Can We Stop Saying The NCAA Isn’t Penalizing Penn State’s Players?

July 24th, 2012 09:00 AM║ Posted By: John Pennington ║ Permalink
Tags: NCAA, Nittany Lion, Nittany Lions, Penn State

In the car Monday and listening to more talk radio than any man should, I heard one point made again and again and again following the announcement of the NCAA’s penalties against Penn State. In the view of many, the NCAA is not penalizing the current Nittany Lion players in the least.

“They can transfer and go anywhere they want!” the argument goes.

Well, judging from those players’ current locale, it would seem that they wanted to go to Penn State.

But now those student-athletes — who the NCAA always wants to focus on first, mind you — have a choice to make: Make a rushed decision and leave PSU for another program or stay put at the school they chose to sign with and miss out on all postseason games for four years. To this writer, that indeed is the NCAA penalizing the current Penn State players.

Whether you like the NCAA’s ruling or not — and most fans do — this particular myth needs to be put down before it spreads further. The NCAA is penalizing the Nittany Lions’ players for actions they had no control over.

Sure, that happens quite a bit when NCAA sanctions are handed down. But rarely do so many people go out of their way to try and suggest that what’s easily observable to all isn’t actually happening.

Why so many people want to throw up a smokescreen around Monday’s ruling and its impact on this particular group of players is beyond me.

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16 comments

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fijivol

Thanks a lot, John, for forcing me to agree wholeheartedly with a gator. Gatorwhisperer hit the nail on the head. The institution is who is being punished, and as long as they choose to be so, the kids are part of the institution. If "unfairly punishing innocent kids" were the standard for who could and could not be punished for their actions, then we couldn't incarcerate Sandusky because, you know, he's got kids who had nothing to do with this.

John at MrSEC moderator

@fijivol

Did this report say not to punish those kids? I don't see that anywhere.

Nope. It says please stop saying they aren't being punished. Had nothing to do with whether they should or shouldn't be punished. I just got tired of listening to people state the players "can go wherever they like" as though they weren't victims of this as well (though to a much lesser extent, obviously).

You saw what you wanted to see and commented on that... NOT on what I wrote.

John

fijivol

1 Like

@John at MrSEC

Comment on what you wrote? I can do that. You wrote, "What more punishment is needed? Joe Paterno is dead. Sandusky will die in prison. Others in PSU’s administration have lost their jobs, been vilified in the press, and may find themselves subject to legal prosecution. Hell, all that’s left is to burn the campus down because bad things happened there at one time."

You obviously feel that as far as the NCAA is concerned, they should have done nothing. Having read that, I saw this particular article as nothing more than furthering that stance, with a slightly different slant. So yes, you are right, the players are being punished, as part of the institution. And yes, it does suck for them. And yes, they will bear the most visible brunt of the punishment. But no, they were not the group that the NCAA was after.

Something else you wrote, " it would seem that they wanted to go to Penn State". Well, they probably also wanted PSU to not lose scholarships and bowl trips, or be the location of a horrible coverup. We don't always get what we want. Given the circumstances, I say the NCAA was a fair as they possible could be to the players.

John at MrSEC moderator

@fijivol

I don't see the first quotes in the story above. Maybe you should have left comments about those views under that other story. It's a separate topic.

As for the second quote, yes, that is above. But I also didn't say in the post above that the NCAA shouldn't have punished Penn State. In fact, I stated clearly, whether you like the punishments -- most do -- or not, it's time for people to stop trying to make themselves feel better by saying the players weren't punished. Which is what I heard all day Monday on national talk radio and that's why I posted the above nugget.

You say, "But no, they were not the group that the NCAA was after." I don't recall saying they were. I only suggested that they were, in fact, collateral damage in spite of the opinions my Sirius/XM player kept delivering to me Monday.

John

RoadTrip

Bad things happen. Innocent people get affected. Life is like that. All of the players on their roster bought into the lie that Joe Pa ran a tight program that did things right. Really? Did they not read the news reports of the arrests through the years? Boys will be boys is literally what Joe Pa said to theTV media when questioned. Handle the punishment internally so they miss little playing time. Kind of the approach he took with his right hand guy (Sandusky) all those years. Boys will be boys, right?

