Death Penalty for Penn State?

"Jerry Sandusky should get the death penalty... Penn State football should, too."

Image courtesy of weeklyworldnews.com

I've seen this quote or some sort of variation in multiple southern newspapers (Birmingham News, Tennessean, Orlando Sentinel) over the past 48 hours. The death penalty is the worst punishment that the NCAA can impose upon a school. But is that an appropriate punishment for the Penn State football program?

My response to the statement proposed by these three papers and probably countless others: One absolutely does not deserve the death penalty, and the other one I probably shouldn't submit my comment.


Shall we start with a (brief) history of the so-called "death penalty" in college athletics. The NCAA has always had the power to ban a school from athletic competition in a sport for at least a year, an act which has come to be known as the death penalty. It has been implemented a total of five times in history, dating back to the 1950s.

• University of Kentucky basketball (1952-53 Season, point shaving / impermissible benefits)
• University of Southwestern Louisiana (now Louisiana-Lafayette) basketball (1973-74 and 1974-75 seasons, academic fraud / recruiting violations)
• Southern Methodist University football (1987 and 1988 seasons, recruiting violations)
• Morehouse College (D II) soccer (2004 and 2005 seasons, recruiting violations)
• MacMurray College (D III) tennis (2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons, impermissible benefits)

Kentucky was the first ever to receive the ban when numerous former players were arrested for taking bribes to shave points during their national title season in 1948-49. That led to the NCAA and SEC investigating further into the case, only to find that ten players received impermissible financial aid. Further, the coaching staff all knew that the players were ineligible but allowed them to play anyway.

The academic fraud of the Ragin' Cajuns went so far as having an assistant coach forge a signature of a high school principal. At least five players were allowed to compete even though their high school GPA predicted a below-minimum college GPA. Beyond that, impermissible benefits also helped lead to two seasons of the death penalty.

Morehouse College recruited two Nigerian soccer players even though they had played professionally (in the United States nevertheless). They even played for the school before even being enrolled there. MacMurray College tennis coach tried to obtain scholarships, impermissible for D III schools, for ten foreign recruits. The NCAA said that the coach's intentions were good. However, they were blatant violations and the death penalty was necessary.

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The most well-known and infamous occurrence of the death penalty happened to Southern Methodist. They were already on probation in 1985 for a record seventh time due to recruiting violations. Then, a player came out saying that players were still being paid. An investigation later confirmed this claim, finding that 21 players received over $60,000, most coming from a slush fund started by a booster with payments dating back to the early 1970s.The school knew about it, said it had stopped, when in reality it had not. In fact the board of governors kept a secret payment plan to honor previous commitments to its players until they graduated.

The result: 1987 season cancelled and 1988 home games cancelled (although the school chose to cancel all 1988 games). Further, their probation was extended, they lost over 50 scholarships over the next four years, and essentially could not recruit effectively (no paid campus visits, no off-campus recruiting) until the start of the 1988 school year.

These actions crippled the Mustangs, as it would be 1993 before they could field a team full of scholarship players who were unaffected by the scandal. Beyond that, numerous players naturally were hesitant to attend an institution with that history. And the results since then have not been great for the Mustangs, who have defeated only two ranked teams and had only three winning seasons since then. Beyond crippling the football program, the Southwest Conference also collapsed mainly as a result of the death penalty.

Okay, enough with the history of the death penalty. Let's talk about the possibility of the death penalty at Penn State. Let's see what columnists across the country are saying.

"[Penn State officials] knew. They had to know." (George Diaz, Orlando Sentinel)

First of all, Mr. Diaz, are assuming things that have yet to be proven. Good (typical) start.

You later state in your article that this is the most despicable crime in the history of college football. Let me be clear about this: The entire ordeal is one of the most despicable crimes in history. It has nothing to do with college football, it has nothing to do with the players, it has nothing to do with the game. If this was just any ol' professor at a university then you probably wouldn't even have heard about it down in Orlando. 

Finally, you call the Southern Methodist problem a "misdemeanor" compared to this. Agreed. So let's see, you want to punish the kids and a program for the actions of a former employee (though egregious) and an alleged cover-up (not saying they did, not saying they didn't) that had nothing to do with football or anything that could possibly lead to better performance on the field? What lesson does that teach kids? 


