There will be Penn State whining over this, but these sanctions are entirely the minimum appropriate.

If Penn State fans are upset about this, they can always turn their heads and pretend like it isn't happening...

Oh gee. Old Joe must fess up at Heaven's door? Does god recognize NCAA punishments or will Old Joe be returned to purgatory? Sheesh. What foolishness. Those victories no more belonged exclusively to Old Joe than they do to Paul Greenbean.

BOOM goes the dynamite; well deserved

cdawg all it takes is hit shift and then the g and God will be capitolized.

The Pope must be feeling pretty lucky about now. Sanctions do seem to rope in the players who had nothing to do with the failures of leadership.

Punishment almost always hits more than the guilty. A prison sentence many times hurts wives, husbands, parents or kids more than the one in jail.

Not a Penn State fan, but the punishment is inappropriate. Punishing a football team/program for something like this is a dangerous precedent. The NCAA exists to enforce rules relating to interscholastic competitions, not to enforce laws or morality codes. The chief criminal is in jail for the rest of his life and his enablers are dead or fired and those that are alive will likely be following him to jail soon. The victims will likely exact a significant financial penalty from the institution. Punishment is clearly merited and will be imposed by the proper authorities, but the NCAA isn't anything like the proper authority and punishments regarding the football team's won-loss record and ability to offer scholarships and go to bowl games are completely unrelated to the issue at hand.

Whippersnapper I gotta disagree with you (though I get your point about the NCAA but this is unprecedented) just based on 1 fact; they are taking the $60 million and donating it to child abuse charities. Also the Big 10 is going to donate PSU's share of what would have been Big 10 bowl revenue for the next 4 years to charities also. This is why I think it is a good decision. The NCAA is also sending a message that you don't let your football department run your school or you will suffer.

mejor, those were lucid, well-thought out comments. Makes me wonder what you're indulging in as the day wears on. Because by evening, you're usually ranting like a Fox News blonde. Wouldn't it be great if the NCAA would act as firmly and give us a football playoff so we can know who truly is the national champ every year?

Mejor,
There will be major financial penalties by lots of folks against Penn State and lots of money will go from them to organizations like that. It still does not make it the right call by the NCAA. That's like saying that if you go shoot a convicted murderer then it's O.K. because he could have been sentenced to death and executed anyway. The right folks ought to impose appropriate penalties. This smacks of vigilante justice.

Beer if there is one thing you can learn is whatever you do, do not take what I say seriously. I'm not going to lie about anything about me (though sometimes I purposefully do it about something political to make Aimee go find something to prove me wrong), but I post most things just to see how people react. Half the time I post something and don't even read what anyone says. Anyway all of these people wanting to castigate the NCAA need to step back and think about the victims first. I do not care what other money is involved; there is going to be at least $60 million going to great causes because of the NCAA. If the NCAA saves just ONE KID from being raped it is the right thing. Yes to the playoff for sure!

The victories of Penn State are in the history books. Saying the wins are not wins is just plain stupid. History is history and saying the sun rises in the south and sets in the north does not make it so. As for the fines, and probation, ok. Send the message that misconduct is not tolerated, but pretending the wins didn't happen? Asinine!

I agree kinggeorge with the taking the wins away statement; that is like being in court and the attorney (defense/prosecutor) making a statement that is over ruled and the judge telling the jury "PLEASE DISREGARD THE LAST STATEMENT"; you can not do that due to the fact they have heard the statement and you can not pluck out of someone's mind what what they already heard. It is a sad day for Penn State and I am so sorry that the current team and staff and the future teams are going to have to suffer because of this ugly situation.

I agree with whippersnapper. The NCAA should never have made that decision. What about the players that won all the games since 1998? Why should they be punished? I seriously doubt that these sanctions are going to have any effect on whether other kids are abused or not....doubt an abuser is going to care about Penn State's football program!!!

But the main reason the whole issue was covered up was so Joe Pa could continue on his winning ways until he became the winningest coach in history. I think it would be very inappropriate under the circumstances to let Joe continue to hold that record.

Just think what would happen if the Vatican had to answer to the NCAA: No Christmas for 4 years!

Whether or not the NCAA should have made these sanctions is irrelevant, because they DID make these sanctions. Let me ask you whip... what if that had happened to YOUR son and you found out someone SAW IT HAPPENING and did NOTHING about it? How would you feel then? In reality, the win/loss record of a school is meaningless compared to what those kids lost. I think the point is that, if you see this happening, it should be reported immediately. Period.

About 79% of people polled think the NCAA either did the right thing or should have been harder PSU.

Seems to me that the team is suffering .. They won those games by working hard and are entitled to be rewaraded for that ! not be allowed to share in the conference’s bowl revenue I don't believe it was the "TEAM" that molested young men or boys..... so why are the team and stundents of Pen State being punished? they should only punish the guilty not the innocent .

Well I guess Bobby Bowden is gloating now....Ever since he was forced out at Florida State all he's done is gripe about not getting the chance to be the all time winningest coach in NCAA history.

They can always put themselves in the shoes of those children who were brutally molested and think how unfair these sanctions are. Those kids will never be able to forget. Thank you NCAA!

Vocal, if your boss did something illegal that you did not know about and had no hand in, should you go to prison with him, too?

