By now, everyone surrounding college football has heard the various reports involving the Penn State Nittany Lions football program’s sanctioning. After violations by head coach Joe Paterno and assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, the program was in an extremely dark place and emails found Thursday reported the Nittany Lions were very close to receiving the “death penalty.” These emails discovered that several members of the NCAA rules committee favored shutting down the Penn State program in light of the findings. Still, the reports also say that “cooperation and transparency” eventually saved the program.
The “death penalty” had only been received one time before in college football history, by the 1986 SMU Mustangs when significant recruiting violations and a “slush fund” doomed the talent-laden Mustang program. SMU suspended their entire 1987 campaign and played in a limited capacity in 1988. The Mustangs had only one winning season over the 20 years that followed and the Nittany Lions would have been facing the same fate. Penn State, however, was able to avoid the horrific outcome and has not missed any portion of time since the discovery of the violations.
The emails containing the reports were attached to Donald Remy’s email to a school attorney as the NCAA fights a legal battle against two Pennsylvania officials over the Penn State sanctions. Eventually, the school was fined $60 million, banished from four years of bowl games, forced to relinquish 112 wins, on top of forfeiting many scholarships.
Despite signs of life in 2013, Penn State continues to live with the NCAA violations and has struggled to a 5-4 campaign – an obvious down year for Nittany Lions football. The team will have two more years of serious scrutiny before being able to fully return to college football relevancy and needs significant improvement from head coach James Franklin – as well as the entire roster – if they hope to return to being a National powerhouse.
*Section Photo credit to Getty Images; Featured Photo (above) credit to OnwardState
