WOW! NCAA FINES PENN STATE $60M & 4 YEAR BAN FROM POST-SEASON

(BlackMediaScoop) The NCAA handed down severe punishments to Penn State on Monday in the wake of a sex abuse scandal, including a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban and the vacating of all football wins from 1998-2011.

Also, the football program’s scholarship allowance have been reduced from 25 to 15 per year for four years.

The NCAA announcement a day after Penn State took down its famed statue of Joe Paterno, six months to the day since his death from lung cancer. The university said leaving it up would be a “recurring wound” for Sandusky’s victims. An accomplished defensive coordinator, Sandusky was convicted of molesting young boys over more than a decade. Paterno’s former assistant coach, was convicted in June of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years

Critics had increased calls for its removal following the recent release of a damning report by former FBI director Louis Freeh that criticized Paterno for his role in protecting

NCAA president Mark Emmert put the Penn State matter on the fast track. Other cases that were strictly about violating the NCAA rulebook have dragged on for months and even years. There was no sign that the infractions committee so familiar to college sports fans was involved this time around as Emmert moved quickly, no doubt aided by the July 12 release of the report by former FBI director Louis Freeh and what it said about Paterno and the rest of the Penn State leadership.

The investigation focused partly on university officials’ decision not to go to child-welfare authorities in 2001 after a coaching assistant told Paterno that he had seen Sandusky sexually abusing a boy in the locker room showers. Penn State officials already knew about a previous allegation against Sandusky by that time, from 1998.

“With the release of Judge Freeh’s Report of the Special Investigative Counsel, we as a community have had to confront a failure of leadership at many levels,” Erickson said. “The statue of Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium has become a lightning rod of controversy and national debate, including the role of big time sports in university life. The Freeh Report has given us a great deal to reflect upon and to consider, including Coach Paterno’s legacy.”