In the wake of the guilty verdict of Jerry Sandusky child molestation hearing, the NCAA is expected to announce harsh penalties on Penn State and their football program as early as Monday.

While I have been very critical of the program and university for allowing Sandusky to terrorize young boys on Penn State’s own facilities, what else does the NCAA want to do that hasn’t been done?

Much like an ambulance chaser or Al Sharpton or Jessie Jackson, the NCAA wants to get their stink on the tragedy that the university and the entire state of Pennsylvania so desperately wants to begin to heal.

Multiple media outlets are reporting that the NCAA is expected to announce harsh and even “unprecedented” penalties, due to lack of institutional control during Joe Paterno’s legendary (and now infamous) coaching career, but look at what has already been done in less than a year that the Sandusky scandal was finally brought into the public eye less than a year ago.

• Paterno is dead.  Unfortunately, he died before he could see his own legend collapse , the legend that he determined was worth more than the innocence of so many young boys that were terrorized by Sandusky.
• Sunday, Penn State president Rodney Erickson determined that Paterno’s famous statue in front of Beaver Stadium was taken down.
• Former Penn State president Graham Spanier and former athletic director Tim Curley are no longer in their positions at the school and are currently facing jail time for perjury and crimes committed by allowing the scandal to reach the heights it did.
• The entire Penn State football coaching staff has been removed, and new head coach Bill O’Brien has brought a new staff that, unlike the last one, has done nothing wrong and has not harbored any pedophiles.

After all the changes have been made, along with the harsh (and fair) public critcism of Penn State and Paterno’s football program, why does the NCAA feel they need to do any more?  Who is left to punish?

The significant loss of scholarships and the loss of bowl games to the university is going to punish the players, new coaches and students who had absolutely nothing to do with Paterno and other former Penn State officials’ lack of judgement.

Instead, the NCAA is going to punish the very people that have joined together to help heal the damage that Sandusky, Paterno and other former admistrator caused.

Unfortunately for Penn State, this is an opportune time for the NCAA to flex their muscles in the public eye and pat themselves on the back for maintaining the status quo in a sport that makes a lot of people, including the NCAA, billions of dollars.

The sad part is that NCAA gladly benefited financially from Penn State football when Paterno was at the helm. All the bowl games, all the jersey sales and all of the video games that used Penn State and NCAA logos have sent a stream of revenue to the NCAA offices.

While the NCAA obviously used the vast majority of those funds to aid other sports programs across all divisions and all sports, salaries were paid, too. In a recent article in USA Today, it was reported that current NCAA president Mark Emmert rakes in $1.6 million per year for his position, and they’re not generating that cash from a 50/50 raffle.  It comes from the revenues from sports, the vast majority of which is football.

By intervening now and hammering an already crippled Penn State program that has shown the world that they are taking every step possible to move on and heal from this tragedy, the NCAA is only going to slow down the progress of all of the good and dedicated people who want to restore Penn State to everything it can be.

photo courtesy of USA Today

After 46 years of coaching, 409 wins vs. 136 losses and 3 ties, 37 bowl appearances with 24 wins, Joe Paterno died Sunday, January 22, 2012. He was 85 years old.

The legacy Paterno will leave behind is up in the air among all college football fans; will he be remembered for the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, or will his legendary coaching career and humility reign as his memory? No matter what people think of him, there were plenty of those who could not look any higher upon him.

The memorial on January 26 included an audience of nearly 12,000, among them family, friends, students, die-hard fans, and, most memorable, current and past players. The service included many speeches given by these athletes, and Bleacherreport.com has compiled some of the most notable ones from the afternoon.

No speech seems to explain all that is JoePa, however, than that given by senior linebacker Mike Mauti. Both Mauti and his father were athletes under Paterno, resembling one another both in skill and personality. Mauti’s speech portrays Paterno as a sarcastic and devoted man, one who remembers every single one of his previous and current players and who recognizes the importance of being a modest athlete.

It is evident that Joe Paterno will leave a greater mark on college football than any other coach in the past or those who will come along in the future, even with the Sandusky allegations. College football and athletics in general have lost a major figure in the game, and if there is someone who can have half the legacy Paterno had, we, as fans, are incredibly lucky.

Photo courtesy of the Sports Hernia Blog.

Week 11 of this year’s college football season had its share of bigtime match ups, great individual performances and emotion.  Check out CSF’s take on our top four storylines from last weekend’s action.

Despite turmoil, Penn State shows ultimate class: Despite the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal and the following administrative leave of assistant coach Mike McQueary and the mid-week firing of legendary coach Joe Paterno, Penn State officially started the healing process this weekend for the football program, the student body and most importantly, for the victims of the alleged abuse.

