The London Olympic Games started today -- not that many people probably knew.
Because of the length of time the soccer tournaments take, they start soccer play before the Opening Ceremonies.
Today not only featured the first matches of said (womens') play, but also the first hyper-gaffe of the Games by the London organizers.
When they put up pictures of the North Korean women's soccer team, they put them up with the SOUTH Korean flag!!
The level of gaffe is utterly stunning!
Needless to say, the North Koreans refused to take the field for an hour after seeing the gaffe.
(As well, frankly, they should! The two countries are all but at war and have been since US involvement in the 1950's!!)
When they finally played the match, they defeated Colombia, 2-0. They share the group with the United States and France (US won 4-2), so North Korea is now forecast to finish third in the group.
------
In additional Olympic gaffes:
Greece's triple jump champion, Voula Papachristou, will be watching the games from home for this little ditty she put on her Twitter account about African athletes:
"with so many Africans in Greece, at least the West Nile mosquitos will be eating food from their own home."
I disagree with Yahoo! blogger Chris Chase. Yes, the Olympic ideal is, at best, suspect (my experiences in Salt Lake City would give you that in spades!), but that would be sufficient, in my mind, to toss Papachristou from the Games. (The Greek national federation did this.)
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Some more thoughts on Penn State and subsidiary issues...
The Big Ten should suspend it's divisional setup for one year. In fact, if it doesn't, the NCAA should step in and deny the school the right to have the Legends Division winner play Wisconsin in Indianapolis in December for the right to play in the Rose Bowl.
Why am I so sure on this? There are only FOUR eligible teams in the Leaders Division now. Ohio State serves it's one-year penalty this year (I thought it was last year.) Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue are the four schools. I can't see any of the other three touching the Badgers.
So I agree with "Dan from the Moon" on the Big Ten mailblog on ESPN yesterday:
"Why doesn't the B1G do away with divisions this year? Just keep the schedules the way they are and the top 2 teams go to Indy for the championship game. It's not really fair that one conference is only a 4 (reality 3) team race to go to the Championship game. Why should everybody in the other division have to fight 2 more teams?And while they are at it they can do away with the division names. It's embarrassing to have 2 teams in the Leaders division ineligible due to LEADERSHIP violations."
The Big Ten certainly has some decisions to make. In about 3-5 years, I think the Big Ten may have to find a new 12th member (see next post below for why!).
The Big Ten should already be only 11 schools anyway, as Penn State should've been expelled from the conference upon the sanctions -- why else was Penn State brought into the Big Ten in the first place?
You could easily have an 8-4, 7-5 team that is 5-3, at best, in the Big Ten, from that division. Everybody on the schedule still has to play the two ineligible sides, but, since the NCAA requires a certain number of conference teams for a title game, should it not also require a certain number of eligible teams in a division?
---
Go down the mailblog, and it becomes clear that the plea-bargain came with a very strong stick.
Someone is lying. They interviewed Oregon State's Ed Ray, who was part of the process, and he said that there was never a discussion to suspend play.
So why does Penn State agree to anything, with absolutely no position from which to bargain?
Mark Emmert, the President of the NCAA, told Yahoo! Sports that the Death Penalty was openly threatened for multiple seasons.
So who's telling the truth, and why is it being said out of both sides of your mouth?
---
If the Penn State situation and Bountygate are not two prime cases for the creation of Howard Cosell's National Sports Commission that he proposed in his book decades ago, I know not what is.
We need a body that can shut down games, shut down teams, shut down sanctioning bodies who refuse to conform to even the smallest segment of human decency.
---
Kinda off the track a bit, but one might wonder if Bob Costas might be up to the task.
He's going to take on the International Olympic Committee in a little more than 48 hours.
In the Opening Ceremony in London, the IOC denied requests for a moment of silence when Israel's athletes enter the stadium, in rememberance of the Munich massacre in 1972.
Costas is going to do something in defiance of that directive. Exactly what, we'll find out on Friday...
Why am I so sure on this? There are only FOUR eligible teams in the Leaders Division now. Ohio State serves it's one-year penalty this year (I thought it was last year.) Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, and Purdue are the four schools. I can't see any of the other three touching the Badgers.
