NCAA Culture Won’t Blink At Penn State Penalty
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By DERON SNYDER
In penalizing Penn State for its role in the child sex-abuse case involving Jerry Sandusky, NCAA President Mark Emmert sent a message to other schools whose approach to sports might be off-balance. While most cases involve infractions such as payments to athletes, bogus class work or recruiting violations, the underlying theme is the same: multimillion-dollar athletic programs operating outside the boundaries.
“One of the grave dangers stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become ‘too big to fail,’ or even too big to challenge,” Emmert said Monday in announcing Penn State’s sanctions. “The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs. All involved in intercollegiate athletics must be watchful that programs and individuals do not overwhelm the values of higher education.”
Later on Monday, the Buffalo Wild Wings signed a new deal to take over naming rights for the Insight Bowl. Earlier this month, ESPN agreed to pay an average of $80 million a year for the Rose Bowl’s broadcast rights, a 167 percent jump from the $30 million the network currently pays. The whopping increase led to speculation that media rights for college football’s impending playoff-package championship could go as high as $600 million.
So Emmert’s calls for perspective are a bit tardy. Besides, there’s been cheating in college sports for as long as schools have played games, and there hasn’t been a penalty yet that ended it.
