Monday was a day that needed to come sooner or later.
Regardless of whether the NCAA had a precedent for jurisdiction, they needed to
act. The crime was just that bad.
And for Penn State, the crime wasn’t child molestation. That
crime was Jerry Sandusky’s. No, for Penn State the crime was that of
perspective being lost in such an egregious manner that it was indeed
felonious.
For that crime, the NCAA needed to act and did so in the
most heavy-handed of ways, imposing a $60 million fine and sentencing the
football powerhouse to four years without postseason play and a scholarship
reduction that will likely cripple the program for several years beyond.
But while the NCAA did what they had to, Penn State once
again missed the boat. Rather than continuing to horrify the nation by trying
to play the victim card, the University should have taken the opportunity to
look in the mirror, to take the step back that the NCAA, and the country for
that matter, is trying to tell the University to take.
Take a year off.
That’s right. No football in State College. That’s what
needed to happen.
But the NCAA was correct in not imposing the so-called
“death penalty” on Penn State. It wasn’t their place to take that type of
action. They simply needed to send a strong message that what happened in State
College is not what the NCAA stands for. Oh, and they were also trying to
(wink, wink) give PSU a hint.
Penn State needs to impose the “death penalty” on itself. A
year without football is what the entire University community needs. Quiet
Saturdays in State College would give residents, students, and faculty time to
reflect on the loss of perspective in the role of Nittany Lion football, a lost
perspective that had such devastating consequences.
Because far too often, the allure of Beaver Stadium and the
Paterno statue prevented those at Penn State from rationally answering the simplest
of questions: What is “Penn State”?
Without football, students might actually crowd a home
volleyball match. After all, Penn State is perhaps even more a powerhouse in
that sport than it could ever even hope to have been in football.
Without football, residents might make a day trip up to see
the fall colors in the Allegheny National Forest.
And perhaps without football, faculty will take a break from
their work and not head to the stadium, but rather to the Creamery, the largest
of its kind on any University campus in the world (but one could argue Babcock’s
ice cream is better).
Having to go without football for a year would give those at
Penn State a chance to re-evaluate why they “Still Are”, forcing them to step
back and answer some simple and yet profoundly necessary questions:
Students: Why did you choose State College?
Faculty: What makes you get up for work each morning?
Residents: Why do you love living in Happy Valley?
Having never been to State College myself, I cant answer
those questions. But what I can tell you is that football should never get so
big as to run rampant over the culture of a University as big and as well
renowned as Penn State.
Unfortunately, while the NCAA’s penalties will take away
Penn State’s ability to compete in the near future, they cannot impose the
self-reflection that needs to occur in State College. The NCAA did its job and
now the ball is in Penn State’s court.