Sorry folks, but I have to agree with Whippersnapper. For one, I'm not sure the NCAA has ANY authority to impose even $1 in fines, much less $60M. For another, vacating 14 years of JoePa victories is WAY over the top; it seems to be aimed at JoePa personally and has NOTHING to do with the "fruit" of the violation (the usual reason for vacating victories, i.e., playing an ineligible player). But the worst part is, I do *NOT* believe the mere fact that Penn State supposedly "accepted" the Freeh Report (which I do NOT believe to be the final word, especially as to JoePa) justifies the NCAA ignoring its OWN due-process rules in imposing the penalty!
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If I were a judge, I would enjoin the entire penalty as arbitrary, capricious, and defamatory to JoePa personally (and probably Penn State as an institution), and order the NCAA to send it thru the usual channels for a more appropriate penalty. (All of the above is consistent with NCAA v. Tarkanian, as they can all be used against private entities like the NCAA.) Yes, I believe Penn State as an institution should be punished; its upper leadership clearly hid Sandusky's crimes, the epitome of "lack of institutional control". (I also think there needs to be a cooling-off period over JoePa; I do believe he's the victim of a posthumous witch hunt by leaders hiding their own complicity.) But THIS set of penalties is TOTALLY inappropriate!

Beer WTH? No one is going to prison that does not deserve it (so far it's only Sandusky). The NCAA has nothing to do with any prison terms; they only meted out everything else. Anyway it does not matter since I am sure PSU most likely signed an agreement letter(that is legally binding) preventing them from taking legal action.

Nottany Lions.

The unfortunate truth is that there is no way to mete out appropriate punishment in this situation without collateral damage. Our military metes out collateral damage all the time and most sport fans and conservatives don't give a flying flip. They should have imposed the death penalty until every member of the team and staff from the time of the crimes was gone, then start clean and play again. Maybe then people would understand what you are supposed to do when you are aware of a crime! How many that we don't even know about knew or suspected something and didn't go to the police?
I am sick of the whining of Paterno's family and the students ever since the crimes came to light. Paterno is just as much of a reprobate as Sandusky, or he would have put justice and doing the right thing ahead of a damn game and his career. If he had done the right thing, he could have been remembered as a virtuous, moral man, defender of the victims, and a hero. He will be remembered as a sleeze and it is what he deserves.

This institution covered up and allowed child rape to go on for years. I'm getting really tired of hearing how people not directly involved will suffer...how about the young men who were molested? There can't be enough punishment in this case.

Many comments here make it clear why a sound, uncorrupted judicial system, with judges, advocates and an appeal process is so important. If justice was subjected flabby minds and logic, and the vengeance-minded, it wouldn't be justice.

Cerveza, uncorrupted judicial system? Isn't that an oxymoron?

Beer I changed my screen name just for you

@rainbow and @ARCitizen - you are missing the point. Nobody is saying there shouldn't be punishment. What people are saying is that you should punish the guilty parties. Let's see, one party is in jail for the rest of his life. Other people responsible have lost their jobs and are facing criminal charges and/or are dead. None of them work at the university any longer and they were all in fact fired by the university when their role was discovered. How does punishing the university (and its thousands of students, faculty, and staff) satisfy any kind of thirst for justice? Oh yeah, it doesn't. It satisfies a desire for vengeance. Wherever he currently resides, I don't think Joe Paterno really cares what his career won-loss record is right now. His former players who had nothing to do with this have had all of their accomplishments wiped from the books even though NOBODY violated ANY of the rules governing those accomplishments. Is that fair? Is that just?

Thanks whipper. The frenzy going on in College Station kind of reminds me of the Salem witch hunts. Senor Evil, you should read The Ox-Bow Incident; it's about people who only react to things, let their hot heads prevail, and how disaster and injustice ensue.

Whipper every single time the NCAA has punished schools they have punished innocent people; that's a proven fact. Anyway what is done is done and unless they choose to spend millions more to fight it in court it's done. I suspect they signed off on a legally binding document anyway agreeing to not fight it in court. They have set a precedent that was needed

Beer what the heck is going on at Texas A&M? Did I miss something? Anyway back to PSU, it is what it is. As far as anything oxbow I will always think of fishing in an oxbow lake, but thanks for the advice. I will choose against it; it would not change anything in my life.

The problem I have with Paterno and probably why he was listed in the sanctions was that he knew it took place and kept him on the staff even when it was covered up. That made him an accomplice. He did what he was legally responsible to do by reporting it to his superiors. But he could have fired him the first chance he got but he didn't. He kept him on for years.

"Done" doesn't mean "right." As an extreme hyperbole (before anybody accuses me of anything) - segregation was "done" but that doesn't mean it was "right." The holocaust was "done" but that doesn't mean it was "right." The Watergate break-in was "done" but that doesn't mean it was "right." Jerry Sandusky's actions were "done" but that doesn't mean they were "right." I am not debating what was "done." I am pointing out that it was not "right."

Let me rephrase that, Senor Evil. You should read The Ox-Bow Incident. It's a fun Western with guns and horses and cattle and posses. Next time you go fishing in an oxbow, it will help you pass the time when you forget to put a hook at the end or the line.

Cerveza-you did not answer my question about Texas A&M; please tell me what you are referencing?

Poor Beer; I knew the answer all along. You screwed up again; College Station is the home of Texas A&M. State College is the home of PSU. I can always provide more help as needed.

DoctorEvil, were you ever a teacher? You sorta vaguely remind me of the worst teacher I ever had.