Regarding the NCAA’s punishment of PSU, I recently wrote:
In PSU’s case, the NCAA jumped the gun on handing down sanctions and probably should have waited till after the trials are done. The individuals involved get punished. And then so too does the institution for creating an atmosphere that led to those actions.
Others have argued that the PSU scandal is primarily a legal matter and so the NCAA has/had no jurisdiction in the case. They should have stayed clear but they didn’t. Given the severity of the scandal, I don’t think the NCAA, corrupt or not, would have been able to withstand the public pressure to do something, anything.
Let me be clear, I think the PSU administration was corrupt. Criminally so. They covered up for a child molester. But let us separate our revulsion from the act for a minute. It was a criminal matter into which the NCAA stepped. If the NCAA sticks its nose into that criminal matter, however abhorrent, what’s to stop them from doing so in other criminal matters. I’ve made the argument that PSU’s administration did so out of self-preservation and that indicates a lack of institutional control. But I’m starting to see a very slippery slope.
