Penn State deserved the penalties the NCAA applied in response to Sandusky scandal

No prob bob, thanks for your response! I do want to make one point. I found your points 1 and 2 to be slightly redundant. Saying the guilty weren't punished could imply that the innocent were punished. For the sake of my typing hands and time, I will combine both of your points into one. 1: Not a punishment/unfair to innocents My assertion that Penn State itself failed refers to the fact that the entire university must bear the punishment of the sins of a few. This falls loosely under the term "collective responsibility", the idea being that those who did not actively commit or plan the crime are still responsible for it when connected to those who did. The fact is that these events occurred on Penn State property by Penn State employees. Penn State is culpable for its employees actions on its property. And to address the McDonald's analogy, let us remember that Penn State is first a school and then a football team. The NCAA did not penalize the student body or professors, but rather the football team, which falls under NCAA jurisdiction as a member institution. The monetary fine is equivalent to a year's football revenue, and knowing Penn State fans, they will continue to support their team financially. If a McDonald's manager assaulted children in its facilities, and the events were covered up by the owner and CEO's of McDonald's, the government would not cut the wages of all employees. There is a different dynamic between McDonald's and the government than there is between the NCAA and Penn State. The NCAA has direct control over Penn State and is within its right to punish its member institutions. Penn State also has the right to appeal these sanctions (6), however they have chosen not to. Penn state has accepted responsibility for the actions. I would assume, if a school thought the sanctions were thoroughly unjust, it would appeal such grievances. The fact of the matter is that this is an unfortunate situation. I will be clear that there was no solution to this in which everyone would have be pleased. If the NCAA had remained motionless in this crisis, then there would have been massive public outcry about the school being let off after all that happened. The weight of what happened required response, and unfortunately those not involved were punished. And to return to the future of Penn States team, I found con's source to be quite illuminating. Among the teams listed in Sherman's article (4) were Miami, who 6 years after their sanctions hit won the national championship after firing Butch Davis (1), and USC which received sanctions after Reggie Bush's controversy arose, and now many consider them to be a national championship team, after two years of scholarship reduction. During these two years, the team had top 15 recruiting classes (2) (3). These teams were able to rebound relatively quickly due to the fact that these teams were so popular. USC and Miami are football schools through and through. Penn State is also in this category. Players grow up dreaming to play for Penn State, and they still may. As my previous argument showed, Penn State still ranks highly in recruiting (5). What will most likely devastate the team the most is the loss of Joe Paterno. (which was not a result of NCAA sanctions, but rather of nature). The article also referred to SMU, but let it be remembered that SMU received the death penalty for what it did, and Penn State did not. SMU had barely any tradition before the 1980's, which was when it received the sanctions. Rebuttal to the rebuttal of the first rebuttal of my arguments: 1: Magnitude requires penance I have addressed this already. The crimes occurred on Penn State property and were perpetrated by Penn state employees. I will not say this again. 2: Precedent The point of this precedent is to say that universities will be much more attentive and alert to any kind of similar incident. Universities, for instance, may install cameras in school facilities or require that all reports of illegal activity be sent to several faculty members instead of one person. Purely speculative I know, but the point is that these sanctions could inspire a heightened awareness of actions by school employees. Jail time will deter a single man from covering illicit activity. The sanctions will deter an entire university. 3: Cult I am dropping this argument. Paterno was a great football coach. However, I cannot in good conscience respect him because of his actions. While he won a national championship, he did knowingly allow children to be abused sexually. It is the same way I would refuse to respect Mitt Romney should my opponent's analogy be applied. However, in its place I will add a new argument. 3 (revised): It could have been a lot worse. When this point is made, I feel the need to get the elephant out of the room quickly. Penn State did not receive the death penalty. While many articles suggest these sanctions were worse than said penalty, I would say this is more rhetoric and hype than logic. Penn State will still play come fall. Fans will still fill Beaver Stadium. The death penalty would not allow these major occurrences. There can be no mention of the death penalty without SMU. SMU also lost the ability to give ANY scholarships (4) for a long period of time, something that Penn State will not have to deal with. PSU did lose scholarships, but they are not banned from offering them. SMU also lost TV privileges, which Penn State did not lose, meaning it will still have that added revenue. (7) The NCAA could have come down harder, but it didn't. It applied heavy, but controlled force on Penn State. Also worthy to be noted, the NCAA is not pocketing the fine. It is going to a fund to help abused children, a very worthy placement for 60 million dollars. The NCAA had to do something, and something big. They are responsible for their member institutions the same way a parent is responsible for a child. Sometimes, when a child crosses the line, they need disciplining. Penn State is responsible for what goes on its campus and football facilities I now rest my case, and will let con finish the debate. Good Luck. 1) http://en.wikipedia.org... 2) http://insider.espn.go.com... 3) http://insider.espn.go.com... 4)http://espn.go.com... 5)http://insider.espn.go.com... 6) http://www.ncaa.org... 7) http://blog.pennlive.com... 8) http://sports.yahoo.com...