Post by ihs82 on Sept 10, 2013 16:14:01 GMT -5
if the sanctions get reduced, the following will be how the ncaa does it.
espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/BMOC130910/penn-state-report-gives-ncaa-opportunity
PREGAME WARMUP
You probably didn't read it. Chances are, you probably don't know it exists.
But last Friday afternoon, a 51-page document was devoured by officials at Penn State, the Big Ten Conference and who knows, maybe someone on the all-powerful NCAA Executive Committee.
The title of the document would instantly put a screaming baby to sleep:
First Annual Report of the Independent Athletics Integrity Monitor Pursuant to the Athletics Integrity Agreement Among the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Big Ten Conference and the Pennsylvania State University.
In other words, a 1-year report card on Penn State, post-Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The NCAA-appointed integrity monitor is former Sen. George Mitchell, who hasn't done much in his career, other than broker peace deals in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, serve as Senate majority leader and author a report on PED use in Major League Baseball. When he talks, people should listen.
And certain people -- hello, Executive Committee -- should listen hard now that Mitchell has spoken highly (again) of Penn State and its efforts to rehabilitate itself in the aftermath of a child sexual abuse scandal that left its victims emotionally scarred, and left the university's image in confetti strips. He used words such as, "notable … impressed … open and forthright," when describing Penn State's considerable progress.
"By all indications thus far," wrote Mitchell, "the University has positioned itself well to meet this challenge."
According to Mitchell, 115 of the 119 recommendations detailed in the Penn State-commissioned Freeh Report have been completed or are near completion.
"While parties may continue to argue about the history that led to the Freeh Report and the [Athletics Integrity Agreement]," wrote Mitchell, "a consensus has developed that the principles at the heart of these reforms are best practices for the governance of any large university."
In short -- and the Paterno family, which has brought legal action against the NCAA, is going to hate hearing this -- Penn State is and will be a better place because of the Freeh Report. Isn't that more important than Joe Paterno's brand?
Mitchell's report wasn't a touchdown pass for Penn State, but it did get the university into the red zone. Even the NCAA acknowledged the impressive work, though, in typical NCAA fashion, the suits in Indianapolis would only describe the progress as "continued" and added, "we look forward to full implementation of these efforts."
I look forward to the day the NCAA is overthrown by reform revolutionaries. In the meantime, I'd settle for an NCAA that understands that this latest Mitchell report provides the much-maligned organization with a rare opportunity.
PREGAME SPEECH
When the NCAA wait … check that -- when NCAA president Mark Emmert and the Executive Committee (in essence, Emmert's boss) decided 14 months ago to amputate whole limbs from the Penn State football body, it did so for a very specific reason.
The reason wasn't complicated: it wanted Penn State football to die. Or at the very least, it wanted it to become the 13th best program in the 12-team Big Ten Conference.
After all, why else neuter your own NCAA investigative process and tell your Committee on Infractions to stand down unless you've already decided on a scorched Happy Valley policy? Why else, in an unprecedented and vigilantes-in-bow ties-response to Penn State's complicity in the Sandusky scandal, impose in July 2012 the harshest sanctions in major college football history? (Yes, harsher than SMU's 1-year death penalty of 26 years ago.)
And yet, Penn State is 2-0 this season and was 8-4 last season. In fact, Bill O'Brien's program might be undefeated when it faces Michigan at Beaver Stadium on Oct. 12.
But anybody who thinks those NCAA sanctions aren't causing serious internal bleeding to Penn State football and the university itself is nuttier than Planters.
A refresher course in the crushing punishments and some of the trickle-down effects:
• The Nittany Lions can't play in a postseason game until 2016 and are also ineligible for conference championship games and bowl related revenue until that time.
• Beginning next season, they have to make do with 65 scholarship players (20 less than the FBS norm) until 2018 and can't offer the full complement of 25 scholarships until 2017.
• The program is on probation until 2017.
• By virtue of the Consent Decree it signed with the NCAA, Penn State can't appeal the penalties.
• Its players were given a year-long window to transfer without penalty -- and several key players did so.