"...there's only one way to punish a program like that beyond the civil lawsuits the university itself is facing. Shut it down." (Kevin Scarbinsky, Birmingham News)

What NCAA violation did the Penn State football program make? How does shutting down a football program punish the right parties? There's enough punishment already being done to the program.

First, losing recruits (much like Southern Methodist did). I have no problem with recruits deciding on that. I went to Penn State, was there during this downfall, and I can honestly say this: if I was a high school senior about to go off to college, it would be very difficult for me to choose the school even as a non-football player.

Image courtesy of ABCnews.com
Images like these will stick with these
student-athletes more than a game. This
means more than playing games next year.
I know it did for me. It was the most
powerful and emotional night in my four
years at Penn State.

Second, losing season ticket holders, again understandable. If you as a season ticket holder believe you're supporting something that you don't wish to support by having tickets, then you get rid of them. Personally, I believe you're supporting a school, not those guilty of such terrible crimes. But not everybody believes the way I do.

Third and finally, columnists like yourself and many others come out with such insane statements about how the team should be shut down and how they shouldn't be playing. Your article (and others too, not singling you out by any imagination) has lots of power that is being used in the wrong ways. Do you have any idea how that sort of message is heard by a KID wearing the blue and white?


"No games. No tailgating. No opportunity to gather in Happy Valley and pretend that none of this really happened." (David Climer, The Tennessean)

Go to a game. Go visit Happy Valley. Then try telling me this. The atmosphere on a Saturday in State College is not about tailgating, getting drunk, sitting at the game, going home just to do it again.

Penn State is a family. We go to the game to be with those we know and those we don't. We are not there just for a football team. Rather, we are there for each other. We are there for Penn State. That should be crystal clear after the last home game in 2011. Instead of the traditional "White Out" that would encompass the stadium for a game that could send Penn State on their way to the B1G Championship Game, the crowd dressed all in blue in support of child abuse. Nobody cared about the football game. They were there to support the team, support the school, support the victims. Penn State is all about "for the kids" and I dare anybody to say otherwise. I can give you 10.69 million reasons why Penn State is for the kids.

One thing about your article I do agree with, though. You say that it should not be the NCAA who makes this ruling, but Penn State themselves. The NCAA has no right to interfere with this in my mind, as no NCAA rule was broken, no competitive edge gained or anything like that. 

And again, I'll make the argument that shutting down the program for a year, a program which no longer has Sandusky or Paterno or McQueary and an administration without Spanier or Curley or Shultz, is sending the wrong message. The punishment does not fit the crime.You're punishing the kids for something that they did not do and for something that they had no knowledge of whatsoever.

• Would you keep a class from graduating high school because their principal is charged with murder?
• Would you not let a kid play the clarinet because his former music teacher is a sex offender?
• Would you not give money to schools to help their students because test scores aren't high enough? (ya, that one's real...another time maybe)

Enough kids have been punished by what has happened with Jerry Sandusky. But Jerry Sandusky is not Penn State. Joe Paterno is not Penn State. McQueary, Shultz, Curley, Spanier...they are not Penn State. They're not there any more. Kids have been punished enough, why punish more kids for something that they did not do?

"The people who were involved should be punished to the fullest extent of the law, not the innocent players, staff, and people who knew nothing about it."  (@3SNDeLlav)

This is about the best way to put it. Couldn't have said it any better. Those who are at fault deserve to be punished. No doubt about it. But you don't punish somebody, especially not kids, for something they did not do and had absolutely no connection. And in this instance, you're punishing a football team for the actions of others that had no relation to football.

"Success With Honor" has been the motto of Penn State athletics for years. They are one of two schools to NEVER have an NCAA violation or point-shaving scandal. They have instilled greatness on and off the field in their players. One non-player has done much to try to ruin that. If you type "success with honor" into an image search now, you get mainly pictures of Sandusky or McQueary.  One man caused that. He is not Penn State. Punish him, punish them. Don't punish those who have truly shown success with honor.