson and the NCAA leadership to avoid any investigation.
If indeed the NCAA was contemplating an executive committee ruling, thus bypassing its constitution and by laws, then it was acting little different from a lynch mob. Organizations’ constitutions and by laws exist in part to avoid precipitous and emotional actions by leaders.
