This column was first published in the July 25, 2012 edition of the Gettysburg Times.
The NCAA doesn’t realize it, but it’s just set up a game of chicken with the Penn State community, one that neither organization can afford to lose.
They've
locked eyes with the Penn State community and said, we think you’re
crazy. You deserve punishment. We will strip you of your culture and
reduce you to nothing with a slow bleed of the program.
I’ve
been told I’m overstating this when looking at a $60 million
sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all
wins dating to 1998. Penn State also must reduce scholarships each
year for a four-year period. The Penn State athletic program is also
on probation for five years and must work withan athletic- integrity
monitor of NCAA’s choosing. Any current or incoming football
players are free to immediately transfer and compete at another
school.
Essentially
they’ve rolled the clock back to 1998, asked what Penn State feared
in losing by acting in accordance to its moral obligation, then
retroactively put those doomsday scenarios to work as if they’d
acted righteously.
Now
Penn Staters have to make a horrible choice: continue investing in
the program regardless of the inevitable decline that is to come,
only to be labeled as a fanatical fan base that still puts football
over all else, or abandon it and let it die.
The
very culture that the NCAA is publicly suppressing is now being
challenged to financially save the thing that supposedly made us
blindly evil in the first place. It’s a trap, and it’s one we
need to fall into. Not because we’re evil, but because we believe
in Penn State.
We
believe in nameless jerseys and shared sacrifice. We believe in
110,000 fans showing up every game in an 11-1 or a 4-8 season. Some
days the attendance might not hit six figures, and others the student
section will only fill for the middle quarters, but we show up.
We’re
not strange to get wrapped up in sports. Just like any fans, we live
and die with our team throughout a season. It’s silly to attach our
emotions to the team’s success, but if you’re reading this in the
sports section, you probably understand it.
While
we care as much as any other fan base about the wins and losses, we
also care about the communal quality of our presentation. Before Penn
State became a crazy cult in the eyes of the outside world, it would
marvel at the power of our tailgates.
It’s
hard to take a walk through the vehicle-covered fields without a
handshake, beverage or meal offered. You might even meet the parents
of one of your favorite Penn State players and be invited to meet
their son after the game.
And
guess what? When it comes to looking at our football building and
realizing what took place in the locker room showers all those years
ago, we are disgusted too.
We
feel pain every time we think of it. Not nearly as much pain as the
victims felt and are still feeling as adolescents and adults, but
damn it, this is hard!
With
or without the punishment of our program, this has forced us all to
look at the triviality of a win-loss record. That’s why most Penn
State fans didn’t even blink when the program was forced to vacate
victories
that reduced our former coach, Joe Paterno, from 409 to 298.
What
we have trouble understanding is the mean-spirited glee that comes
from people saying, “I told you so.”
Every
time someone looks at Penn State, laughs without a thought and says,
“Yeah... well you should have thought of that before...” I ask,
before what? Before putting our trust into something good? Something
that felt wholesome?
If
having faith in goodness is a crime deserving of at least a half
decade of public embarrassment, then hasn’t society failed
elsewhere? I’ll take that we put a little too much faith in our
athletic regime to make the right decisions, but no more than any
other university in the country. Name one school where the players,
students and alumni WOULDN’T be shocked to have this happen to
them?
My
friends that still live in State College are going to pay
economically through this revenue loss. The students and alumni will
pay just as much.
The
University will need funds never before necessary, which may come at
the expense of extinguished extra-curricular programs, research and
potentially even branch campuses. Anyone that believes Penn State
will pay without a decreased utilities or a tuition increase has
never witnessed crude accounting wizardry.
The
readership of this paper is probably evenly divided on feelings of
empathy. Fifty percent is promising — the majority of the country
can’t wait to see us fall on our faces.
The
deal made between Penn State President Rodney Erickson and NCAA
President Mark Emmert is, by design, intended to allow the
surrounding world its glory in watching the Nittany Lions fall on
their faces. It places the players in the stocks for embarrassment to
satiate the country’s call for blood.
The
allowance for a season that includes broadcast rights — looked at
as a positive for Penn State in regards to revenues — assures that
we become a spectacle for their amusement. In essence, to survive, we
must submit to cruel and unusual punishment.
This
would not be so vile had the NCAA installed ground rules to make sure
that deeds like this never occur again. Instead of taking the
disciplined road, writing out various levels of sanctions for all
levels of offenses that make a joke of amateurism, they’ve instead
installed a cloud of fear that is governed by chaos.
In
this cloud, the NCAA lords without regulation. They can choose to act
with vengeance; or to disregard actions entirely.
This
sounds eerily similar to the way in which the infamous Penn State
group, Paterno, Athletic Director Tim Curley and Penn State Vice
President Gary Schultz acted, and in at least one important case,
failed to act.
Talk
continues about unprecedented crimes at Penn State, when, in fact
there were two separate crimes that occurred. Only the combination of
the two was unprecedented.
The
first, children were sexually abused. The second, an NCAA program
tried to cover up its wrong-doings and failed to self-report.
Penn
State is paying a king’s ransom for the crimes of an individual,
but the law Penn State violated that gave it a competitive advantage
is one that happens several times a year: acting in self-preservation
through denial and failure to self-report to protect the interests of
a football program.
The
NCAA has handcuffed these violations together for the ultimate
punishment, but will it continue to handcuff criminal or unethical
behavior to programs as they work in self-preservation?
A
precedent is not wrong, so long as there is consistent follow
through. The ball is now in the NCAA’s court to ensure all bad
behavior is met with strict consequences.
Anything
less than that mirrors the same “make it up as we go along”
mentality that became the crux of Penn State’s obliteration.
As
a Penn State fan who’s looking forward to actually being able to
cheer for a team that will be held to a higher standard, I still
support strong sanctions against our school. My question is, how can
a fan from another school say Penn State got what it deserved, then
shrug when the NCAA puts no strict guidelines and punishments in
place for those who act in self-preservation by failing to report?
If
this madness continues to occur throughout the country, then the Penn
State and State College communities have taken a shot in vain. That
is something I will not stand for. I care too much about that
community to see it suffer for nothing.
So,
Penn State nation? Rise up. Take back your football team. Be the
yahoos they believe us to be, but cheer for it for the right reasons.
If the rest of the NCAA is corrupt, let us become the true beacon
that Paterno once envisioned when he unleashed The Grand Experiment.
If it doesn’t result in national championships, we won’t care.
Any kid and coach that has the guts to stick this out has as much
character as any champ. We’re going to be the start of something
new. We are Penn State. We can be more.
