Penn State Latest

If, say, 1/3 of the PSU BOT goes on public record as being unwilling to abide by NCAA rules, regulations and sanctions, I would say that demonstrates a fairly sizable percentage of the university's official governing body and calls into severe doubt the probability of compliance to such measures in the future -- i.e, lack of institutional control.

 

Except you can't punish them for something they haven't done yet.

 

I would have two concerns with that assessment. First, you would only be talking about some non-controlling subset of the BOT. It's difficult for me to accept that what the minority says is representative of the entire institution's mindset.* Second, voting against accepting the NCAA's penalties is not (or perhaps should not be seen as) the same thing as saying you're not going to abide by the NCAA's rules and regulations. It's one thing to say, "I don't think the NCAA's actions in this case are or were appropriate," and it's quite another to say "F*$k the NCAA and its rules and regulations."


*It is the case, however, that non-unanimity is troublesome in many circumstances. In academia, for example, promotion/tenure candidates who don't get unanimous positive votes at the department level often are looked upon skeptically at higher levels. The last candidate we had received only 2 negative votes (out of a total of 14) at the departmental level, but we all knew that this candidate's tenure chances were for all intents and purposes done for (and they were). Maybe you're getting at a similar dynamic.

 

If 1/3 of the BOT, say, 12 of 33, has gone on record as not willing to abide by NCAA sanctions, how hard is it going to be for those 12 to schmooze up five or six more at some drunken tailgate party to decide they don't want to abide by them either and it's time to "punch back" ?


If I were the NCAA I would put it right in their laps -- demand an overwhelming supermajority vote to uphold NCAA administrative decisions, and that those voting in opposition be publicly identified and banned from any association whatsoever with the athletic program.

 

But isn't it the case that at any point in the future the NCAA can go to the death penalty? You're right about the ability of a sizable minority to keep things in flux (I hadn't thought of that), but the NCAA's hands aren't tied from here on out, either.

 

Well this hypothetical scenario certainly holds the death penalty (in fact, a 10-year expulsion from the NCAA) as the ultimate hammer.

 

Penn State readies for the football season:
bans the song Sweet Caroline

Hands. Touching hands. Reaching out. Touching me. Touching you.

So good! So good! So good!

Ick. Makes sense to drop that from the playlist. All you need is a stadium full of fanbois singing that.

 

They will also require all plays to be run from shotgun formation.

 

They're replacing it with songs written by R. Kelly, Pete Townsend and Gary Glitter.

 

Don't forget Bill Conlin. :

 

29 former chairs of Penn State faculty senate criticize NCAA for punishing entire university and Freeh for sloppy work.

http://espn.go.com/college-football/story/_/id/8311415/penn-state-faculty-group-disputes-ncaa-sanctions

Punch back!