• Penn State will pay $60 million in fines and set aside another $60 million to settle claims made by Sandusky's victims. Meanwhile, surplus revenue in the athletic department has declined in each of the last three fiscal years and average home attendance in 2012 was the lowest since 2001.
So the sanctions are profound and debilitating. And thanks to the context provided by Mitchell's annual report, it is now obvious they are excessive and obsolete too.
Mitchell didn't recommend that the NCAA penalties be reduced. That's not his job. But there was nothing in his report that discouraged the equivalent of a parole hearing.
Penn State has earned at least that much. The university has jumped through every NCAA hoop placed in front of it, generally kept its mouth shut when asked about the severity of the penalties, and its protocol and programs post-Sandusky scandal are being copied by other schools.
And by the way, Paterno is no longer Penn State's coach. Graham Spanier is no longer its president. Gary Schultz is no longer a university vice-president. Tim Curley is no longer its athletic director.
You want a "culture" change? Penn State has become the Fathead of culture change.
Spend time inside the Penn State program and you soon realize that O'Brien doesn't have the same institutional power that Paterno had -- and that's a good thing. And you realize that the players, from fifth-year senior guard John Urschel to true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg shouldn't be on the hook until 2018 for crimes they didn't commit.
And didn't Lou Anna Simon, Executive Committee chairwoman and president of Michigan State, recently tell ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil and Mike Fish that "public outcry" contributed to the way the NCAA punished Penn State, and to the way Penn State accepted the punishment?
"I think now it might have been handled differently by both parties," she told O'Neil and Fish.
Well, it's not too late. It's not too late for Emmert and the Executive Committee to consider time served by Penn State (this is year two of the penalties) and the positive nature of Mitchell's annual report. It's not to late to grant Penn State an audience to plead its case for a reduction in sanctions.
And if it happens, Penn State can proudly detail the breadth and width of its in-house reforms that, in some instances, go beyond the requirements of the Freeh recommendations.
If I'm the NCAA, the $60 million fine and probation time remain in place. But I do reduce the postseason ban from four years to two and soften the scholarship limits and length of those limits.
The catch? That's easy: a series of negative Mitchell reports would trigger a return to the original penalties.
espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/page/BMOC130910/penn-state-report-gives-ncaa-opportunity
PREGAME WARMUP
You probably didn't read it. Chances are, you probably don't know it exists.
But last Friday afternoon, a 51-page document was devoured by officials at Penn State, the Big Ten Conference and who knows, maybe someone on the all-powerful NCAA Executive Committee.
The title of the document would instantly put a screaming baby to sleep:
First Annual Report of the Independent Athletics Integrity Monitor Pursuant to the Athletics Integrity Agreement Among the National Collegiate Athletic Association, the Big Ten Conference and the Pennsylvania State University.
In other words, a 1-year report card on Penn State, post-Jerry Sandusky scandal.
The NCAA-appointed integrity monitor is former Sen. George Mitchell, who hasn't done much in his career, other than broker peace deals in Northern Ireland and the Middle East, serve as Senate majority leader and author a report on PED use in Major League Baseball. When he talks, people should listen.
And certain people -- hello, Executive Committee -- should listen hard now that Mitchell has spoken highly (again) of Penn State and its efforts to rehabilitate itself in the aftermath of a child sexual abuse scandal that left its victims emotionally scarred, and left the university's image in confetti strips. He used words such as, "notable … impressed … open and forthright," when describing Penn State's considerable progress.
"By all indications thus far," wrote Mitchell, "the University has positioned itself well to meet this challenge."
According to Mitchell, 115 of the 119 recommendations detailed in the Penn State-commissioned Freeh Report have been completed or are near completion.
"While parties may continue to argue about the history that led to the Freeh Report and the [Athletics Integrity Agreement]," wrote Mitchell, "a consensus has developed that the principles at the heart of these reforms are best practices for the governance of any large university."
In short -- and the Paterno family, which has brought legal action against the NCAA, is going to hate hearing this -- Penn State is and will be a better place because of the Freeh Report. Isn't that more important than Joe Paterno's brand?
Mitchell's report wasn't a touchdown pass for Penn State, but it did get the university into the red zone. Even the NCAA acknowledged the impressive work, though, in typical NCAA fashion, the suits in Indianapolis would only describe the progress as "continued" and added, "we look forward to full implementation of these efforts."
