The N.C.A.A. announced significant penalties against Penn State and its football program Monday, including a $60 million fine and a four-year postseason ban, in the wake of the child sexual abuse scandal involving the former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.
The punishment also included the loss of some scholarships and the vacating of all of the team’s victories from 1998 to 2011, but stopped short of forcing the university to shut down the football team for a season or more, the so-called death penalty. Still, the penalties are serious enough that it is expected to take Penn State’s football program, one of the most successful in the country, years before it will be able to return to the sport’s top echelon.
The postseason ban and the scholarship restrictions essentially prevent the program from fielding a team that can be competitive in the Big Ten. The N.C.A.A. will also allow Penn State players to transfer to another university where they could play immediately, inviting the possibility of a mass exodus.
The N.C.A.A.'s penalty, announced by the organization’s president, Mark Emmert, is the latest action to stem from the scandal involving Sandusky, who was convicted last month of being a serial pedophile. The release of a grand jury report detailing Sandusky’s actions last November led to the firing of the legendary coach Joe Paterno; the removal of the university’s president, Graham B. Spanier; and charges against two other top university officials.
Emmert said that no punishment the N.C.A.A. could impose would change the damage done by Sandusky’s acts, but “the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics.
A report commissioned by Penn State’s board of trustees and conducted by a group led by the former F.B.I. director Louis J. Freeh and released this month revealed a series of failures throughout the university’s leadership in its handling of Sandusky going back more than a decade. The report concluded that those failures stemmed from a culture in which football was revered and consequently became too powerful on campus. The N.C.A.A. used information from the Freeh report when it decided its penalty.
The Freeh report helped enable the N.C.A.A. to penalize Penn State without going through its traditional infractions process, a typically lengthy affair that includes an investigation, a notice of allegations and providing the university a lengthy amount of time to respond.
The N.C.A.A. also chose not to wait for the numerous criminal and civil cases surrounding the Sandusky case to play out, though those will most likely provide new information on the actions of Penn State administrators.
That the N.C.A.A. acted this quickly and decisively did not come as a particular surprise to the former Big 12 commissioner Dan Beebe, a former N.C.A.A. investigator. Beebe said that the N.C.A.A. has struggled to appear relevant recently while dealing with some of the major issues surrounding college sports, including high-profile cases of rules violations and conference realignment, and that the organization expressed a sincere interest in being more proactive at a retreat in Indianapolis last year.
“I certainly think there have been a lot of changes and issues that have arisen that the N.C.A.A. hasn’t been able to get to,” said Beebe, who is a founding partner in BMT Risk Management, a company that advises colleges and professional sports teams on workplace misconduct.
He added: “I think the N.C.A.A. wasn’t a part of realignment, and the playoff movement did not involve N.C.A.A. staff. I think this is an area, like you said, that’s unprecedented and horrific, and I think there’s a real focus on what the N.C.A.A. can and will do about it.”
While the anticipation of the announcement led to much hand-wringing among athletic directors and among the N.C.A.A. compliance community, what sort of precedent this punishment sets remains unclear. Michael McCann, the director of the Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School, said this ruling could end up being a one-time decision, with no lasting effect on future policy. He said the key to the N.C.A.A.'s decision to punish Penn State in this manner was directly tied to Penn State’s accepting the penalties.
“The N.C.A.A is 102 years old and this is the first time that something like this has happened,” he said. “I think normally the N.C.A.A. would rather give due process. I think it could be an exception and we don’t see this again. The circumstances are pretty unique, hopefully unique. I don’t see this in all likelihood to come up again.”
What’s certain is that Penn State’s football program will be hindered for a long time. The Nittany Lions welcomed a subpar recruiting class to campus this fall and will now likely see a significant number of players transfer. While Penn State avoided the death penalty, it could take years for it to again contend for the Big Ten title.
Penn State’s roster is considered weak by its normal standards, and coaches of rival reams said they spent Sunday evaluating the Nittany Lions’ roster and recruits to see which players might be most attractive to pursue.
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