So I agree with "Dan from the Moon" on the Big Ten mailblog on ESPN yesterday:
"Why doesn't the B1G do away with divisions this year? Just keep the schedules the way they are and the top 2 teams go to Indy for the championship game. It's not really fair that one conference is only a 4 (reality 3) team race to go to the Championship game. Why should everybody in the other division have to fight 2 more teams?And while they are at it they can do away with the division names. It's embarrassing to have 2 teams in the Leaders division ineligible due to LEADERSHIP violations."
The Big Ten certainly has some decisions to make. In about 3-5 years, I think the Big Ten may have to find a new 12th member (see next post below for why!).
The Big Ten should already be only 11 schools anyway, as Penn State should've been expelled from the conference upon the sanctions -- why else was Penn State brought into the Big Ten in the first place?
You could easily have an 8-4, 7-5 team that is 5-3, at best, in the Big Ten, from that division. Everybody on the schedule still has to play the two ineligible sides, but, since the NCAA requires a certain number of conference teams for a title game, should it not also require a certain number of eligible teams in a division?
---
Go down the mailblog, and it becomes clear that the plea-bargain came with a very strong stick.
Someone is lying. They interviewed Oregon State's Ed Ray, who was part of the process, and he said that there was never a discussion to suspend play.
So why does Penn State agree to anything, with absolutely no position from which to bargain?
Mark Emmert, the President of the NCAA, told Yahoo! Sports that the Death Penalty was openly threatened for multiple seasons.
So who's telling the truth, and why is it being said out of both sides of your mouth?
---
If the Penn State situation and Bountygate are not two prime cases for the creation of Howard Cosell's National Sports Commission that he proposed in his book decades ago, I know not what is.
We need a body that can shut down games, shut down teams, shut down sanctioning bodies who refuse to conform to even the smallest segment of human decency.
---
Kinda off the track a bit, but one might wonder if Bob Costas might be up to the task.
He's going to take on the International Olympic Committee in a little more than 48 hours.
In the Opening Ceremony in London, the IOC denied requests for a moment of silence when Israel's athletes enter the stadium, in rememberance of the Munich massacre in 1972.
Costas is going to do something in defiance of that directive. Exactly what, we'll find out on Friday...
The Hammer Falls, Part IV: Could THIS be the method to Emmert's/the NCAA's madness?
I had been racking my brains for 36 hours as to how in the Hell the NCAA could so openly get away with "The Show Must Go On" and actually pass this off as WORSE than the Death Penalty.
Then, a poster to rec.sport.football.college, "That Don Guy" basically disputed my position that the only sports which might survive are revenue sports and enough women's sports to keep Title IX happy when he quoted the NCAA Bylaws and Division I Manual.
(At least I'm glad that, though the NCAA charges $16.50 for the manual, it does provide a free .PDF download here.)
Bylaw 20.9.7.1, page 341 of the 2011-12 Manual (probably still in effect for another week or two):
To be in FBS:
So where am I going with this?
I'm going to make a rather large leap that is about the only sensical approach I can take to the announcement on Monday:
The financial and reputational penalties are meant to be so severe that Penn State is to become the first-ever college to be expelled fully from Division I athletics for misconduct.
It's really about the only common sense I can make out of it.
If you read the next post below, you will find a link to an ABC News report which indicated that, year before last (2010-11), Penn State raised $118,000,000 and turned a $32,000,000 profit for it's athletic programs for that year.
Half of that profit is already gone. $12M a year to the NCAA for five years, about $4-5M down the drain from the Big Ten for revoking it's bowl money to give to charities from Penn State for bowl ban.
State Farm just pulled it's sponsorship of Penn State football yesterday.
GM is considering doing the same.
Pepsi, PNC Bank, and insurer Highmark are retaining their sponsorships for now.
(Time to boycott.)
I'm not saying this is going to happen this year, or even next.
But let's go down the road 2-3 years, when Barry Switzer claims that all Penn State will be able to find are Division II and Division III players for years 2-5...
They had 97,828 people for their victory over Illinois.
What if this does basically kill the program as a Big Ten program?
Remember, that nearly 100K per game was required to get $60,000,000 a year for football, more than half what the athletic program brought in for 2010-11.
If that number is halved, that's another $30,000,000 out the door. Now, the athletic program is LOSING $20,000,000 or more a year.
