this is a fair punishment

Outrageous, isn't the NCAA there to provide and protect the student athlete and fairness in Collegiate Sports. This is a legal issue and should be handled in a court of law, not by the president of the NCAA. I condone no actions and all involved should be held accountable, but this is not right.

Ridiculous!!! The students of Penn State, including the football team, shoulds not be punished for the acts of Coaches and administrators at the university.
The crimes that occurred were unthinkable, but it was not the students of Penn State who committed them. Those who commitied them are the ones who should be punished. Why does the NCAA want to add insult to injury by punishing the wrong people. FYI, I have no ties to anyone at Penn State, just needed to voice my opinion.

This is OUTRAGOUS!! as stated above the wrong people are being punished for this crime. If they really wanted to kill the program they should of given the so called death penality this is just as bad. The only ones hurt here are the current student both athletes and scholors. You see just how much money the Football program brought in and much of that was used in other areas besaides football. Those involved should be punished by the Law not ther NCAA and not by what the Freeh report had to say. I t was ones mans opion and not a true investigation of the offenses and all involved. Just ome more case of media hype that likes to see the mighty fall no matter what it takes and who it harms in its wake.

This seems fair, and I would hope that the players currently at Penn State can transfer should they decide to do so without sitting out a year. The real victims of this are the children who were abused while Penn State officials looked the other way. That is inexcusable. Joe was a great coach, but failed miserably as a man to stand up for the children that he had reason to believe were suffering under his watch.
The ensuing civil lawsuits will have a lasting impact on the University in the months and years to come as well, and rightly so.

I am beyond appalled at the over reach of Mark Emmert. I have no problem with the fine, and postseason and scholarship losses come with the NCAA territory. What I have a problem with is vacating wins from a 13-year span. The boys on those teams didn't deserve that. Anyone who has played or been around Division I athletics knows what they go through to compete and this is a slap in the face to the athletes, not the institution. I'm not saying I want the responsibility of enforcing sanctions or condoning the behavior of the 'adults'. I'm just saying, if the goal is to punish a school's administration, leave the kids out of it. That's who you are claiming to protect anyway, right? Or is it your pride and public opinion.

I'm not a PSU alum nor a Nittany Lion fan, but I must say that the penalty handed down by the NCAA is beyond my comprehension. Who's really getting punished here - the conspirator and the co-conspirators (Sandusky, Joe Pa, and the upper PSU administration OR the present football players at Penn St. You all know the answer to that question. How is it fair to these players and the student body of the institution to have to pay the harsh price that they're paying for the indiscretion of Jerry Sandusky and his 'looking-the-other-way' higher-ups?
I support the $60 million fine, the five-year probation, and even the forfeiture of Paterno's wins from 1998-2011, but a 4-year post-season ban and reduction in scholarships are too much!

Sorry students this is your fault and the adults are to get you, do not try to fight back, we have the money

Vacating the victories from 1998-2011 is an Orwellian way to rewrite history. The wins happened in the past and the NCAA should have no right to try to rewrite such results for any reason but something directly related to the games themselves. Trying to demonize a man who is dead and can't defend himself shows how little courage the instiutions still have. If there must be a punishment, it should be for the present and future, not by trying to change the past!

This seems fair, and I would hope that the players currently at Penn State can transfer should they decide to do so without sitting out a year. The real victims of this are the children who were abused while Penn State officials looked the other way. That is inexcusable. Joe was a great coach, but failed miserably as a man to stand up for the children that he had reason to believe were suffering under his watch.
The ensuing civil lawsuits will have a lasting impact on the University in the months and years to come as well, and rightly so.

The students aren't being 'punished' if the university is honoring their scholarships to attend and get an education at PSU. If they want to play football as part of their educational experience, they can transfer.

The point is that PSU football culture, putting football above the safety of children, is what needs to be rebuilt at Penn State, and to do that, the NCAA and PSU need to build a new culture from the ground up. Any kid who is screaming about being 'punished' by the sanctions is a kid who is putting football ahead of his education, and it'd be better if he transfers. And any adult who is screaming about the students being 'punished' doesn't get what this whole thing is about, in my opinion.

As a quick FYI, courtesy of CBS Sports blogger Bryan Fischer, the NCAA's relaxed rules for Penn State players wishing to transfer include:

Players will not have to sit out a year if they decide to transfer. They will be eligible immediately at their new school.

All incoming Class of 2012 signees can be released from their letters of intent.

The permission-to-contact rules regarding current players will be suspended. Penn State can't restrict a player from transferring, and all the player has to do is notify Penn State of his intent to transfer. Other schools must simply inform the PSU athletic department of their intention to talk to a transfer as well.

All signees and current players may take as many official or unofficial visits as they want during the 2012-13 academic year.