It started the night before, when students and faculty held a candlelight vigil for the vicitims of Sandusky’s heinous crimes.  On game day, the Penn State fans gave a warm welcome to the team when they got off the buses and again, the the Nittany Lions took the field.  An emotional moment of silence showed fans, many of whom were in tears, was followed by both teams meeting in a

BCS Computers get lucky again: Supporters of the BCS, which depends on computer formulas to determine the best teams in the land, got a huge break last weekend.  For the second straight year, Boise State will not be able to blame computers for not getting their shot at college football immortality.  Last year, a missed field goal at Nevada cost the Broncos a perfect season, and last weekend it was a missed field goal at home against TCU.

Just south in Palo Alto, the Stanford Cardinal fell to Oregon, ending the nation’s longest active winning streak and effectively taking them out of BCS Championship contention.  In the end, the Ducks simply had too much speed and athleticsm for the Cardinal, who still played an admirable game.  These two losses leave only LSU, Oklahoma State and Houston, who has never been taken seriously for a national title run, due to their schedule.

The Dawgs are back:  After dropping their first two games of the season, many had written off the Georgia Bulldogs and many fans were calling for head coach Mark Richt’s head.  Eight straight wins later and the ability to control their own destiny in the SEC East has a way of creating optimism.  After the 45-7 rout of Auburn last weekend, the Dawgs simply have to win this weekend at home against lowly Kentucky to officially punch their ticket to the SEC Championship next month.  You wouldn’t have guessed it a couple of months ago, but Richt’s very young and very talented squad will finish this season with nine or ten wins and a ton of momentum going into next season.

Brandon Weeden torches Texas Tech:  The Red Raiders were flying high after their upset win at Oklahoma on October 22nd.  That flight was short-lived, and they have dropped three straight since then, with the most recent loss resulting in a 66-6 beat down at home against Weeden and the Oklahoma State Cowboys.  Weeden shredded the TTU defense to the tune of 423 yards and five TDs.  In fact, Weeden had almost as many touchdowns (5) as he did incomplete passes (6) in this blowout.  The victory kept OSU in the #2 spot in the polls, and a win in the Bedlam game against Oklahoma would secure a shot at the BCS title–but don’t expect the Sooners to roll over…….the road to the Big 12 still goes through Norman until proved otherwise.

I actually covered a bit of my take on the child sex abuse scandal at Penn State in my Week 10 Recap, but I must be honest–I’ve been writing about sports for a little over four years now, and no college sports related story has bothered me more than this one.

I’m a father of two children, and for a moment, I thought I was taking this to heart more than normal because sick stories like the Jerry Sandusky case hit closer to home when you have a child.  But after thinking of it, this is not about being a father, a mother, an aunt or an uncle.  It’s about being a human being.

Children are about the only thing we have in the world that is genuine, innocent and fragile.  And it is our responsibility and moral obligation to protect that.

Just in case you’ve been in a hole the last 48 hours, it has been alleged that Paterno was told by a Penn State grad assistant that Sandusky was molesting a ten year old boy in a shower in 2002.

Rather than take this news to the proper authorities, Paterno, who simply passed it along to athletic director Tim Curley, evidently felt like he had done his duty and washed his hands of the incident.  For reasons unknown, Paterno, Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz kept this heinous crime in house and did not report it to police, helping to, at least temporarily, preserve Paterno and his iconic Penn State football program’s place in college football.

Paterno still claims that he feels he did what he was required to do, and those sentiments were echoed by Attorney General Linda Kelly, who said that he did fulfill his “legal” obligations by only reporting the incident to his superiors.

Do you think Paterno would have taken the same actions had the grad assistant reported to him that Sandusky was molesting his son in that shower?  Hell no, he wouldn’t have.

The fact that no one from Penn State reported this incident has allowed a sexual predator to be on the streets, and coincidentally, prey on more children since that time is inexcusable.

When the dust settles, instead of being known for the winningest coach in NCAA Division I history, Joe Paterno will be known as the narcissistic head football coach who traded his soul in attempt to preserve his own legacy.

Last weekend’s action has given us a clearer picture of the BCS.  Kind of.  And there were several story lines that capped off Week 10 in college football.  As always, CSF breaks down our top five takeaways from the weekend that was.

LSU wins the newest edition of the Game of the Century: When you have as many as eight defensive backs (not players, but defensive backs) on the field in one college game that are projected for the NFL, scoring is not going to be easy.  And as most experts predicted, that was the case as #1 LSU pulled off the 9-6 victory against last week’s #2 Alabama.  All in all, as many as 22 players from that game are expected to be donning NFL uniforms in the next 2-3 years, and the game of the century was everything that it had been hyped to be.  These are clearly the two best teams in the nation, and if Oklahoma State and Stanford stumble in the last month of the season, we could see a rematch in New Orleans in January for the title.

