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In a historic action, the
NCAA handed down severe penalties to the Penn State football program. The
Nittany Lions have been fined $60 million; banned from bowl games for 4
years; had their scholarship limit reduced from 85 per year to 65 and their
maximum new scholarships per year reduced from 25 to 15 for the same 4 year
time period (making it unlikely they’d win enough games to go to a bowl game
anyway); and vacated all 112 wins since the 1998 season. Not wanting to pass
up a chance to kick some dirt on a member school when they’re down, the Big
10 (give or take a few) conference announced that PSU would not be receiving
their share of conference bowl revenue for 4 years, a further financial hit
estimated at $13 million.
The penalties were the most
severe handed down since SMU got the death penalty in 1987. Some have argued
that PSU was actually hit harder. But the historic aspect was not the size
of the penalties nor their impact on PSU but rather the brave new world the
NCAA decided to create for itself.
There are two unprecedented
elements to this situation. The first is the galling power grab by NCAA
president (and Newt Gingrich look-alike) Mark Emmert. The NCAA rules
enforcement process has often been called slow and toothless. But the key
word was “process” – there had always been a standardized way of proceeding
to make sure there is not a rush to inferior judgment.
The NCAA had always allowed
its own form of due process – schools were notified of being investigated
and given a chance to cooperate and, if they so chose, provide their side of
the story and rebut evidence or statements against them. They also had the
opportunity to appeal a ruling. Moreover, though it had no subpoena power
(and perhaps because of this fact), the NCAA infractions committee had
always waited for relevant information to come out before acting.
In this case none of that
was followed. The NCAA had the results of the Freeh report but there were
still at least two criminal trials of key scandal figures in the offing.
Those could have provided more evidence as to what really happened and what
the motives were. The NCAA also could have interviewed members of the
Paterno family and former coaches and staffers to get a better idea of what
went on at Pedo State. It could have allowed the university a chance to
present an argument or defense.
Instead, Emmert usurped
power in a way never before seen in college athletics. The NCAA president
has never had the power of a pro sports commissioner and was never intended
to. Emmert claimed that this was necessary because of the heinous nature of
Pedo State’s actions, that this case called for expedience of punishment.
Handing over power to a single individual in the name of expedience with the
belief that “hey, he won’t abuse it, seems like a decent enough guy” has
historically not yielded the best consequences. Fortunately, the NCAA can’t
declare war.
Asked about the reason for
the rush to punish, Emmert said, “There was no compelling reason to delay
the process." Except that he didn’t delay it, he sidestepped it and then
obliterated it. Penn State was given a choice, a death penalty of up to 4
years (SMU, the only death penalty recipient in NCAA history, got a 1 year
sentence) or swallowing whatever Emmert decided upon. That’s it, that’s the
“process”.
What was the compelling
reason to act with such haste, to trample on due process and to make an
unprecedented power grab? The heinous crimes had stopped – Jerry Sandusky is
in jail awaiting sentencing on over 40 guilty counts involving sexual
assault on children. The people in charge of the cover-up are either dead or
out of power, and most in the latter group are awaiting criminal trial.
Moreover, PSU – being about
a decade late to the “child rape is probably not a good thing to sweep under
the rug” realization - had been acting exceptionally contrite in recent
months. They fired Joe Paterno, a previously sainted local institution for
over 50 years, along with the university president and others involved with
the scandal. They hired a former head of the FBI, Freeh, to investigate them
and gave Freeh unfettered access to all records, emails, etc. The report he
produced on their dime and with their cooperation was scathing and will
likely add to the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars PSU will pay out
in civil suit damages. The crimes had stopped, perpetrators removed, and the
institution contrite – how is this a situation that needs unprecedented
levels of intervention, how is this a situation that requires throwing away
democratic principles?
This brings up the second
historic element – the NCAA had no reason to act at all regardless of the
timing. This was not an NCAA issue and should not have involved the NCAA in
solving it nor in punishment for atrocious actions and inactions. This was a
human issue and a criminal issue. This was being rightly sorted out by the
courts of criminal justice, civil justice, and public opinion. Laws were
broken and those breaking them are being held accountable. Paterno is dead
and has paid with his legacy and his heretofore good name.
The NCAA’s primary role has
been to keep the playing field as level as possible. This has meant things
like having a uniform rulebook for all games within a sport (imagine college
basketball if the PAC12 used NBA rules and the Big East used international
rules); making sure every school has the same maximum number of scholarships
and coaches available; and making sure no one is paying players or buying
recruits.
