Penn State

This week we learned of the Penn State sanctions, handed down by the NCAA and they were harsh.  All of the school's wins since the first known Sandusky rape in 1998 were vacated. (111 wins)  With that Joe Paterno went from the second to twelfth on the all-time winningest NCAA football coach list.  The football program was placed on probation and given a four year bowl ban, meaning none of the teams can play for a National Championship, BigTen Championship or any other bowl for the next four seasons.   Probably the most significant part of the sanctions is the loss of scholarships, the school will loose 20 scholarships a year for the next four years and ten immediately.  As a result of this their new head coach Bill O'Brien will have to step up his recruiting because he can't offer everyone a scholarship or a chance to play in a bowl or for a championship.  The Penn Stat Nittany Lions football team will most likely be composed of a large number of walk ons for the next five years.  The Team will probably not be very good during this stretch, as they play with walk ons and a less than elite roster.  (The NCAA is letting players transfer without a penalty)  All Bill O'Brien can sell to his players the next five years is an education, a chance to play in front 106,000 fans a game (Beaver Stadium is one of the biggest stadiums in college football) and to get ready for the NFL.  In my opinion these Sanctions (although harsh) were slightly better then the alternative, which may have been (maybe multiple years) the "death penalty".  With the "Death Penalty" all of the coaches and players would have left for the duration of the time the football program would be suspended so the program would have to start all over again from scratch, and it would take the better part of a century to build it back to respectably.  The program received harsh penalties but at least they can still play football, so when they get off probation they can get back to respectably faster.