PSU Freeh Report: Leaders Concealed Information & Did Not Act to Help Kids

[ralaw]

What about where the rapes took place? In the PSU facilities.....campus.....NCAA jurisidiction.??

Penn St. = Linbacker U....Sandusky = LB coach.
No Sundusky = no top LB recruits?

[shag773]

Article on the LA Times on whether or not the NCAA has the power to sanction PSU

http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-penn-state-ncaa-20120713,0,5898176.story

By Baxter Holmes
July 12, 2012, 8:21 p.m.
The much-anticipated Freeh Report, released Thursday, determined that the leadership at Penn State concealed allegations of sexual assaults against children involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky in order to protect the school and its flagship athletic program. Before that, the courts had acted, putting Sandusky behind bars. And the school's Board of Trustees cleaned house long ago.

So, could the NCAA be next to act?

In a statement Thursday, an NCAA spokesman said Penn State must still answer key questions posed by the NCAA concerning compliance with NCAA bylaws: institutional control, ethics policies and the policies and procedures it has in place to monitor, prevent and detect issues raised in a grand jury report on the scandal.

PHOTOS: Who's who in the Sandusky case

"Penn State's response to the letter will inform our next steps, including whether or not to take action," wrote Bob Williams, the NCAA's vice president of communications.

Michael McCann, director of the Sports Law Institute at Vermont Law School, said the Freeh Report, which details an in-depth investigation led by former FBI chief Louis Freeh, creates a compelling case for the NCAA to sanction Penn State for "lack of institutional control."

Other experts say that if the NCAA's enforcement staff were to become heavily involved in what has largely been a criminal investigation, it could set a new and troubling precedent for how the NCAA polices schools.

"The NCAA works to manage collegiate competition," said Jo Potuto, a former NCAA Division I Committee on Infractions chairwoman who is a professor of constitutional law at the University of Nebraska College of Law. "It's not an association in which the national office is supposed to be a hall monitor for everything that occurs on a campus."

Potuto said that because the Penn State scandal occurred within the football program and on its premises, it is connected to athletics, although the underlying violations are not.

In past situations intertwining athletics and criminal activity, the NCAA became involved only when NCAA rules were violated, Potuto said. The 2003 murder of Baylor basketball player Patrick Dennehy by a teammate is one example.

DOCUMENT: Paterno, Penn State failed in Sandusky case, report finds

"When the NCAA enforcement process was triggered there, it wasn't because that player was killed by another player on the team," Potuto said. "It was because the coach paid players under the table."

The NCAA responded with sanctions that crippled Baylor's men's basketball program for several years.

Michael Buckner, a Florida lawyer who has represented schools in NCAA infractions cases, said Penn State would become an NCAA rules-violation case only if NCAA President Mark Emmert "wants to stretch the rules to where they've never been stretched before."

Rather than punishing Penn State for failing to properly monitor its athletic program or, worse, citing the university for lack of institutional control, the NCAA might focus on whether school officials acted ethically.

"It seems that Louis Freeh and the people on the investigative team believe, because that it was football and because that it was a powerful coach, that the investigation didn't go forward," Potuto said. "Now that is something that is a matter of NCAA responsibility for college athletics that should be looked at."

The depth of the Penn State scandal has put the NCAA under tremendous public pressure to act, experts say.

"The NCAA is faced with a public relations issue more than everything else, because everybody thinks they should do something," said Richard Southall, director of the College Sport Research Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Added McCann: "I think people would question the creditability of the NCAA if it did nothing while it dwelled on [other] issues that by comparison seem very unimportant."

Potuto recommended a cautious approach, lest the NCAA find itself on a slippery slope. "If this is a move the NCAA wants to make, I think everybody needs to be really careful in articulating why and how this needs to happen," she said.

"It's really opening a door to a lot more authority in areas of responsibility for the NCAA, and I'm not sure that's where universities want to go or should go."

She added: "There's a famous quote from law that 'Hard cases make bad law.'

"This strikes me to be one where that's what's going on."

baxter.holmes@latimes.com

[FedEx227]

Let's put this hypothetical out there. I'm 16 years old and I'm being investigated for murder.

By your example my mom is not going to punish me, not going to do anything to me, let me play with my friends, let me use the car, hang out wherever we want, etc while we wait for the investigators to come after me for murder. That's beyond silly. Essentially you're saying a crime is TOO large for the NCAA which essentially says the NCAA is completely worthless and needs to go away.

If USC isn't allowed to play games because they gave money to a player but Penn State IS allowed to play games while the University and football program covered up 15+ years of child molestation, there's a HUGE issue there. HUGE.

With that said, PSU should embrace a death penalty or at least a cool off period. Yeah, financially it's crippling, but their culture is going to be playing catch up constantly. The current culture of their football program is still embedded in Paterno, while that will go away after years, I think a cool down period or a little "time out" would allow them to really clean it up from top to bottom and emerge.

[Warner2BruceTD]

My stance remains the same.

Penn St removed everybody involved, and the courts will handle the rest.

Not a competition issue, therefore, not an NCAA issue.

Whether Penn St themselves should perhaps put football to sleep on their own is a separate debate. All i'm saying is this is no place for the NCAA, and I think the term 'child rape' is triggering emotion out of people that is causing them to lose some perspective.

[FirstTimer]

Where is the precedent for the NCAA getting involved in a criminal case?

The concealment/coverup isn't just a criminal case though via perjury or obstruction. There are institutional issues at work as well.

