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Sports Title: NCAA Hands Out Severe Punishment For Penn State Chastising Penn State's athletic culture, NCAA President Mark Emmert issued a landmark ruling this morning, crippling Penn State's ability to compete on the field for years to come by banning the football team from a postseason bowl for four years, eliminating a total of 40 scholarships over four years and fining the school $60 million. Emmert also stripped Penn State of its wins between 1998 and 2011, meaning that former coach Joe Paterno is no longer major college football's all-time winningest coach. A total of 111 have been erased from Paterno's previous win total of 409. "This is an unprecedented, painful chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics," Emmert said during a news conference at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis. Emmert said suspending the program for at least one season was considered. But, in the end, Emmert sought sanctions that would not only punish but force Penn State to begin to "rebuild its athletic culture." Emmert said he sought to minimize damage to innocent individuals. The ruling was precedent setting because Emmert bypassed usual investigation protocol and instead turned to the NCAA executive committee and Division I Board of Directors for the authority to punish Penn State after its child sex-abuse scandal. The boards unanimously supported the sanctions imposed. It was also unprecedented because of the severity of the penalties. While Emmert and the two boards he consulted contemplated suspending the program for at least one season, the sanctions Emmert did impose likely will affect Penn State in much the same manner the death penalty would. The report by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded that senior leaders at Penn State, including former football coach Joe Paterno, concealed information that could have stopped Sandusky from preying on young children. Emmert relied upon the findings of the report, which he said was more exhaustive than any NCAA investigation in memory. The NCAA informed Penn State of the penalties that the organization would impose, and the university agreed with the sanctions. The NCAA is permitting any current or incoming Penn State football player to transfer without penalty. Penn State will not appeal the ruling. Penn State President Rodney Erickson said in a statement: "The NCAA ruling holds the University accountable for the failure of those in power to protect children and insists that all areas of the University community are held to the same high standards of honesty and integrity. The NCAA also mandates that Penn State become a national leader to help victims of child sexual assault and to promote awareness across our nation. Specifically, the University will pay $12 million a year for the next five years into a special endowment created to fund programs for the detection, prevention and treatment of child abuse. This total of $60 million can never reduce the pain suffered by victims, but will help provide them hope and healing." Said first-year coach Bill O'Brien in a statement: "Today we receive a very harsh penalty from the NCAA and as Head Coach of the Nittany Lions football program, I will do everything in my power to not only comply, but help guide the University forward to become a national leader in ethics, compliance and operational excellence. I knew when I accepted the position that there would be tough times ahead. But I am committed for the long term to Penn State and our student athletes." Some former NCAA investigators and infractions committee chairmen said it was rare, if not unprecedented, for the association to address the Penn State case because it involved a cover-up of criminal activity rather than a violation of traditional NCAA bylaws. Emmert said circumventing the infractions committee was no reflection on the committee or the NCAA's enforcement process. "It's important to separate this from a traditional enforcement case," Emmert said. Ed Ray, chairman of the executive committee who also spoke during Monday morning's news conference, called the case "historically unprecedented" because of "reckless and callous disregard for the children." "The message is the presidents and the chancellors are in charge," Ray said. "These are extraordinary circumstances. The executive committee has the authority to act in extraordinary circumstances. Every college and university needs to do a gut check." The scholarship cuts essentially bump Penn State to the scholarship levels of schools in the Football Championship Subdivision. The school will be forced to vacate all wins from 1998-2011, a total of 112, and serve five years of probation. Paterno was fired in November during the scandal after 409 wins at the school. That total is now officially 298. One victory last season came under interim coach Tom Bradley. Florida State's Bobby Bowden, who himself had 12 wins vacated because of NCAA violations, is now the major college leader with 377 victories. Grambling's Eddie Robinson becomes the Division I leader with 408 wins in 57 seasons, ending in 1997. Because of the length of the punishment, all current Penn State players and incoming freshmen will be free to transfer without penalty. The team had a meeting scheduled for 10 a.m. Monday. O'Brien agreed to a five-year deal in January. According to the version of his contract available on the school website, he can't terminate the contract because of sanctions against the program without giving the school a sizable