Given this role, the NCAA
has typically investigated and punished issues that have to do with players.
Someone took Derek Rose’s SAT for him so Memphis no longer played in the
men’s basketball championship game. Reggie Bush’s family got, amongst other
things, a free house (and during the height of the housing bubble!) so USC
got slapped. Todd Bozeman paid Jelani Gardner’s parents and he got
effectively banned from coaching college basketball for several years. NCAA
rules and punishments had to do with even playing fields and focused on
issues involving student athletes.
The NCAA had never before
taken an interest in what coaches and administrators do in their personal
lives or in anything not relating to the teams’ on field performance. If a
coach got a DUI or was caught snorting lines off a hooker’s chest Chris
Farley style, the NCAA stayed out of it. If a coach arranged for someone to
write a paper or take a test for a player, the NCAA stepped in. The NCAA’s
rules for coaches only have to do with player and potential player
interaction – how many times can you call a recruit, how many different
coaches can provide instruction or do recruiting, etc – and otherwise left
the regulation of the coaches to the schools, the law, and the public.
In the Pedo State case, a
former assistant coach was seen by a then-current assistant coach, Mike
McQuery, doing horrible, immoral, and illegal things to a child in a PSU
locker-room shower. It appears that the men running the university,
including Paterno, decided against going to the authorities with this
information and also took no action to seek out and help the young victim.
It was reprehensible and
irresponsible behavior. Everyone involved should be thoroughly shamed and
some are justly facing prison time. The institution and community need to
examine themselves and make sure that this kind of thing can never happen
again. But with that said, this was not an NCAA issue. This was not the
purview of the NCAA.
The fundamental question is
whether or not PSU obtained an unfair competitive advantage by not going to
the authorities in 2001. The answer is simply and flatly no. Sandusky wasn’t
even on the coaching staff by 2001 and had nothing to do with PSU’s on field
results. If PSU had gone to the authorities immediately (as they should have
done) then there would be no claims of any wrongdoing on the school’s part
and no specter of NCAA sanctions. Contrast that with the earlier examples of
Rose, Gardner, and Bush. The moment Bush’s parents took a payment he was
ineligible. The same goes for Gardner. The moment Rose failed to have a
passing SAT score that he himself took he was ineligible. That loss of a
player has an immediate impact on the field, covering that up is trying to
get a further unfair competitive advantage. The moment Sandusky violated a
child in the shower nothing changed as far as the NCAA was concerned,
nothing changed in terms of wins and losses.
That Emmert decided to
vacate wins back to 1998 shows that this was a petty and vindictive move by
the NCAA, an overreaction seeking to make the school presidents look and
feel powerful, to boost egos and score public relations points. As far as
the public and NCAA know, PSU didn’t do anything wrong in between 1998 and
2001. Sandusky was accused of despicable acts in 1998 but the proper
authorities were notified and, after an investigation, they decided not to
pursue prosecution. At that point what did the NCAA want PSU to do? Take out
a full page ad in the New York Times proclaiming that there’s a chance that
their defensive coordinator may be a pedophile but they have no conclusive
evidence?
Let’s for a moment take the
heinous nature of Sandusky’s crimes out of the equation. After all,
pedophilia is not against NCAA rules and thus PSU must be getting punished
for sweeping a crime (against state or federal law) under the rug. Let’s say
that instead of pedophilia, Sandusky was growing marijuana plants and
getting high all the time. Let’s say McQuery walked in on Sandusky
hot-boxing a shower stall, told Paterno, who told his superiors and everyone
decided it was something that didn’t need police or prosecutorial
involvement. Would the NCAA have tried to end the football program for 4
years (and effectively likely much longer)?
The Jerry Sandusky crimes and cover-up are
simply not in the jurisdiction of the NCAA and in no way justifies Emmert
grandstanding and profiteering off the situation by making himself the
omnipotent czar of collegiate athletics. The NCAA punishing Pedo State
football for their school administration deciding that the strongest
response it should give to someone raping children is along the lines of
“it’d be swell if you could rape children elsewhere next time” may make some
feel good but is not the proper channel for punitive and corrective action.
It makes only slightly more sense than the DMV deciding that all PSU
employees’ car registrations are cancelled because of the scandal. This
should not have been the NCAA or Emmert’s call.
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