Penn State, as of today, offers 29 sports. 15 mens' and 14 womens'.
Do you really believe that, once a $50,000,000 swing in the athletic budget hits the table, that even half those sports are going to survive, especially the likes of:
But I assert that Mark Emmert is actually going to try and bankrupt the Penn State athletic program out of Division I.
Now, listen to his press conference again, and take his words with that idea in mind!
He's basically going to give them three choices:
Even most experts believe that the football program, if it didn't get bankrupted out of D1, could return to at least minor Big Ten bowls within a decade.
If that happens, the NCAA, by it's own admission, has failed.
For the first time, I think the NCAA's rationale for this plea bargain (and let's all remember this was a plea bargain to ensure The Show Must Go On, if for no other reason than to allow the Big Ten to find a new 12th member down the road!) might be evident.
Then, a poster to rec.sport.football.college, "That Don Guy" basically disputed my position that the only sports which might survive are revenue sports and enough women's sports to keep Title IX happy when he quoted the NCAA Bylaws and Division I Manual.
(At least I'm glad that, though the NCAA charges $16.50 for the manual, it does provide a free .PDF download here.)
Bylaw 20.9.7.1, page 341 of the 2011-12 Manual (probably still in effect for another week or two):
To be in FBS:
- You must be in 16 sports.
- At least eight womens' sports are required to be in the 16, but no fewer than six mens' sports..
- They must maintain 15,000 per game attendance over two years, on a rolling basis. (20.9.7.3)
- Failure to qualify means a 10-year period where a second failure means they lose all postseason rights and can be removed from FBS by the NCAA. (20.9.7.5)
- 14 sports, instead of 16, and either seven of each gender or six mens' and eight womens'.
So where am I going with this?
I'm going to make a rather large leap that is about the only sensical approach I can take to the announcement on Monday:
The financial and reputational penalties are meant to be so severe that Penn State is to become the first-ever college to be expelled fully from Division I athletics for misconduct.
It's really about the only common sense I can make out of it.
If you read the next post below, you will find a link to an ABC News report which indicated that, year before last (2010-11), Penn State raised $118,000,000 and turned a $32,000,000 profit for it's athletic programs for that year.
Half of that profit is already gone. $12M a year to the NCAA for five years, about $4-5M down the drain from the Big Ten for revoking it's bowl money to give to charities from Penn State for bowl ban.
State Farm just pulled it's sponsorship of Penn State football yesterday.
GM is considering doing the same.
Pepsi, PNC Bank, and insurer Highmark are retaining their sponsorships for now.
(Time to boycott.)
I'm not saying this is going to happen this year, or even next.
But let's go down the road 2-3 years, when Barry Switzer claims that all Penn State will be able to find are Division II and Division III players for years 2-5...
They had 97,828 people for their victory over Illinois.
What if this does basically kill the program as a Big Ten program?
Remember, that nearly 100K per game was required to get $60,000,000 a year for football, more than half what the athletic program brought in for 2010-11.
If that number is halved, that's another $30,000,000 out the door. Now, the athletic program is LOSING $20,000,000 or more a year.
Penn State, as of today, offers 29 sports. 15 mens' and 14 womens'.
Do you really believe that, once a $50,000,000 swing in the athletic budget hits the table, that even half those sports are going to survive, especially the likes of:
- Fencing
- Golf
- Lacrosse
- Tennis
- Gymnastics
- Cross Country
- Ice and Field Hockey
But I assert that Mark Emmert is actually going to try and bankrupt the Penn State athletic program out of Division I.
Now, listen to his press conference again, and take his words with that idea in mind!
He's basically going to give them three choices:
- Lose FBS/FCS status and drop football
- Face the wrath of the NCAA, perhaps a full-institution Death Penalty, if they try to take money from the other sports to pay the fine (which is, of course, backwards -- the football program is keeping every sport I listed above (and others!) afloat!)
- or lose Division I status.
Even most experts believe that the football program, if it didn't get bankrupted out of D1, could return to at least minor Big Ten bowls within a decade.
If that happens, the NCAA, by it's own admission, has failed.
For the first time, I think the NCAA's rationale for this plea bargain (and let's all remember this was a plea bargain to ensure The Show Must Go On, if for no other reason than to allow the Big Ten to find a new 12th member down the road!) might be evident.