The lesson: buyer beware. If you are a parent of a HS football recruit, please do your due diligence and be prepared to change courses if necessary. Prepare your son for what can happen.

Gamecock in ATL

Agree it's a myth that the players are not being penalized. They are, which is unfortunate since they are 'innocent' in this case. Also punished are the fans ... this is a tough pill to swallow for another group of 'innocents' here.

However, the NCAA punished the Institution known as Penn State, and there's bound to be lots of collateral damage.

That said ... it's a good reminder of perspective - all of this 'collateral damage' is meaningless in the big picture of life, but what Sandusky did has created heartache and turmoil that will last a lifetime. May God be with the real victims here.

Bob Burchel

1 Like

John,

Are student-athletes from all sports able to transfer? They should be able to because with football taking such a financial hit, all programs at PSU will suffer. There will surely be cuts made to these programs that will affect their ability to compete. Maybe not initially, but down the road. Also, what is the time frame that these student-athletes must make their decision? They should be able to transfer after this season as well.

AllTideUp

@Bob Burchel The Big Ten said they are also depriving PSU of their share of bowl money that would come in over the next few years. That's a fair punishment seeing as PSU is banned from the postseason, but still more revenue that would be used to prop up all the other sports.

DanHogan

@Bob Burchel Emmert claims that he expects PSU to handle paying the fees without impacting other sports or academics at the school. The real question is how much money will then lose on the revenue side. TV revenues should be stable since they are split by the conference. We'll just have to see how much money they lose from the home games. They've already lost one sponsor but I would guess they will still fill up the stadium and everyone will still buy their hot dogs and hot chocolate. If the revenue losses are not huge, other sports could conceivably not be impacted directly.

gatorwhisperer

2 Like

The students are not the **target** of the punishment, the institution is. The players (and students and faculty and alumni and fans) are not the target, they are simply collateral damage - wrong place, wrong time, sorry, life happens, find another school if you don't like it. The NCAA seems to have done everything in its power to minimize the impact of the (well deserved) sanctions on the athletes.

I'm going to lobby for the "Coeds of the SEC" articles again - especially over PSU articles. They would be much more fun and drive just as much traffic.

John at MrSEC moderator

@gatorwhisperer

"Sorry, life happens." That's a nice attitude.

As far as suggesting "Coeds of the SEC," I think you'd be much more comfortable at a different site. There are several such slideshows on Bleacher Reports and "Boob Drafts" can be found elsewhere. You'll love 'em.

But that's not the site we're running around here these days.

John

DanHogan

1 Like

I'm don't know how the NCAA could punish programs that break the rules without hurting all of the players who had nothing to do with it. Money and money alone? Force individual coaches to pay fines? Or give the NCAA ability to remove coaches (we saw what happened after rumors that the B1G might be thinking about it)? Reduce ability to recruit? Those methods just don't seem to be enough.

When it comes to the system of sanctions, to say it is an imperfect system is an understatement. But it seems to be the least worst alternative.

John at MrSEC moderator

@DanHogan

I'm not arguing any of that. Just stating that anyone who's trying to say the players at Penn State aren't being punished -- and they were all over national talk radio yesterday -- weren't being very honest about the situation.

Thanks for reading the site, as always.

John

MoKelly1

1 Like

I agree --- it is foolish to say the current players are not being penalized. Whenever leadership at any institution (colleges or businesses) made huge mistakes, the entire organization is penalized. When a company goes bankrupt due to errors by its leaders, all employees suffer - not just the leaders, Sure, the employees van find another job somewhere else, but its not what they wanted. Same with Penn State. Their leaders messed up big time and now the entire institution is suffering. Lesson learned --- make darn sure your leaders are top notch in all aspects of leadership.

John at MrSEC moderator

@MoKelly1

No disagreement here.

John

waxabi

The NCAA is doing the players a favor. Who would want to be a part of that chaos up there?

Reality: the Penn State these guys came to play for was reduced to crap before the NCAA piled on. That being said, these guys now have options - including the option to stay.

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