• Jeff Smith: Yes. No sanction or punishment will ever be enough to compensate for the lives destroyed by the sick monster Sandusky, and the criminal decision by administrators to cover it up. Unfortunately the sanctions will hurt those who had nothing to do with the crimes, namely the students, athletes, and the community as a whole that benefitted from Penn State football. Hopefully other programs will learn from this, that honesty, decency, being law-abiding, and protecting the innocent are infinitely more important than any sports program – no matter how famous or revered it may be.
• Julian Mancias: Yes. The football program will still be eligible to play their games. That is fair to the many athletes who had nothing to do with the scandal and who still should be allowed to play football.
• Lisa Pampuch: Yes.These penalties will help to ensure that in the future, any university officials morally bankrupt enough to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before doing the right thing that might damage a money-making athletic program will conclude that the cost of not doing the right thing is too high.
• Dennis Kennedy: Yes! As much as I love football, the primary purpose of a college or university is to educate, and not to field a football team.
• Jeff Nunes: Appropriate? Yes. Fair? Probably not but that does not matter. Although I feel bad for the student athletes who competed for the victories that were vacated, or the ones who were expecting to compete in the next three years, that is the nature of NCAA sanctions. Innocent student athletes are frequently made to suffer for the indiscretions (or crimes) of the few and in much less heinous circumstances than this molestation case.
• Steve Staloch: Yes, and more severe than the “death penalty,” which would severely and unfairly penalized the local economy.
n Henry Miller: Yes. Yes but … I feel the removal of Joe Paterno’s statue was excessive. In Julius Caesar, Will Shakespeare’s line: “The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones,” seems most appropriate. I met Joe and believe he was a good man. He didn’t do enough in this case, but he did do a lot of good in his life. Let’s not inter all that with his bones.
• David Cohen: Yes. Penn State – the institution and the football program – needs to feel the pain. The fine, the bowl game restriction and voiding of 13 seasons of victories provides a significant object lesson for the school and its supporters.
• Chris Bryant: Yes, a message had to be sent.
• Bert Berson: Yes. But that is not the right question. The NCAA is trying to eliminate their systemic problems with penalties’ for a specific case. The NCAA needs a Judge Landis to clean it up. They cannot be relied upon to do it themselves. As the kid said, “say it isn’t so Joe.”
• Karen Anderson: Yes. They were caught flatfooted in a cover up.
• Dave Appling: Mostly. A much-needed message to the entire college football industry. However, JoePa is dead, and vacating 13 years of Penn State victories punishes only the innocent players who achieved them. Also, the $60M fine may be just, but who will be the bill payers — PSU academic programs? research? infrastructure?