I look forward to the day the NCAA is overthrown by reform revolutionaries. In the meantime, I'd settle for an NCAA that understands that this latest Mitchell report provides the much-maligned organization with a rare opportunity.
PREGAME SPEECH
When the NCAA wait … check that -- when NCAA president Mark Emmert and the Executive Committee (in essence, Emmert's boss) decided 14 months ago to amputate whole limbs from the Penn State football body, it did so for a very specific reason.
The reason wasn't complicated: it wanted Penn State football to die. Or at the very least, it wanted it to become the 13th best program in the 12-team Big Ten Conference.
After all, why else neuter your own NCAA investigative process and tell your Committee on Infractions to stand down unless you've already decided on a scorched Happy Valley policy? Why else, in an unprecedented and vigilantes-in-bow ties-response to Penn State's complicity in the Sandusky scandal, impose in July 2012 the harshest sanctions in major college football history? (Yes, harsher than SMU's 1-year death penalty of 26 years ago.)
And yet, Penn State is 2-0 this season and was 8-4 last season. In fact, Bill O'Brien's program might be undefeated when it faces Michigan at Beaver Stadium on Oct. 12.
But anybody who thinks those NCAA sanctions aren't causing serious internal bleeding to Penn State football and the university itself is nuttier than Planters.
A refresher course in the crushing punishments and some of the trickle-down effects:
• The Nittany Lions can't play in a postseason game until 2016 and are also ineligible for conference championship games and bowl related revenue until that time.
• Beginning next season, they have to make do with 65 scholarship players (20 less than the FBS norm) until 2018 and can't offer the full complement of 25 scholarships until 2017.
• The program is on probation until 2017.
• By virtue of the Consent Decree it signed with the NCAA, Penn State can't appeal the penalties.
• Its players were given a year-long window to transfer without penalty -- and several key players did so.
• Penn State will pay $60 million in fines and set aside another $60 million to settle claims made by Sandusky's victims. Meanwhile, surplus revenue in the athletic department has declined in each of the last three fiscal years and average home attendance in 2012 was the lowest since 2001.
So the sanctions are profound and debilitating. And thanks to the context provided by Mitchell's annual report, it is now obvious they are excessive and obsolete too.
Mitchell didn't recommend that the NCAA penalties be reduced. That's not his job. But there was nothing in his report that discouraged the equivalent of a parole hearing.
Penn State has earned at least that much. The university has jumped through every NCAA hoop placed in front of it, generally kept its mouth shut when asked about the severity of the penalties, and its protocol and programs post-Sandusky scandal are being copied by other schools.
And by the way, Paterno is no longer Penn State's coach. Graham Spanier is no longer its president. Gary Schultz is no longer a university vice-president. Tim Curley is no longer its athletic director.
You want a "culture" change? Penn State has become the Fathead of culture change.
Spend time inside the Penn State program and you soon realize that O'Brien doesn't have the same institutional power that Paterno had -- and that's a good thing. And you realize that the players, from fifth-year senior guard John Urschel to true freshman quarterback Christian Hackenberg shouldn't be on the hook until 2018 for crimes they didn't commit.
And didn't Lou Anna Simon, Executive Committee chairwoman and president of Michigan State, recently tell ESPN.com's Dana O'Neil and Mike Fish that "public outcry" contributed to the way the NCAA punished Penn State, and to the way Penn State accepted the punishment?
"I think now it might have been handled differently by both parties," she told O'Neil and Fish.
Well, it's not too late. It's not too late for Emmert and the Executive Committee to consider time served by Penn State (this is year two of the penalties) and the positive nature of Mitchell's annual report. It's not to late to grant Penn State an audience to plead its case for a reduction in sanctions.
And if it happens, Penn State can proudly detail the breadth and width of its in-house reforms that, in some instances, go beyond the requirements of the Freeh recommendations.
If I'm the NCAA, the $60 million fine and probation time remain in place. But I do reduce the postseason ban from four years to two and soften the scholarship limits and length of those limits.
The catch? That's easy: a series of negative Mitchell reports would trigger a return to the original penalties.
