NCAA Hit Penn State with Severe Sanctions

July 23, 2012

The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) have dished out severe penalties against Penn State’s football program Monday in the wake of the child sex-abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, ed whose abuses were covered up for years by top university officials.

The sanctions included a four-year postseason ban for the football team, a scholarship reduction from 25 to 15 for four years, a five-year probation for all Penn State sports, a $60-million fine and the vacating of all football wins from 1998 through 2011.

The fine will serve as an endowment to serve victims of child abuse nationwide, NCAA President Mark Emmert said when he announced the penalties at a press conference at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis along with Ed Ray, chairman of the NCAA’s executive committee.

The NCAA’s actions are unprecedented in that Emmert received special approval from the NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors, which comprises college presidents and chancellors, to personally levy the penalties, a first in NCAA history for a president.

“This is a very distinct and very unique circumstance,” Emmert said.

By issuing the penalties in this way, Emmert and the NCAA bypassed the tedious and often years-long infractions process — forgoing a formal NCAA investigation into Penn State in favor of swift action.

Tthe sanctions are considered to be by far among the harshest the NCAA has handed down in its history and certainly among its harshest since issuing USC’s football team in 2010 a two-year postseason ban and the loss of 30 scholarships over three years.