buyout payment. His base salary this season is $950,000. The NCAA ruling represented a seminal moment for Emmert, the former University of Washington president whose 20-month tenure has coincided with an unpredictable and turbulent time in college sports. The spate of high-profile scandals that came to light under Emmert's watch, including one involving alleged widespread booster payments at Miami (Fla.), took a back seat when Sandusky was arrested Nov. 5. The graphic nature of what then were allegations of sexual abuse against children repulsed the public and soured the sporting mood when LSU played Alabama on the most anticipated Saturday of the sport's regular season. Immediate focus centered on Paterno: How much did he know and when did he know it? Did his inaction enable a sexual predator to continue to prey on children, most from troubled homes? Paterno was soon fired, famously by telephone, because of what Penn State officials deemed a lack of leadership exhibited after former graduate assistant Mike McQueary told Paterno in 2001 that he had witnessed Sandusky sexually abuse a child of roughly 10 years of age in the Penn State locker room showers. When Paterno was ousted, more than 1,000 Penn State students flooded the campus streets, some chanting, "Hell, no, Joe won't go!" University President Graham Spanier was fired. Two other administrators, athletic director Tim Curley, who remains on leave, and now-retired vice president Gary Schultz, continue to await trial on charges of failing to report child abuse and lying to a grand jury. Both have maintained their innocence. Throughout the winter, the scandal continued to deepen as Paterno's legacy unraveled. When Paterno spoke with TheWashington Post's Sally Jenkins in January — what would be his final interview — he appeared a weakened man, speaking with a rasp and battling lung cancer. Paterno told the Post that he did not know what to do when McQueary informed him of what McQueary saw in part "because I never heard of, of, rape and a man." Three days later, Paterno was dead, his legacy clouded, if not forever stained. In Bellefonte, Pa., last month, a jury of seven women and five men, including nine with ties to the university, found Sandusky guilty on 45 of 48 counts. He was convicted of sexually assaulting 10 boys over 15 years and faces life in prison. The release of a report by former FBI director Louis Freeh this month added a punctuation mark to the scandal and provided clarity to the tarnished legacy of major college football's all-time winningest coach. One page after another, all part of a nearly eight-month investigation that drew upon more than 400 interviews and 3 million documents, exposed Paterno as one of the senior university leaders who for years concealed information that could have stopped Sandusky from abusing more children. Among the most alarming findings was that Paterno had been aware of a 1998 investigation of allegations that Sandusky abused a boy in Penn State's locker room showers. Paterno followed the case closely — Sandusky was not prosecuted — but did not take action or alert the board of trustees. (The Paterno family had recently maintained that Paterno was not aware of the 1998 investigation at the time.) Three years later, the Freeh report suggests, Paterno dissuaded Curley from having Penn State's administration report to authorities the allegations made by McQueary. And the report concluded that senior school officials did not demonstrate concern for the safety or well being of Sandusky's victims until after Sandusky's arrest. The nearly 300-page report also added fuel to the debate over whether Penn State or the NCAA should shut down the Nittany Lions' football program for at least a season and whether the university should remove the bronze Paterno statue outside Beaver Stadium, which it did Sunday morning. The NCAA has imposed the so-called death penalty on a major college football team just once. And it has taken Southern Methodist more than two decades to recover after it was shut down in the late 1980s following a scandal that involved, among other violations, widespread booster payments to players. But with Penn State's case, the NCAA confronted a scandal unlike any the association had ever seen. The wrongdoing, while egregious, did not reflect traditional violations of NCAA bylaws. And no obvious competitive advantage was gained by the cover-up of criminal activity. Former NCAA investigators and infractions committee chairmen argued that the NCAA should leave the Penn State scandal for the criminal and civil courts. But Emmert, who recently said in a PBS interview that the death penalty remained on the table, felt compelled to punish Penn State with sanctions that would severely impact its football program for years. And with the backing of the NCAA's executive committee and the Division I board of directors, Emmert bypassed usual investigation protocol and levied an array of penalties that will long be studied and debated in the college sports world. Paterno's two national titles remain, but his statue is gone, his reputation is irreparably scarred and the program he built during a 61-year career, 46 as head coach, is left to deal with harsh NCAA sanctions and the pending rulings of ongoing investigations. With the NCAA verdict handed down, Penn State still could face further punitive measures. The Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education are conducting investigations into the school's actions in relation to the scandal.
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