Sorry, but in life, death rarely is the better option.
As proof, we point to SMU's football program, which once stood tall but remains so buried that there are generations of sports fans today who couldn't even tell you what SMU stands for.
The only time the NCAA has used the death penalty was on the football program at Southern Methodist University. It was in 1987. Twenty-five years later, the Mustangs might as well still be dead.
True, in the aftermath of the penalty, SMU choose to de-emphasize football and raise academic standards so high as to stunt the program's return. But guess what? Two seasons of empty Saturdays can result in significant cultural changes.
That's the very idea behind the death penalty, to alter thinking and behavior permanently.
The NCAA banned SMU for only one full season and part of a second. But SMU scrapped the second year completely because school officials didn't feel they would have enough players to put together a legitimate team.
Disappearing from the field for entire seasons, losing most if not all of a roster, simply isn't better than being permitted to play through a series of restrictions, no matter how severe.
It was not the death penalty, it was how SMU reacted to it. Let's double up, let's wind down all sports and turn SMU into Williams College. Hell, we were even going to close the School of Engineering and later the B-School under Pye's vision.
Penn State, unified its alumni, faculty and administration. SMU split the alumni, put the alumni against the faculty, the administration and of course athletics. That split still exits to some extent today. In its first year, PSU beats Navy and has a winning record. Some people value athletics and some don't. Others saw the DP as an opportunity to rebalance the power in their favor at SMU and take advantage of it.
I will give mex that, their school is definitely more unified than ours back in late 80s to 90s. After looking back at it, you have to wonder why was our admin and faculty so embarassed that we paid players (like everyone else) yet a school that harbored a child molester has unified after its discovery and is still beating BCS opponents.... I wish our admin then could of taken some notes on Penn St...
HB Pony Dad wrote:Death Penalty wasn't the answer for Penn State
I would find it hard to believe if someone thinks Penn State should not have got the death penalty, but thinks SMU should have. In my mind the two "crimes" if you will....don't even compare as far as scope of damage to people's lives that will last decades. Penn State officials cover-up and/or failure to act to stop a monster hurting innocent children is just beyond imagination. Choosing to "look the other way" to protect a football program vs protecting children is just unconscionable.
Penalties were according to the laws broken and statutes violated.
It is not right or fair, it just is the reality of selective moralism. The NCAA seemed to have very little wiggle room in decreeing the DP for PSU's violations. Per their own voluminous rulebook, the best attempt at 'lack of institutional control' would have been a wash if taken to court. The 'threat', such as it was and explained, was a ruse that caused some in the temporary administration and trustees to blink. The public at large, outraged at the crimes, also bought it, believing the NCAA stepped up to do the right thing. I tend to think it was more of a winkwink affair...go with this and it will be bad, but not as bad as it 'could' be.
Oh, they were really scared. Yeah.
stable-boy for the four horsemen of the apocalypse
peruna81 wrote:The NCAA seemed to have very little wiggle room in decreeing the DP for PSU's violations. Per their own voluminous rulebook, the best attempt at 'lack of institutional control' would have been a wash if taken to court.
If that's true, then they need to change the "voluminious rulebook". If the NCAA really is powerless to impose the death penalty on a program whose AD, Coaches, and senior administration officials are involved in a coverup and/or a failure to report repeated rapes and sexual molestations for years against children in order to protect the football program then something is terribly wrong.
If someone was in a coma the last year and suddenly woke up and went to a Penn State game this month it would appear as if nothing has happened. Stadium full, tailgates in full swing, cheerleaders doing flips. Heck they could even tune in and catch a Penn State game on national television. What message does that send? It's a disgrace and a cop-out to claim "well it's a criminal issue and we cant give the death penalty for horrible actions by school officals protecting a football program by shielding a serial child molester" but sure we can give the ultimate penalty for less serious actions like car/cash payments to some players".
IPP, while I agree with your premise about the injustice, that is just simply not the NCAA of the 70s, 80s and 2010s. Not to get too Biblical, but they strain the gnat and swallow the camel regarding a number of violations, and a number of programs.
Penn State was involved in the most egregious criminal cover-up in college sports history. It didn't get the death penalty for a number of reasons (PSU, a significant revenue source for the NCAA, lost TV rights, etc) among them the difficulty in applying existing rules around so horrific a crime. Instead, they (the NCAA) chose the PR moment, to show how efficient they were in dealing with a building public outrage. It was a convenient and an easy call, as long as the PSU folks went along with it.
Interesting to note also that back in the day, the NCAA chose to hold a presser to announce the SMU sanctions...it went off well, that is until Berst keeled over. Some things don't have to change. They just are conveniently what they are.
stable-boy for the four horsemen of the apocalypse
it really made my skin boil when I saw Penn State on national television the first time this season...it honestly caught me by surprise...it was like of all the teams that could be shown...why are they "rewarding" Penn State with a nationally televised game? Is the big money conference that feared? Do they have no respect for the children whose lives were so badly damaged?..it was as if nothing had happened..and that's a damn shame...personally I firmly believe a one year death penalty along with the fines, ect would have sent the right message...but like you say...it is what it is.
IMHO, what State Penn did deserved the Death Penalty -a 10 year Death Penalty. They get off with a slap on the wrist and they move on like nothing happened. The worst thing now is how ESPiN pimps them out every week. Every single week they're on. It makes me wanna puke. They shouldn't be allowed on TV for 10 years. I don't mean this the wrong way but ESPiNs man-love for State Penn is just wrong.
Lack of institutional control is just that, whether it involves breaking recruiting rules or molestation of young boys.
The difference of course, most schools bend the rules when it comes to recruiting, and in the early 80's SMU was far from alone. No other school (and I hope ever) hid crimes for so long against minors--Penn State is alone.
Watching Penn State on TV makes me just as angry against our administration, then and now more than the NCAA.
Just last week the Dean of the School of Education said despite the special programs at Stanford and Vanderbilt for student athletes, we would never have one! We will not lower ourselves to their standards! Last I checked Vandy was number 17 and we were number 54 or so on the BW rankings. It still goes on, second rate administrators flexing their power, when they couldn't even get hired by these schools. The old case of 'bait and switch', if we get a School of Education we will have a program for our athletes to keep them in school--BS! Just like Turner's and Copeland's, "Commitment" ten years ago!
I wonder if our sanctimonious President could have even been admitted to SMU under the rules he administered to our student athletes for the first 11 years of his administration--with his third rate junior college degree?
