Too harsh? Not harsh enough? Being that the Nittany Lions program was squeaky clean apart from this obscenely horrific situation, the NCAA apparently took the death penalty off the table. And that is fine. Shutting down the program would not have solved anything and the situation is rather unique--no, not that there are not other Sanduskys running around because sadly there are but that the era of a head coach being that entrenched to the point of everyone covering up a series of crimes to protect his and a program's reputation is over--so that you cannot use the punishment to dissuade others. If Miami did continue to cheat after the NCAA stepped in a couple of years ago then they should be hammered to not only punish them but to make others notice. That applies here only in the sense that the college football landscape needs to change a bit to respect its place in a larger society. But of course that point can be made in terms of something horrific like child abuse but we tend to not notice the lack of commitment by programs jumping ship from their conferences or players being bought and sold in recruiting. It is a mixed message and at times confusing.
As for Penn State, I firmly believe that they will emerge from this situation a healthier program as long as they continue to do all of the right things the program did for longer than Paterno's time in State College. Recruit good kids who play hard and the wins will follow. With the school now humbled they can focus on good play and a rebuilding of their reputation. They remain the king in a state known for football and can rebound the way Alabama did after nearly being shut down themselves a decade ago. The problem may be that we have not heard the end of this case.
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