Monday, July 23, 2012
The Hammer Falls, Part III: The ULTIMATE "The Show Must Go On": NCAA Declares Penn State Football Too Big To Fail
It's taken me nearly twelve hours to pick myself up off the floor from laughing at the NCAA and their limp-wristed approach at actually trying to make meaningful punishment from the Freeh Report.
The Hammer came down today:
I want you to read some of the FAQ I linked to at "The Hammer came down today", and try to wrap your brain around the NCAA's reasons here, and hope that you don't come to the same conclusions I do and have for about 9 months now!
First, let's address the main question, from a direct quote from the NCAA FAQ:
Why not the death penalty?
Imposing the death penalty does not address the cultural, systemic and leadership failures at Penn State. Instead, our approach demands that they become an exemplary NCAA member by eradicating the mindset that led to this tragedy.
If imposed, the death penalty would impact far more student-athletes than those at the Penn State program. Indeed, hundreds of student-athletes who are not even Penn State students would be negatively impacted.
How many ways do I dissect this as a cover for "if we impose the Death Penalty, the OTHER SCHOOLS lose too much money?"
If you truly want to "address the cultural, systemic, and leadership failures at Penn State", you will not be able to do so and retain Penn State's membership in the NCAA. The failures, obviously, go THAT DEEP into the system. I reference two questions that I will later re-address as the only conditions that I would impose on ever seeing another sporting event at Penn State; The disappearance of the District Attorney investigating Sandusky a decade ago, and the claims that a number of high-level donors at PSU were being given boys to rape by Sandusky in exchange for their contributions.
At every turn, before today, a major move to punish the program has been met with violence and cult-like resistance. The more I read on this University, the more it scares me the religious reverence given this man and this program. To simply WOUND this cult, rather than ERADICATE it, well could make things WORSE. They become more dangerous -- you could easily see some irate Penn State supporter go to a visiting content and make the situation in Colorado look tame, and I wouldn't put it past some Nittany Lion supporter doing so!
To make them an "exemplary NCAA member", you pretty well will have to run off every donor, every major supporter, every local sponsor, and much of the political structure in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania -- not JUST those within Penn State University itself. (And I use the disappearance of the District Attorney as a good example of this.)
In fact, the second NCAA statement, in so many words, IS "The Show Must Go On"! That, at ALL cost to reasonable conduct and human decency, even child rape and pedophilia must not stand in the way of ensuring the gate receipts and program revenues keep sports alive at NCAA institutions.
At what point are we going to get a fucking brain and realize that the entire interscholastic athletic system is probably hopelessly dirty and must be cleaned out, consequences be damned?
You don't give the Death Penalty just to the one institution, you give it all of them, in the manner that anybody committing this behavior is DONE. And if killing off Penn State means that there is no more women's golf at Nebraska, frankly... TOO DAMN BAD. The NCAA has allowed corrupt collegiate athletics in the few revenue sports to go on for far too damned long to keep other programs afloat.
If the NCAA can't dip into their massive merchandising revenues to offset the damage to the other schools in the Big Ten, etc., to cover for this, then there really is nothing to say, because the pedophilia and the like would not only support, as a matter of necessity, the sports at Penn State, but at the other institutions as well.
This isn't a matter of the other student athletes, but a matter of the entire corrupt lattice of the NCAA, the reliance on ESPN and other media outlets and their television contracts, and the very few revenue sports which allow the rest to exist.
Therefore, I don't buy into any of this! This is "The Show Must Go On". Death Penalty Penn State, and dip into the coffers that you take in from the 100 or so schools, and cover for some of it.
And then they exceed the stupidity by adding this to the FAQ:
Isn’t this basically the death penalty?
The NCAA sanctions on Penn State, taken in sum, far exceed the severity of shutting down a program for a year or two. Our sanctions address the cultural change necessary at Penn State. What some refer to as the death penalty was not severe enough.
The NCAA has actually determined that they wanted to give a penalty worse than the Death Penalty!!
SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE THEY ALLOWED TO PUT OUT A FOOTBALL TEAM?
I'm not talking 1-2 years here. We're talking 5-10-permanent!!!
