NCAA Gives Joe Paterno Wins Back, Completes Penn State Backtracking

The NCAA already walked back its postseason ban on scholarship reductions for Penn State. Now, to settle a lawsuit, Joe Paterno is getting his wins back. Adjust your record books accordingly. Penn State still will donate $60m to sexual abuse programs and retain George Mitchell to ensure Penn State reports suspected child rapists to the proper authorities. The agreement also acknowledges the NCAA had a “legitimate and good faith interest” to act, even though virtually every action it took has been rescinded.

So, the NCAA was asinine. But, it had the right to do so and it did so in good faith!

This action was a failure. That failure was apparent at the time. The Sandusky scandal was outside and beyond the NCAA’s purview. The cleanest answer was to do nothing and let legal processes play out. A tougher, idealistic stance would have been to point out things are more important than football by shutting down the program for a time (may have happened in an Olympic sport). The NCAA did the worst thing possible: come down hard between those two extremes.

The NCAA had no precedent. It went outside its normal investigation and committee processes. It tried to assess the gravity of a heinous crime in scholarships and postseason berths. It strong-armed Penn State into an ill-considered deal. It did this all without having bothered to read the Freeh Report.

Four probable outcomes were (a) making Penn State less good at football (b) breeding resentment (c) reframing public attention toward the trivial football aspect of this and (d) creating an unenforceable morass that would lead to just this sort of lawsuit. The NCAA went four for four.

Settling this debacle was in the NCAA’s best interest, with existential lawsuits and comprehensive changes to its business model afoot. Every one settle in and choose sides for the super fun statue debate. Should be a doozy.

[Photo via USAT]