Penn State Is Back!

[eagle eye]

The Penn State program, originally banned from bowl participation, severe scholarship reductions, fines and other sanctions got a repreive from the NCAA because in the words of Northern Arizona president Rita Hartung Cheung who chaired the NCAA Executive Meeting yesterday, "Penn State's commitment to the integrity of its athletics department and its progress toward meeting the requirements of the Consent Decree are clear. "We thank Senator Mitchell for his meticulous and exhaustive work over the past two years. Mitchell's efforts and the dedication of Penn State officials made today's decisions possible."
South Carolina president Harris Pastides added, "Penn State has made remarkable progress over the past year. "The board members and I believe the Executive Committee's decision is the right one. It allows both the university and the association to continue to move toward a common goal of ensuring that educating, nurturing and protecting young people is a top priority."
Long story short, Penn State had their bowl eligibility restored for 2014 and their scholarships have been fully restored beginning in 2015. The job Bill O'Brien in his two years at Penn State and the current coach James Franklin have done remarkable jobs recruiting and fielding competitive teams despite the sanctions levied by the NCAA following the Jerry Sandusky scandal. In fact the lifting of the scholarship sanctions just enhances the ability of Franklin and his staff to add to what is already considered a top recruiting class.
I said at the time I thought Penn State wouldn't be the disaster everyone was predicting. O'Brien in his first year led the Nitnany Lions to an 8-4 record and the NCAA Coach of the Year honors in 2012 despite the loss of several players who were allowed to transfer because of the sanctions. The rest of the team stayed at Penn State and acquitted themselves in a very high fashion.
Penn State got the good news on the heels of the top 3 teams in the Big 10 losing this past weekend. Ohio State, Michigan and Michigan State all lost while State upped their record on the season to 2-0 after beating Akron 21-3 last Saturday and UCF 26-24 the week before. Penn State is tied for the Big 10 East lead with Rutgers who is 2-0 as well. Good news for the Nittany Lions and IMO finally clear heads have prevailed.

[Big T]

The kids should have never been punished like this. I agree. This is the best thing that could have happened.

[LUSportsFan]

I think something needed to be done when an assistant coach is sentenced to at least 30 years on 45 counts. The head coach, university vice-president, university president, and others kept the thing quiet.

Something should have been happening to stop what was going on. It's tough on the kids after the fact, but it appears to me that there was wrong doing at all levels of the university.

[KABrother88]

I was very vocal in disagreement with the sanctions when they were first announced in 2012...I felt like the NCAA overstepped their bounds and tried to make a terrible legal issue into an athletic issue. Everyone associated alleged cover-up is either waiting for his day in court or has already had his trail at the pearly gates. The man who committed the horrendous crimes is behind bars for the rest of his life. Players on today's Nittany Lion team weren't even born when Sandusky began his acts...why should they he punished for the crimes of another man? I completely agree there should have been some repercussion for the university (and there was a $60 million fine) but the NCAA decided that wasn't enough. I truly believe NCAA president Mark Emmert thought these sanctions would eventually kill the football program an he wouldn't be know as the guy who have PSU the death penalty...yet since then PSU has recorded 2 winning seasons and is 2-0 this year...add that with a top 10 recruiting class at the moment and it's easy to see PSU isn't going anywhere. Also people have pointed out how bad the B1G performed the weekend before this news and feel it's linked...I think it has more to do with the numerous lawsuits currently against the NCAA because of all of this

[CS]

The people at Penn State are all in for covering up what went on up there. Anyone who supports them or thinks the punishment was too harsh needs to be sent to a mental institution. They should shut the entire program down. They supported child sex offenders. That is disgusting. They STILL support the man.
The kids had the option to leave and seek new teams and schools, therefore, they chose to take the punishment given. ABsolutely pathetic group of people. DISGUSTING.

[KABrother88]

Players left for numerous reason and accepting the NCAA's punishment was not one of them...in fact, most of the upperclassmen stayed because they disagreed with them so much they wanted to be sure PSU stayed afloat and didn't send itself into a death penalty. Academically, Penn State is one of the more prestigious universities in the country. When your playing days are over, prospective employers will think more highly of you if you have a degree from there vs schools the players transferred to. Also some players felt a duty to be loyal to the school that gave then the opportunity to play college football while obtain a degree. One point about the sanctions (and most sanctions in general) that I don't like is the reduction in scholarships. To me that just creates a trickle effect that ends up with X number of high school kids not being able to attend college because they can't afford it. This coming from a guy who had to work a full-time job while going to school to be able to afford it and still end up with student loan debt...but I was lucky enough to not have the circumstances some kids have to deal with.

As for the people supporting Paterno, I defended him in the beginning because I didn't believe he was directly involved in the alleged coverup. Later on I decided that PSU made the right decision on letting him go (although I think it could have been handled better). You can't take a chance on keeping someone linked to that. No one will probably ever know exactly how much he knew and because I that I now choose to not support nor condemn his side . With that being said he was an idol there and it will take more than unconfirmed reports to sway their opinion. And after all CS, as you said a while back, everyone can have an OPINION right?