In fact, if we want to take you seriously, Mark Emmert (the NCAA's current President, for whom you can see a 7 1/2 minute video of the announcement here), and you want us to believe this is worse than pulling the program (which has effectively killed the relevance of the one football program you did it to for just two years, SMU, for 25 years -- it was 22 years from SMU's Death Penalty to even their first MINOR bowl since), you have, in my mind, one option:
Disqualification and expulsion from the NCAA.
You are effectively, and with the consent and non-appeal from Penn State, attempting to kill their program well into the 2040's. The goal of these sanctions, as stated by this FAQ, is to cripple this program for more than the quarter-century that SMU has been crippled.
Again:
SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE THEY ALLOWED TO PUT OUT A FOOTBALL TEAM?
"The Show Must Go On", for the benefit of the OTHER schools.
Right?
Penn State was one of the about 12-15 schools who makes money on their athletic programs.
According to ABC News, using 2010-2011 numbers, the football program ($60M) brings in over half the revenue of the athletic department ($118M). And, using those same numbers, the Penn State athletic program had a $32,000,000 profit in 2010-2011.
This is before Sandusky's coverup became public.
What I believe is about to happen is that you will end up with about 4-6 sports left: The two revenue sports (football and mens' basketball), and enough women's sports (basketball and volleyball first) to satisfy Title IX.
Between lawsuits and these fines, plus the loss of gate revenues once this team effectively reaches FCS or even Division II-level play (remember, the intention of the NCAA, with these penalties, is to make the next bowl appearance of any kind for Penn State be somewhere past the year 2034), revenues are about to nosedive, and expenses (legal) are about to skyrocket.
It won't even be a matter of them robbing Peter to pay Paul. Paul is keeping Peter afloat, and that's about to end.
Laughably lenient. And an insult to humanity.
The Show Must Go On, yet again.
If you really want me to believe The Show Must Go On that badly, I have two demands:
The Hammer came down today:
- Four-year bowl ban (including a clarification from the Big Ten that it includes their title game)
- a 20-scholarship reduction (10 entering, 10 continuing) for each of the four years -- that's approximately a 25% reduction in scholarships (a school usually gets about 82)
- What these two penalties alone mean is that any Penn State football player now has open right to leave Penn State and enroll somewhere else without penalty. HOWEVER: They may have to get Federal financial aid to do so at out-of-state rates.
- A $60,000,000 fine (the NCAA later reports that as a year's gross football revenue at Penn State) for the program, over five years, which cannot be taken from revenues from any other sport.
- All Penn State wins, including a 2006 Rose Bowl win (the second BCS win from that year now vacated -- USC's national title win was the first) and a 2008 Orange Bowl appearance, gone, all the way back to the beginning of the Freeh Report-known coverup in 1998. This means Joe Paterno no longer has ANY wins records for college football -- Bobby Bowden has the FBS record, Eddie Robinson the full college football record.
- An additional $13,000,000 "fine" has been assessed by the Big Ten, stripping Penn State of the bowl revenues for the next four years, all to be given to relevant charities.
- Five years probation, which can lead to the Death Penalty
I want you to read some of the FAQ I linked to at "The Hammer came down today", and try to wrap your brain around the NCAA's reasons here, and hope that you don't come to the same conclusions I do and have for about 9 months now!
First, let's address the main question, from a direct quote from the NCAA FAQ:
Why not the death penalty?
Imposing the death penalty does not address the cultural, systemic and leadership failures at Penn State. Instead, our approach demands that they become an exemplary NCAA member by eradicating the mindset that led to this tragedy.
If imposed, the death penalty would impact far more student-athletes than those at the Penn State program. Indeed, hundreds of student-athletes who are not even Penn State students would be negatively impacted.
How many ways do I dissect this as a cover for "if we impose the Death Penalty, the OTHER SCHOOLS lose too much money?"
If you truly want to "address the cultural, systemic, and leadership failures at Penn State", you will not be able to do so and retain Penn State's membership in the NCAA. The failures, obviously, go THAT DEEP into the system. I reference two questions that I will later re-address as the only conditions that I would impose on ever seeing another sporting event at Penn State; The disappearance of the District Attorney investigating Sandusky a decade ago, and the claims that a number of high-level donors at PSU were being given boys to rape by Sandusky in exchange for their contributions.
