(Poll) What WILL Penn State be Penalized?

[sterlingice]

I'm not trying to take away from the discussion in the Sandusky thread but I did think this pair of polls would yield some curious results.

This is the thread for what you predict they /WILL/ get handed down by the NCAA (and/or Big Ten).

SI

[sterlingice]

On, the other hand, I think they'll get something similar to USC and their laughabl-- extremely tough penalties. USC got a 2 year postseason ban, a bunch of wins vacated, 10 scholarships for 3 seasons for paying Reggie Bush, OJ Mayo, etc.

They're in an odd place with the lame "penalize wins" penalty. Honestly, it was the only part of Florida State's violations that really stuck as Bowden was forced behind JoePa for all time Div I wins. Now what do they do? It's justifiable either way: 1998 and before is all forfeited which makes JoePa a pariah in the record books and is just adding insult onto injury or you could leave it alone and say it's not a football violation so no football penalty. Either way it's kindof immaterial. Vacating wins rarely means anything.

I think there's a 2 or 3 year postseason and tv ban. It'll cost money and recruiting visibility but it's about the size of a grain of sand of significance to the beach of problems they've already created here. There will also be some token scholarship penalty during the same period: say, 10 per year for 3 years.

The one thing I'm really not sure about is the player transfer thing: they may let everyone leave as a "starting over, wash the program fresh" thing. But then it creates a reminder for everyone else out there. On some Saturday afternoon on ABC: "It's a great play by so-and-so linebacker at Pitt. He was at Penn State until ... um... yeah, so it's second and 10."

If they go the route of lame penalties like this, you'll see a longer probation length, probably 5 years.

Then this is where it gets fuzzy. They're going to create some sort of "one off" penalties just for Penn State so they can point to it and say "See, this is worse than anything we've ever done" or "it's equivalent to the death penalty", as we've been arguing about in the other thread. Ultimately, it will be something lame and less than the death penalty- otherwise, they'd just give the death penalty.

I think there will be some strong coercion to have the university make a good faith bunch of programs about child abuse and donate a ton of money but it's won't officially be forced. That said, it will happen because if it doesn't, then there would have been stronger penalties. All of this is what is being negotiated today and has been for the last week, I suspect.

And, as long as none of this is really serious, the Big Ten isn't serious about kicking out Penn State. They'll hope they leave willingly, which they won't. And, if they can get a program that's an upgrade like Notre Dame or maybe even a lateral step like Virginia, they might do it. But it gets really complicated at that point and unlikely to happen.

SI

[BillJasper]

Smack on the hand and nothing more.

[Young Drachma]

Yeah same. I can't see it being anything especially severe save for a loss of scholarships -- perhaps some kind of semi-permanent loss of scholarships -- and a post-season ban of a year.