PSU wouldn't be punished because Sandusky did what he did. They'd be punished because Paterno and Co. covered up what went on

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

What about where the rapes took place? In the PSU facilities.....campus.....NCAA jurisidiction.??

Penn St. = Linbacker U....Sandusky = LB coach.
No Sundusky = no top LB recruits?

Miami is Linebacker U, and the only rapees are on da seventh floor...and dey willing.

AMIRITE?

[FedEx227]

Ah yes, i'm sure school presidents everywhere would then, and only then, realize that covering up child rape is bad, because it could result in the football team being punished.

Do you see how silly that sentence sounds? This is bigger than football, and I don't think that message needs to be sent.

Here's the problem though, for Penn State, it wasn't bigger than football. And THAT is why something needs to be done from the top-down level. They put football and their football program above federal law and that should receive serious punishment. They used football as an escape in the most literal sense.

[shag773]

The concealment/coverup isn't just a criminal case though via perjury or obstruction. There are institutional issues at work as well.

PSU wouldn't be punished because Sandusky did what he did. They'd be punished because Paterno and Co. covered up what went on

Which falls under the Clery Act, which subjects the university to subsequent punishments that come for failing to observe it...

[NAHSTE]

Horrible example again.

The Penn St situation is a criminal case, the NCAA has no power here, and should have no power here. Their job is to handle shit that effects the playing field. Small potatoes compared to a criminal case involving child rape.

Those involved are already being punished. Throwing sanctions on Bill O'Brien accomplishes what, exactly? And based on what grounds? If a football coach commits armed robbery, do we punish the football team? How about a string of DUI's? Not the NCAA's role.

Child rape is like the worst thing you can do, and it triggers something in our brains. I get it. But the NCAA has no jurisdiction over criminal issues that do not in some way improperly benefit the on field product, nor should they. This isnt a competition issue.

No, it's a compliance issue, which is something the watchdogs at the NCAA take very seriously. And based on their findings so far, Penn State's compliance department is/was a joke.

[FedEx227]

My stance remains the same.

Penn St removed everybody involved, and the courts will handle the rest.

Not a competition issue, therefore, not an NCAA issue.

Whether Penn St themselves should perhaps put football to sleep on their own is a separate debate. All i'm saying is this is no place for the NCAA, and I think the term 'child rape' is triggering emotion out of people that is causing them to lose some perspective.

Agreed. I'm really not the Sandusky thing as the main rallying cry for the NCAA putting something on PSU. The report indicates an almost 15-20 year pattern of Joe Paterno not allowing their compliance office to properly report crimes committed by members of the Penn State Football Program. This goes beyond just Sandusky. There cases of assault, robbery, etc. that Joe told the Compliance office he'd prefer to handle internally and that's grossly illegal not only by federal standards as a state-funded institution but also NCAA by-laws and Student-Athletic Compliance laws.

[Warner2BruceTD]

What about where the rapes took place? In the PSU facilities.....campus.....NCAA jurisidiction.??

Penn St. = Linbacker U....Sandusky = LB coach.
No Sundusky = no top LB recruits?

Possibly, a bit of a stretch, but possibly.

Again, I wouldn't lose sleep if the NCAA acted. I just don't think they should and it would set a dangerous precedent. Where do you stop?

I don't see it as a competition issue, and I think this situation is so outlandish and bizarre that it's hard to compare to almost anything else.

[LiquidLarry2GhostWF]

Have on-campus "assistants" fornicate with potential student-athletes on recruiting visits = NCAA Intervention.
Have assistant coaches fornicate with potential student-athletes during camps = Too big for the NCAA to investigate.

[Warner2BruceTD]

Agreed. I'm really not the Sandusky thing as the main rallying cry for the NCAA putting something on PSU. The report indicates an almost 15-20 year pattern of Joe Paterno not allowing their compliance office to properly report crimes committed by members of the Penn State Football Program. This goes beyond just Sandusky. There cases of assault, robbery, etc. that Joe told the Compliance office he'd prefer to handle internally and that's grossly illegal not only by federal standards as a state-funded institution but also NCAA by-laws and Student-Athletic Compliance laws.

Now you are getting into things outside the scope of Sandusky, which honestly I don't know enough about to warrant a meaningful opinion, so i'll step out of this.

[shag773]

Agreed. I'm really not the Sandusky thing as the main rallying cry for the NCAA putting something on PSU. The report indicates an almost 15-20 year pattern of Joe Paterno not allowing their compliance office to properly report crimes committed by members of the Penn State Football Program. This goes beyond just Sandusky. There cases of assault, robbery, etc. that Joe told the Compliance office he'd prefer to handle internally and that's grossly illegal not only by federal standards as a state-funded institution but also NCAA by-laws and Student-Athletic Compliance laws.

I read the entire report and I don't remember reading that. Not saying your wrong, but do you remember what part of the report this was in?

[Warner2BruceTD]

Here's the problem though, for Penn State, it wasn't bigger than football. And THAT is why something needs to be done from the top-down level. They put football and their football program above federal law and that should receive serious punishment. They used football as an escape in the most literal sense.

I get this. I really do.

My issue, is who are "they"? I think the new people in charge of things get what you are saying too, which is why they cleaned house.

I'm just unsure what punishing people who had nothing to do with this accomplishes. The players didn't benefit. The coaches are fired, the people who hired the coaches are fired, and the people who oversaw everything are fired. All will go to prison. Would we be punishing a logo? Does that make people feel better on some level? It's interesting, idk. I just don't see the point, and I think it harms a lot of people who don't deserve it. I understand the concept collateral damage, but in this case, nobody who really deserves it will feel any brunt from this, so what is the point?