The National College Athletic Association (NCAA) took unprecedented action against Penn State University’s revered football programme on Monday in the wake of Jerry Sandusky scandal, fining the school $60 million and voiding the team’s victories for the past 14 seasons.
The school was also barred from post-season bowl games for the next four years and had the number of scholarships available to players reduced from 25 to 15.
Penn State officials were accused of not taking action after being alerted to child sex abuse by Sandusky, Reuters reported.
The scandal tainted one of college football’s leading coaches, the late Joe Paterno, and led to his firing last year along with other top school officials.
NCAA President Mark Emmert said the school had put “hero worship and winning at all costs” ahead of integrity, honesty and responsibility.
He said the NCAA chose not to levy the so-called “death penalty” because it would have harmed individuals with no role in the Sandusky scandal.
“This case involves tragic and tragically unnecessary circumstances,” Emmert said. “One of the grave damages stemming from our love of sports is that the sports themselves can become too big to fail, indeed too big to even challenge. The result can be an erosion of academic values that are replaced by the value of hero worship and winning at all costs.
“In the Penn State case, the results were perverse and unconscionable,” he said. “No price the NCAA can levy will repair the grievous damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims. However, we can make clear that the culture, actions and inactions that allowed them to be victimized will not be tolerated in collegiate athletics.”
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