At every turn, before today, a major move to punish the program has been met with violence and cult-like resistance. The more I read on this University, the more it scares me the religious reverence given this man and this program. To simply WOUND this cult, rather than ERADICATE it, well could make things WORSE. They become more dangerous -- you could easily see some irate Penn State supporter go to a visiting content and make the situation in Colorado look tame, and I wouldn't put it past some Nittany Lion supporter doing so!
To make them an "exemplary NCAA member", you pretty well will have to run off every donor, every major supporter, every local sponsor, and much of the political structure in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania -- not JUST those within Penn State University itself. (And I use the disappearance of the District Attorney as a good example of this.)
In fact, the second NCAA statement, in so many words, IS "The Show Must Go On"! That, at ALL cost to reasonable conduct and human decency, even child rape and pedophilia must not stand in the way of ensuring the gate receipts and program revenues keep sports alive at NCAA institutions.
At what point are we going to get a fucking brain and realize that the entire interscholastic athletic system is probably hopelessly dirty and must be cleaned out, consequences be damned?
You don't give the Death Penalty just to the one institution, you give it all of them, in the manner that anybody committing this behavior is DONE. And if killing off Penn State means that there is no more women's golf at Nebraska, frankly... TOO DAMN BAD. The NCAA has allowed corrupt collegiate athletics in the few revenue sports to go on for far too damned long to keep other programs afloat.
If the NCAA can't dip into their massive merchandising revenues to offset the damage to the other schools in the Big Ten, etc., to cover for this, then there really is nothing to say, because the pedophilia and the like would not only support, as a matter of necessity, the sports at Penn State, but at the other institutions as well.
This isn't a matter of the other student athletes, but a matter of the entire corrupt lattice of the NCAA, the reliance on ESPN and other media outlets and their television contracts, and the very few revenue sports which allow the rest to exist.
Therefore, I don't buy into any of this! This is "The Show Must Go On". Death Penalty Penn State, and dip into the coffers that you take in from the 100 or so schools, and cover for some of it.
And then they exceed the stupidity by adding this to the FAQ:
Isn’t this basically the death penalty?
The NCAA sanctions on Penn State, taken in sum, far exceed the severity of shutting down a program for a year or two. Our sanctions address the cultural change necessary at Penn State. What some refer to as the death penalty was not severe enough.
The NCAA has actually determined that they wanted to give a penalty worse than the Death Penalty!!
SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE THEY ALLOWED TO PUT OUT A FOOTBALL TEAM?
I'm not talking 1-2 years here. We're talking 5-10-permanent!!!
In fact, if we want to take you seriously, Mark Emmert (the NCAA's current President, for whom you can see a 7 1/2 minute video of the announcement here), and you want us to believe this is worse than pulling the program (which has effectively killed the relevance of the one football program you did it to for just two years, SMU, for 25 years -- it was 22 years from SMU's Death Penalty to even their first MINOR bowl since), you have, in my mind, one option:
Disqualification and expulsion from the NCAA.
You are effectively, and with the consent and non-appeal from Penn State, attempting to kill their program well into the 2040's. The goal of these sanctions, as stated by this FAQ, is to cripple this program for more than the quarter-century that SMU has been crippled.
Again:
SO WHY IN THE FUCKING HELL ARE THEY ALLOWED TO PUT OUT A FOOTBALL TEAM?
"The Show Must Go On", for the benefit of the OTHER schools.
Right?
Penn State was one of the about 12-15 schools who makes money on their athletic programs.
According to ABC News, using 2010-2011 numbers, the football program ($60M) brings in over half the revenue of the athletic department ($118M). And, using those same numbers, the Penn State athletic program had a $32,000,000 profit in 2010-2011.
This is before Sandusky's coverup became public.
What I believe is about to happen is that you will end up with about 4-6 sports left: The two revenue sports (football and mens' basketball), and enough women's sports (basketball and volleyball first) to satisfy Title IX.
Between lawsuits and these fines, plus the loss of gate revenues once this team effectively reaches FCS or even Division II-level play (remember, the intention of the NCAA, with these penalties, is to make the next bowl appearance of any kind for Penn State be somewhere past the year 2034), revenues are about to nosedive, and expenses (legal) are about to skyrocket.
