Should PSU get the Death Penalty?

[CPR]

You take Paterno out of the record books and credit the win to "team" or simply put "vacated". There is a way around anything when you make the rules. Punish him, not the players.

That seems like a pain in the ass. It's a lot easier and cleaner to just vacate the wins and call it a day.

[theman123]

Dan, I bet if these sanctions had been handed to USF, you'd be pretty pissed and disappointed. Don't know what's so funny about those students reactions.

The difference is USF did not cover up for Sandusky and allow him to abuse children.

I'm not questioning the punishment. Just saying, j feel bad for the kids and fans that had absolutely nothing tk do with this cover up or scandal that are now going to be watching a great program and university diminish because of one man.

[Ghost]

Dan, I bet if these sanctions had been handed to USF, you'd be pretty pissed and disappointed. Don't know what's so funny about those students reactions.

The difference is USF did not cover up for Sandusky and allow him to abuse children.

I'm not questioning the punishment. Just saying, j feel bad for the kids and fans that had absolutely nothing tk do with this cover up or scandal that are now going to be watching a great program and university diminish because of one man.

No. If the administrators and coaches had cut ties with Sandusky or turned him in way back in 1998 when they first knew of what he was doing, then yes. However, they chose to cover it up all this time instead of getting rid of him. That is what PSU is being punished for. Not because of what Sandusky did, but because of how they handled it. LOIC at its finest.

[Ghost]

I am confused as to why people give a **** about the wins being vacated. How does this affect literally anyone but Paterno? The former players know they won those games on the field. That is what counts. Who cares about the record books? No one ever reads the record books. When they do, they are looking for Paterno's name anyway.

The current students dont suffer at all from it. They were toddlers in 1998. This has no effect on their program moving forward. Everyone still knows PSU won those games in their minds, so again, it is just in the record books that they are gone. How do the current students suffer? Their educations arent affected by this. They can still get a job after college. They can still apply for a credit card. wtf is the problem here?

[Ghost]

Explaining to your grand kids down the road why all of your stats for playing football at Linebacker U were vacated because of a coach abusing players and some of the staff/admin covering it up. Try and explain why YOUR stats were wiped out.

So then explain it to them. What is the problem with having to talk to children? Just tell them what happened. You can leave the specifics out. By the time they ask you why your stats were wiped out, they should be old enough to understand anyway. No 7 year old is going to ask you why your name isnt in the Penn St record books.

[Ghost]

I am confused as to why people give a **** about the wins being vacated. How does this affect literally anyone but Paterno? The former players know they won those games on the field. That is what counts. Who cares about the record books? No one ever reads the record books. When they do, they are looking for Paterno's name anyway.

The current students dont suffer at all from it. They were toddlers in 1998. This has no effect on their program moving forward. Everyone still knows PSU won those games in their minds, so again, is just in the record books that they are gone. How do the current students suffer? Their educations arent affected by this. They can still get a job after college. They can still apply for a credit card. wtf is the problem here?

So if USF's wins over the past 15 years were gone, like the Auburn win, FSU win, UCF wins etc are all wiped off the record books for something being done to harm players and didn't result in the team having an unfair advantage, you are OK with that? Why play the game?

Not going to quote the second post for the sake of space.

I would hate to see USF lose all of those wins, pretty much our entire history lol, but I would understand it. I normally don't agree with vacating wins, such as the case of Miami, USC, Ohio St, etc. because those teams didn't gain a competitive advantage from receiving money, women, or selling memorabilia.

However, in this case, I understand it. I personally wouldnt have taken the wins away, I would have just applied harsher penalties than they received. However, as I said, I understand it.

Not wiping the records away would be sending the same message that the PSU students are sending by all the ******** and crying and defending of Paterno and others. That football is more important than the safety of children. What happened there was morally and legally criminal. Nothing the other schools mentioned above did was either of those. Maybe to the NCAA and their dumb ass arbitrary rules, but not in the minds of normal people. In this case though, the administration protected a child molestor. idk if it can be more serious than that, unless he was killing them. In order to save the face of the school and its reputation, the heads of the school decided to look the other way and brush it under the rug. It happened on their campus. In their locker rooms. An NCAA institution. They had to send the message. The article above makes a good point, but the former players are fine. They can still play in the NFL(the ones that are still there), they didnt lose their jobs over this, they didnt lose their pension, they werent exiled from their neighborhoods, their bank accounts werent emptied, nothing. The former players werent affected by this at all. So they wont be able to show the grandkids they dont have yet the records they set/broke. I am sure someone, somewhere, will be able to have a website or something showing them. They may not be on PSU's website or campus, but in this day and age, Im sure someone will find them. Maybe Wikileaks lol.

That is it though, their wins. Of course it happened. Everyone knows it happened. The tapes are still there and online. It is just the record books. They will be fine.

[DELdaBull]

If USF harbored, aided, and abetted a child predator I wouldn't give a **** about those wins. I'd be more worried about those children (who statistics say will become child predators themselves).

[Bull-by-Marriage]

No punishment can be strong enough. I don't care who writes what article. The former players can show their kids the record books that they already have, or do none of them have any books that show their history. Were they waiting for a better time to obtain their history of playing at psu? #weare BS

[Bull-by-Marriage]

Slick the NCAA has made no indications that it's going to make any previous player give back thier award. You may have added the edit, but even within the edited statement you are making a huge assumption. It may very well happen, but nothing is indicating that it will.

[CPR]

You take Paterno out of the record books and credit the win to "team" or simply put "vacated". There is a way around anything when you make the rules. Punish him, not the players.

That seems like a pain in the ass. It's a lot easier and cleaner to just vacate the wins and call it a day.

Oh yeah like it was too much of a pain in the ass to report Sandusky. Got it. Come on, go and talk to any of the hundreds of players, trainers, supporters and tens of thousands of fans, alumni and supporters over the past 14 years who had nothing to do with this mess and explain to them its too much of a pain in the ass to take disquailfy Paterno as the coach for those wins, we are just taking away all of your wins because its easy. Because I know if it was USF and not PSU your tune about how its a pain in the ass would be totally the exact opposite. Empathy. So many seem to lack it.

What it all comes down to is you can't have a man who covered up for a pedophile being the record holder for all time wins. I don't understand how you can't understand this.