I disagree. How is the athletic department culpable? And, please articulate exactly for what crimes. Thanks to the crack reporting done early on in the case, I think when people talk about the PSU incident, they envision a child rape factory with young boys being paraded in and out of those locker room showers while Paterno et al watched and cheered on Sandusky.
PSU got hammered because of the 2001 shower incident that was supposedly covered up by Paterno, the AD, school president, and the VP of finance, after McQueary, an assistant coach, walked in on Sandusky and a young boy in the shower. This is where the story falls apart. McQueary first said he did nothing to stop it, then when he was called out for not stopping a child rape in progress, he then copped to the "c'mon guys you know me" and stated he broke it up by slamming his locker. After witnessing a child being raped by Sandusky, what does he do? Slams his locker and walks out. Doesn't call the cops, doesn't attempt to intervene, and goes home and tells his Dad and doctor friend that he did not witness a rape. Then he goes to Paterno the next day and tells him he saw something, but admits to not telling him it was a rape out of respect for his coach. Paterno then puts McQueary in touch with those in charge, namely the athletic director. McQueary tells his story to the AD and the VP of finance who is the head administrator for the police department. A few weeks later Paterno asks McQueary if everything was OK with the resolution to the matter. McQueary is later seen golfing with Sandusky and consulting him about recruits.
During the trial McQueary admitted he only heard what he thought was something s e xual in nature and didn't (and physically couldn't) see anything directly because of the layout of the locker room. The school administrators all claim what was described to them was horseplay in the showers. Would you really expect them to conduct a Warren Commission level investigation for what was likely described to them as goofing around in the shower? Their stories have never changed. You can't say the same thing for McQueary. McQueary's behavior is unlike that of someone who witnessed something as horrible as a child rape. In the end, Sandusky was acquitted of the rape charge, but was convicted on charges of indecent assault, child endangerment, and unlawful contact with a minor (your basic throw as many charges and see what sticks prosecution). The State still hasn't tried the three school administrators for the conspiracy and cover up three years on, and my guess is never will. Those charges will be quietly dropped early next year for lack of evidence. Oh yeah, one of the prosecutors for the case said there was no evidence that Paterno attempted to cover up the incident, but Paterno was crucified for not doing enough because he only followed university policy which clearly stated that the course of action was to report the incident to his supervisor.
Last week the NCAA's internal communications were made public. What do they reveal? First that if the rules and enforcement channel of the NCAA were followed there was little chance that PSU was going to be penalized because no rules had been broken. Second, the NCAA saw this is as an opportunity for good publicity and saw the school as vulnerable and willing to agree to anything because they were so embarrassed by what had happened. Finally, the NCAA admitted that the cover up did not provide a competitive advantage because even after the Sandusky story broke, PSU has been landing good recruiting classes. Ironically, the NCAA in August published its own guidelines for dealing with abuse cases and they basically state to do what Paterno did: report it to the appropriate campus offices and then not to interfere, direct, manage, or control any subsequent investigation. Apparently Paterno did do enough.
So, to recap, everyone wanted to nuke Penn State because of a dubious report that Sandusky may have inappropriately touched a boy while showering, mind you the actual boy was not involved in the trial so it was basically McQueary's "I heard slapping sounds in the shower" versus Sandusky's word, Paterno actually did what he was supposed to in order to protect all parties involved and the investigation, and the school administrators that did the covering up have never been convicted of those crimes that the NCAA says they committed. And stripping wins back to 1998 because the police and district attorney refused to prosecute the initial complaint against Sandusky? Yeah, that's all PSU's fault too I guess. The NCAA was so scared about what went on behind the scenes they capitulated on the monetary fine and rolled back almost all of the sanctions telling the judge that now that they got rid of the sanctions there now was no longer a need for the lawsuits to move forward. Too bad the judge disagreed. Based on the little taste of emails we got last week, I can only wonder what else they are hiding in the stuff that was redacted. The school which had for the most part played along has now been forced into a position of "considering its options." It's about to get ugly for the NCAA, I think. My only question is who sells who out first once Emmert and company are squirming on the witness stand. You just know those weasels that run the NCAA will be out to save their own skin, so it'll be interesting to see what comes out of that, and the best part is it will be on the public record with no way to spin or deny it or hide behind a podium where you get to not answer the questions you don't like - the judge probably won't go for that.