It won't even be a matter of them robbing Peter to pay Paul. Paul is keeping Peter afloat, and that's about to end.
Laughably lenient. And an insult to humanity.
The Show Must Go On, yet again.
If you really want me to believe The Show Must Go On that badly, I have two demands:
- The parties involved in the disappearance of the District Attorney who was investigating this a number of years back be brought to account: Involved and co-conspirators -- probably to the point of murder charges.
- I want answers on Mark Madden's claims that Sandusky may have been pimping these boys out to Penn State donors, making the PSU football program a front for an entire pedophile ring. (And yes, I just asked Madden on his Twitter how that investigation is going...)
Sunday, July 22, 2012
The Hammer Falls, Part Two: CNN Source: Penn State Fines to Exceed $30,000,000
Keeping an eye on things:
Several Twitter sources are now reporting that CNN has learned that Penn State will be fined over THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS as part of the penalties for the Sandusky coverup.
Certainly an unprecedented number. Would basically wipe out almost an entire year's football revenue...
But still unacceptable. You're still letting them field a team.
The Show Must Go On.
And if it goes on here, then when can't it?
If it goes on in New Orleans, when can't it??
Is Our Holy Cult Obsession With Football so pervasive that we just have to let it go with this kind of a fucking slap on the wrist?
$30,000,000 should be the least each one of the victims gets.
Several Twitter sources are now reporting that CNN has learned that Penn State will be fined over THIRTY MILLION DOLLARS as part of the penalties for the Sandusky coverup.
Certainly an unprecedented number. Would basically wipe out almost an entire year's football revenue...
But still unacceptable. You're still letting them field a team.
The Show Must Go On.
And if it goes on here, then when can't it?
If it goes on in New Orleans, when can't it??
Is Our Holy Cult Obsession With Football so pervasive that we just have to let it go with this kind of a fucking slap on the wrist?
$30,000,000 should be the least each one of the victims gets.
The Hammer Falls, Part One: The Statue Comes Down, but the NCAA Probably Won't
I think we are going to get the cardinal example of the permeation of the cult of football -- Our Holy Obsession With Football -- tomorrow morning at 9 AM EDT in Indianapolis, IN.
One day after Penn State, under threat of violence (and let's be clear, minus that threat of violence, the statue does not come down!), took down Joe Paterno's statue, the NCAA and President Mark Emmert will, in an unprecedented action, levy penalties against the Penn State program.
Unfortunately, and in a move which I believe will prompt discussions of a breakaway from the organization (the end of the "consent of the governed", if you will...), it appears that reports indicate that Penn State will, in fact, escape the Death Penalty.
One Tweeter has actually proposed that Penn State will accept all penalties, and this ended up a plea deal on the part of the two sides.
"Penn State will NOT appeal the NCAA's decision, I've been told. Speed of decision and lack of contention points to a deal betw NCAA and PSU."
I have but two comments for that:
1) If this is true, FUCK THE NCAA.
2) If this is true, then Penn State Football is officially Too Big To Fail and the NCAA needs to announce the immediate removal of the Death Penalty by-laws from it's rules. If the NCAA cannot, in the light of the Sandusky convictions and the Freeh Report, kill this football program (if not expel the entire university from the sanctioning body!), then it has no right to impose that penalty on any other program, at any level, for any offense.
Period.
This is the most heinous crime a sports franchise has ever committed in the history of the United States of America. This dwarfs Bounty-Gate.
To allow this University, especially with the conduct of the community over several incidents regarding the exposition of what Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky were allowed to do there, to continue to field a football team is the most irresponsible and stupid decision they could make, and I hope that certain parties (other student bodies, etc.) take actions to make this a very uncomfortable situation).
Yes, even vigilante justice if we have to go there.
Let's face it: Without out-of-state threats against the statue, Penn State does not act to remove it. The Cult of Joe and Jerry literally took a page right out of the Catholic Church.
And it looks like the NCAA will allow The Show To Go On.
It may be up to the sponsors, the other schools, and outside entities to stop this baloney.
One day after Penn State, under threat of violence (and let's be clear, minus that threat of violence, the statue does not come down!), took down Joe Paterno's statue, the NCAA and President Mark Emmert will, in an unprecedented action, levy penalties against the Penn State program.
