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Argue about the semantics of the so-called death penalty if you want, but this punishment is just as bad. The money is nothing -- even with the additional loss of $13 million a year in bowl revenue-sharing from the Big 10 -- because the coffers at Penn State are overflowing. Any shortage will surely be remedied by wealthy alumni. But the combination of a four-year bowl ban, scholarship losses and the waiver of transfer rules means the football team will find it awfully hard to win more than a few games a year with players who previously never would have gotten offers to play for the Nittany Lions.
The whole thing is sickening, so wrenching that any sympathy we once felt for Paterno is long gone. He may have been an octogenarian, but he was still so all powerful that he dictated terms of his multimillion-dollar buyout even as the scandal was still unfolding. Unfortunately, for those who still glorify him, the images over the weekend of his statue being removed will prove even more indelible than those of him prowling the sidelines in his oversized dark glasses.
What happened at Penn State is a cautionary tale for any program so wrapped up in the success of a coach that people begin to deify him.
If there is anything good to come out of the whole sordid mess it's that Emmert finally got a chance to act like a real leader in college athletics rather than a figurehead for the big schools and conferences who keep him in power. That's important because the NCAA's own lack of institutional control over its member schools -- allowing them to function as quasi pro teams -- has contributed to a culture at many major universities where the coaches are more powerful than the school administrators.
Give Emmert a big college cheer for acting quickly, and dispensing justice harshly. It was a bold stroke that, combined with the Sandusky verdict and the removal of the statue in State College, may finally bring down the cult of Joe for good.
It won't do anything for Sandusky's victims, but it's a step toward regaining control of college football.
And maybe someday that could be the enduring legacy of the whole scandal.
[Associated
Press;
Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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