Some say it is cultural
I had a discussion (still ongoing) over Twitter with a Ira Socol who wrote a very interesting and well researched blog post. He states that Penn State be allowed to play... but they should play the entire season with empty stands.
This is not an unprecedented thing. In his article, he cites 3 soccer teams that had to play 5 games (2 teams played 1 game each and one other played the last 2 games) without fans in attendence. However, he cites the reasoning behind this and all of the reasons stem from actions of the FANS with relation to the team. One was racial abuse to a player. Another was due to physical violence where a fan ran onto the field and attacked a visitng player. All of this is caused by violence.
But what of Penn State's situation? He argues that the culture that surrounds Penn State football is of such blind devotion that it basically produced an environment where this act would seem not permissable but certainly capable of being covered up. He argues that without this societal and cultural smokescreen, Penn State would not have gotten away with such an act for as long as they had.
I believe he's partially correct. Society did not cause Sandusky to molest those boys. It didn't stop McQueary from stopping the abuse (which he did not) or prevent him from notifying Paterno. It did not cause the wheels to stop turning. The prestige and power that those in the know had was threated by the Sandusky thing and couple that with their corrupt need for such power, they did not act.
THAT is the prominant issue with this affair. Society may act like an enabler but it takes corruption and bad ethics to become enabled.
There is no excuse for what happened at Penn State. And they should pay. The problem is: Why punish the fans? They did not perform 45 acts of sexual abuse. They did not smear the name of Penn State, really. They did not commit any violent act or any racially motivated abuse of the caliber that those European soccer teams were punished for.
The truth is that we have to be careful with this line of thought. It is perilously close to saying that Penn State was merely abiding by the tolerances of society rather than trying to save their own power and prestige by covering up a heinous atrocity.
So what is the Price to be paid?
Since I do not believe in punishing the fans, I think that I would do the following:
1. SIGNIFICANT reduction of scholarships for more than 4 years.
2. No bowl games for the same time period that there are reductions of scholarships
3. Asterisks by all of Paterno's records
4. Joe Paterno's name and likeness should be removed from all signs, visual aids, and media in and around Beaver Stadium and other PSU athletic facilities.
5. For the entire season, box seats will be closed and all general admission seats will be issued at the discretion of the Penn Statue AD and Administration at the price of FREE. The students will still get their section or sections.
6. All institutional support for the team is suspended for 1 year. No band. No cheerleaders. No halftime shows. No fundraisers that would raise money for athletics at Penn State.
7. All money that would normally be gathered for the athletic department that comes through on-site merchandise sales, concessions, and any items sold at the Stadium be immediately forfeited to either go towards general scholarship funding, a University sanctioned event or organization not related to the Athletic department, or to a charity.
8. (This one isn't possible but I can dream) A media blackout. NO Penn State Home Games will be televised locally, regionally, or nationally for one year. If you don't go to Beaver Stadium, you don't see or hear the game. PERIOD.
All academic services provided to athletes, such as tutoring and the like, will continue as normal.
The NCAA says there is no Death Penalty but I argue that there is. If Penn State does not get the Death Penalty, which I believe they won't, I believe that the NCAA has doled out the last death penalty ever: to the Death Penalty. There is no situation, therefore, that would warrant it so the threat of a Death Penalty becomes null and void. It no longer exists, folks. No need to fear.
The true debate is: Where do the NON football athletics and Penn State fit into this?
