Do you agree with the NCAA's punishment of Penn State?

First - I don't think any past players were involved so to vacate those victories seems to punish the wrong group.
The INVESTIGATION tarnished Joe Pa's legacy, taking the victories away seems "empty" to me.
The $60M fine is laughable as many Universities can raise this type of cash quickly. but it was the Administration that "covered this up". They gave Paterno a contract with retirement bennys to comfort him when he retired and took care of his wife. They bought Paterno off in a way. They should be punished more harshly. If they "hid" this and have their benefactors pay the fines they are capable of hiding even more be it girls sports, perhaps academic cheating?
I'm not sure if the NCAA can do this but I would have cleaned house at PSU's administrative offices. The buck stops there. Their actions betray the trust of everyone at PSU - students, faculty, alumni and parents of students who must wonder if their son or daughter is safe at the university. I would like to think that had a big beefy defensive end from some small town in the midwest had seen Sandusky dong what he did that the student would take care of it then and there, by beating the crap outta Sandusky. THEN going public with the allegations and investigation.
But it seems like it was bottom up punishment instead of top down.
Best Regards
Vog

100X worse than what SMU did and they got the death penalty.

Course they were not in the big 10 with a sweet TV deal...

Pathetic

...I think you're ALL nuts: Kevin for bemoaning them vacating the wins, as well as those cheering them vacating those wins.

NOTHING can alter history. What happened yesterday is cast in stone. Removing those wins from a record book has absolutely no impact on the fact that Penn State and Joe Paterno DID win those games.

I don't care if they dig up his body and hang it on campus to be desecrated. They can fine the school a billion dollars and cancel the football program for ten years. To "vacate those wins" is total nonsense and means absolutely nothing to anyone with a grasp on reality.

Anyone who thinks this punishment is to harsh is a person who condones what happened to those children. We are in a sick sick sick society. I think the sports program at Penn State should be abolished. The message here should be extremely loud, very clear and not forgotten.

I know many will disagree with me on this, but college sports need to take a back seat. Education should be the most important priority and objective in college. Not games. I am sure there are alot more uses for 60 million dollars, than spending it on sports. How many tuitions would that pay for? Just saying.

The Penn State football team/players should not be punished by the NCAA for a crime & cover-up by top PSU officials, period. Let the legal system do what it's capable of handling as it still has many months to go. Heck, the NCAA still has much to do in simplifying their student-athlete manual (all 200+ pages) and bringing common sense to it.

This case lies squarely at PSU's administrators, who'd rather help a "friend" than bring it to the attention of the local authorities, than the current football team. The legal system, and not the NCAA, should be the only party to penalize those people involved in the crime and cover-up. The NCAA openly admitted today that they took the Freeh report without question and imposed sanctions based on it- must be nice to impose sanctions without their own internal investigation just days later. Penn State officials finally agreed to these sanctions after attorneys for both sides deliberated over the weekend. I'm sure the NCAA was threatening to impose the death penalty (or worse) if PSU did not agree to this immediately. Now the current football program/players will suffer because of a tragic situation that stopped while they weren't even at Penn State. Q: who's going to monitor what the NCAA does with the $60 million? Are we sure that 100% of this money will go toward child abuse programs, or will the top officials at the NCAA use some of this money on conferences in Hawaii?

When did the State and Federal Court System turn authority over to the NCAA, in the matters of felony's committed by individuals? Does this mean GE, or FORD MOTOR COMPANY, or even 5 Guys and a Burger can begin fining people for crimes they commit? If I were the Penn State officials, I'd call the FBI on a case of extortion! Leave the crimes committed in the State's and Federal Court System, and leave the NCAA in charge of fair play practices, pertaining to sports!

Sorry Kevin I have to disagree strongly with your rant today.

A bunch of players lose bragging rights to a football game, and Penn State's athletic program loses some students, big woop, when compared to the terror those little kids felt at the hands of that monster.

Not a single adult at Penn State was willing to give up the bragging rights, or more importantly the money, to help a single one of those kids.

I think you have the wrong prosepective on this issue Kevin.

As usual Kevin Wuzzardo's slant on the outcome of the NCAA punishment is one sided...granted while the players won the 13 years worth of games, maybe they weren't responsible for the crimes going on in the locker rooms; however, who guided those players to victories for the 13 years but the coaches...so don't hide behind your loyalty to the school...I am the biggest Tarheel fan on the planet and if the same thing happened in Chapel Hill I would be appalled that the school didn't get the death penalty. The school itself should have self-imposed the death penalty and not waited on the NCAA to give them sanctions...

Where is "Its too harsh, and no need to punish the current players and staff?"

Interesting that your poll contains ONLY options containing a penalty equal to or greater than that levied. What if I feel the penalties were unjustly harsh, and a dead man who cannot speak for himself is being held up as a scapegoat, simply to satisfy the public lynch mob?

Even though I think they did need to have some kind of penalty put on them I feel this is kind of a steep punishment because it does nothing to punish the past offenders only hurts future students and staff who had nothing to do with the incident.

Not enough choices here to answer. It is a PC reaction that will punish the innocent and dangerously extends the authority of the NCAA. The NCAA has been irrelevant for a long time and they are trying to show otherwise!