Big Ten Sends A Strong Message to Penn State, But Will It Lead To Anything?
By Ty Duffy
There’s too much money and legal wrangling involved to kick Penn State out or to suspend any programs from play. Punitive sanctions would be trivial as this failure goes far beyond football. How do you value facilitating a potential child rape in lost scholarships? This isn’t competitively advantageous behavior that must be deterred. Sanctions would be punishing bystanders for PR purposes.
“Stress tests” to ensure schools operate athletic departments responsibly and no individual becomes Paterno-level untouchable are noble in conception. In practice, truly doing that would require the Big Ten to pull an Ivy League and retreat from top-level college athletics. Individuals at Penn State made serious moral misjudgments, but the close-mouthed culture that facilitated them exists at every major program. This could have been Michigan. This could have been Ohio State.
The motives of Big Ten higher-ups are understandable. Like everyone else they feel disgusted and angry. They wish they could have done something more. They have an overwhelming urge to do something now. The trouble is Penn State already cleaned out the culpable. The legal process and the subsequent civil suits still need to play out. There’s not much from a sports perspective that can be done. [Photo via Getty]