OU’s Ryan Broyles’ brilliant college career is finished: Oklahoma’s decorated senior wide receiver was once again putting up video game numbers, but unfortunately, in last weekend’s match up against Texas A&M, the wideout tore his ACL, which concludes one of the most outstanding college careers in NCAA history.  Broyles leaves as the all-time FBS leader in receptions with 349.  He eclipsed the 1,000-yard receiving mark in each of his last three seasons and hauled in an astounding 45 touchdown catches.  Here’s to a speedy recovery to a great football player and a great kid.

Paterno’s legacy takes a serious hit: Recent allegations that JoPa’s former defensive coordinator, Jerry Sandusky sexually abused a boy in a shower on the Penn State campus have sent a shockwave through State College.  Even more shocking and appauling is the fact that several individuals, including Paterno failed to report this heinous crime to the auhorities is inexcusable, and if it turns out that Paterno did, in fact, decide to allow the investigation to stop with some Penn State campus rent-a-cops, his legacy should forever be tarnished.  Before we jump the gun here, we need to wait for all of the facts to come forth, but these allegations are more than just a black eye to the legendary head coach.

Georgia’s Isaiah Crowell returns just in time: After an ESPN report that Crowell and two other teammates failed drug tests a couple of weeks ago, the talented starting running back for the Bulldogs was suspended for the epic match up against New Mexico State last weekend.  Although there are contracting reports as to when the Georgia coaching staff actually knew of the failed tests, Crowell was allowed to play against rival Florida two weeks ago, and has been reinstated, just in time for the only difficult SEC game left on the schedule against Auburn this weekend, teaching a valuable lesson–if you’re going to smoke pot, feel free to blaze it up as long as it’s a week against a weak opponent.  With South Carolina’s loss last weekend at Arkansas, Georgia controls its own destiny….let’s see if they make the SEC Championship, or if those dreams go up in smoke (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

When I think of a college football coach I don’t picture an 84-year-old man trying to motivate me to get on the field and win big. I guess it’s just not a scenario where I feel in me ignited the passion and excitement of youth. Rather, I see a man who is past his prime possibly still trying to live off the youth of his players and certainly not recognizing when it’s time to retire.  You might be calling me an “age-ist” right about now, but hear me out before you decide that I just don’t like old people. 

College football is a sport that requires more than 100% of your time and attention. There is a commitment that goes far beyond the games on Saturday. College football coaches are mentors, life coaches, and even sometimes father figures to their players. I am not saying that the old coaches in the league are not mentors, life coaches, or father figures, it’s just that often, with age, people slow down a bit…or a great deal.  And a position such as a college football coach is one that demands not only abundant time but also energy.

Joe Paterno is a great person and has accomplished much for Penn State as a coach. Where he has fallen short is that he has had some significant health issues that have made it more difficult for him to do his job, and, I might add, he apparently doesn’t feel the need to use modern technology such as email. Now this is not a crime, I realize, but it does limit one’s ability to communicate in a convenient and expedited fashion.

Further more, I have a hard time feeling totally convinced that a coach of such advanced years and who is technologically deficient can relate effectively with my 19-year-old son who lives on Twitter, Facebook, and email.  This is called a serious generation gap.  Of course adults don’t have to be totally technologically savvy to relate to young people (and hand writing a letter to someone is, tragically, becoming a lost art with the current generation of youth) and likewise, Twitter and Facebook may not have much to do with what happens on the field, but if you are going to coach young adults you should have an idea of what technology is available, how it works, and most importantly, how it might perversely affect the young people you mentor.

Also at issue with older coaches is that too often their offensive and defensive strategies are out-dated and can hinder the performance of the team. Although Penn State and Florida State have had some successful years, they each in their respectable rights have not made it to a major game in almost a decade, and when they did, they fell flat on their faces. When this occurs, not only do the players suffer, but  the school suffers.
I am grateful for the older coaches who have been legends for the sport and who have had the wisdom to know when their time is up. These retired coaches have kept the coaching pool young  thereby giving players the chance to have new experiences in a fresh program. Longevity is not always a good thing. There comes a time when every man or woman needs to just bow out gracefully. The school and program will go on and the departing coach can gain the satisfaction of exiting when the time was right and knowing that he gave the job the time, energy, and skill it required.

So, Joe, I think it might be your time to take your final curtain call.