Unfortunately, and in a move which I believe will prompt discussions of a breakaway from the organization (the end of the "consent of the governed", if you will...), it appears that reports indicate that Penn State will, in fact, escape the Death Penalty.
One Tweeter has actually proposed that Penn State will accept all penalties, and this ended up a plea deal on the part of the two sides.
"Penn State will NOT appeal the NCAA's decision, I've been told. Speed of decision and lack of contention points to a deal betw NCAA and PSU."
I have but two comments for that:
1) If this is true, FUCK THE NCAA.
2) If this is true, then Penn State Football is officially Too Big To Fail and the NCAA needs to announce the immediate removal of the Death Penalty by-laws from it's rules. If the NCAA cannot, in the light of the Sandusky convictions and the Freeh Report, kill this football program (if not expel the entire university from the sanctioning body!), then it has no right to impose that penalty on any other program, at any level, for any offense.
Period.
This is the most heinous crime a sports franchise has ever committed in the history of the United States of America. This dwarfs Bounty-Gate.
To allow this University, especially with the conduct of the community over several incidents regarding the exposition of what Joe Paterno and Jerry Sandusky were allowed to do there, to continue to field a football team is the most irresponsible and stupid decision they could make, and I hope that certain parties (other student bodies, etc.) take actions to make this a very uncomfortable situation).
Yes, even vigilante justice if we have to go there.
Let's face it: Without out-of-state threats against the statue, Penn State does not act to remove it. The Cult of Joe and Jerry literally took a page right out of the Catholic Church.
And it looks like the NCAA will allow The Show To Go On.
It may be up to the sponsors, the other schools, and outside entities to stop this baloney.
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
At What Point Does This Penn State Madness End?
I've been doing a lot of thinking in the last several days, since the release of the Freeh Report.
I've read a lot of people stating that Penn State football should be killed, and some who have not.
The more I read about this, the more I really do wish violence on The Holy Order of Football (and I'm not talking PSU entirely -- this reverence of football and worship of it's heroes has got to stop, in the name of all that is sane!).
But at what point does this all end?
I've read a lot of people stating that Penn State football should be killed, and some who have not.
The more I read about this, the more I really do wish violence on The Holy Order of Football (and I'm not talking PSU entirely -- this reverence of football and worship of it's heroes has got to stop, in the name of all that is sane!).
But at what point does this all end?
- We still have perjury trials for several top Penn State officials to take place, probably during the football season.
- This probably means that the NCAA is probably going to "be forced to" let Penn State have a football team for next season, at the very least. This is an unthinkable scenario, for any number of reasons.
- Let's look at their relevant schedule. This team was half-decent last year. Their first three games, as of now, are on ESPN or ABC's coverage. They have to go to Virginia, Iowa, and Nebraska. Iowa's a tough place to get a win, but if the team goes full "fuck you all", with Wisconsin and Ohio State coming to Penn State, you could have a real situation where a division title is not out of the question.
- And now let's look at the other side of it: Post-Freeh Report, basically every poll I've seen on the subject indicates that, by at least a 3-2 margin, the public appears to want Penn State football dead.
- If the NCAA isn't going to get in front of this, you could see a sentiment not unlike a banner which went over the PSU area today: "Take the statue down, or we will!"
- This could go far beyond attacks on the infrastructure or on the players -- if the NCAA does not Death Penalty Penn State, it risks having to explain to schools like USC and Ohio State why Penn State Football is, as Infante put it, Too Big To Fail. This probably means a lawsuit against the NCAA by USC and/or Ohio State, with other major programs probably joining in.
- This, combined with public pressure, could -- and very quickly! -- result in the NCAA's role in administering college sports being put into question, and I believe...
- It would probably be terminated by a breakaway group of major programs, some wanting no rules and some wanting a lot, under the guise of a similar construct to the present BCS.
- And then there's still the Mark Madden Theory: That Penn State was pimping these boys out for football program and campus contributions.
- Or how about the District Attorney who was investigating this who "disappeared"? He either got so much "Fuck You Money" that he's living under an assumed name somewhere (he was declared dead by local officials just before this all went down in 2011), or he got killed for Our Holy Obsession With Football.
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