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Penn State football: A dozen questions as the post-Paterno era begins

This year will be the most closely watched football season in the history of Penn State. The post-Paterno era comes with many questions. Here are 12.

2. NCAA penalties

  • By Ross Atkin Staff

What penalties did the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) mete out to the football program?

The team faces a four-year postseason ban and the loss of 80 scholarships – 20 a year over four years. The program also will be fined $60 million, the amount annually generated by the program. This fine must be paid into an endowment for "external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university." The NCAA also stripped of all its wins since the first time knowledge of Sandusky’s  abusive behavior was ignored in 1998, or a total of 112 wins and two Big Ten titles. Expunging those wins dropped Paterno from the winningest major-college coach in history to 12th on the all-time list. The penalties, it should be noted, are really a punishment for the school because of its institutional failures in the scandal brought on by its outsized, blinding football culture.

 

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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