According to Fischer, the NCAA is also 'considering' waiving scholarship limits for programs to which the football players are transferring to, thus circumventing the limit of 25 signees and 85 total players for the upcoming year.

Everyone is forgetting that PSU chooses to be a member of the NCAA and as such agrees to abide by their rules and regulations. Yeah some of the sanctions are pretty severe but what about the victims.

It would seem that no one has any perspective or common sense on this topic. The average length of an NCAA investigation is 2-4 YEARS!. When sanctions/punishments are handed down it is on the University and the program. The students (and often, the coaches) responsible for the infractions are usually long gone. So please spare us all the the 'it's unfair to the current players' argument. It is simply ridiculous. More to the point, if the current players don't like it, then transfer. If the current players love Penn St so much, then stay there and get your education. You know, your education, what you supposedly went to college for in the first place.

I think the punishment handed down by the NCAA was a slap on the wrist and was based more on the bottom line (big surprise--money) than on anything else. When Mark Emmert was interviewed last week he said that the situation at Penn St was far worse than anything ever seen before in college athletics INCLUDING what had happened at SMU. So why was the punishment LESS severe? 20 Scholarships? How will the program survive with ONLY 65 scholarships? That's barely 3 players for every position. $60 million--one whole year's worth of football generated revenue? So harsh. No bowl games--you mean we'll only get TV coverage for the 10 regular season games?
Oh, the injustice.
Two announcers last week on ESPN radio said that the death penalty would cause too great a loss of revenue for the conference and for the other schools. At least they had the guts to say it out loud.
Do you think for a minute the school itself would stop and think about the right thing to do--stop with football. They allowed it to get out of control and little kids paid the price. Is anyone going to do the right thing--put the focus back on education.

And for all the TV announcers out there, polish off this quote--which I already heard this morning on ESPN radio:
'We are in State College today, looking forward to the game and trying to forget the events of this past off season.'
Maybe you could add this:
'The only people who won't be able to forget it are the kids who were abused.'

Past or present students or athletes, the community, businesses, other PSU teams, programs...anyone or any thing that fed off the football cash cow at PSU has only one place to point fingers and blame...and thats directly at PSU.

As hypocritical and inept as the NCAA is, it was Penn State who decided that football, reputation and cold hard cash were far more important than protecting human lives. You live by the dollar you die by the dollar.

Past and present students and athletes , local businesses and the community are NOT being 'punished' by the NCAA,but by the avarice and apathy of Penn State.

When it came time to do the right thing and make the right choice for students, athletes, community and,most importantly, children...Penn State chose football.

They provided safe haven to the devil for years and then sold their souls and Happy Valley out for 4-5 years, $60 million and a bunch of scholarships...not a bad deal for the Devil, unless youre one of his victims.

I want to know how many scholarships Bobby Petrino cost Arkansas with his escapades with his mistress? I think that is worth a couple of lost victories . . . if you follow the NCAA's reach into activities with competitive advantage. The NCAA is reaching far beyond it's jurisdiction and this is a slippery and steep slope. If I were any Athletic Director, I'd be scared.
The crimes and cover up were horrific and inexcusable but it isn't the NCAA's jurisdiction. What happens if courts cannot get convictions of cover ups on Spannier / Curley / Schults? what happens then?

The aboriginals of North America demand and receive recompense for having their land taken away, and they get it. Japanese do the same for being interred in WWII, and get it. More often than not, you pay for the sins of the father. Too bad, so sad PSU students et al

This situation is going to get much worse before it gets better because there has been way too much knee jerk reaction by too many parties. Are we not supposed to be teaching our students about doing the right thing AFTER gathering all the facts. Why is it that the politicians or political wannabes - Corbett, Freeh, school board members etc. have been getting a free pass? Corbett for example was the attorney general and could have stepped up but did not. Corbett is a member of the Penn State board as governor and had access to those meetings and minutes, why did he not step up and do the right thing? When is someone going to start to investigate the actions and inactions? No, the NCAA and the politicians seem to want what they view as the quick, popular fix. Suggested summer reading for these “leaders” – The Crucible.

I've read the comments regarding the NCAA sanctions for Penn State and I am saddened. Not because the NCAA was wrong, but because too many people think they were wrong. The Penn State debacle was the very example of what's wrong with athletics in higher education. The fact that the institutional leaders, including the President, VPFA and Athletic Director conspired to hide evidence of criminal activity that ultimately harmed children in order to protect a prize element of their university is beyond imagination. Can anyone think of a more heinous act? The institution should have acted more honorably and ethically. The NCAA did not punish the athletes or the football team. They punished Penn State University for its coverup of crimes and for placing its football team ahead of the safety of children . A football team, or any athletic team, is either part of the school or it is not. If it receives the benefits of being associated with the institution, than it must also suffer the consequences.