There is no worse crime in my book.  If he's guilty, I hope they throw the book at him. 

Boy, oh boy . . . this is devastating.  My first reaction was a trite, "Say it ain't so, Joe."  I'm left wondering what the NCAA will do when they finally make a judgement on this case.  There is no real precedent here, and their decision will itself set a precedent.  In that light, it seems to me the penalty is going to be very severe.  I think we may be looking at a death penalty.  They may opted for something less, but anything less really looks like a copout.  Compare these events with the infractions of SMU, which seem to pale by comparison.  

I really hope Penn State does not recieve the death penalty.  I know these are horrible crimes..but I don't believe it's the NCAA's place to begin playing morality police.

And apparently covered up by the head coach, the AD, a VP and likely the president.  If that's not loss of institutional control I'm not sure what is.  As we learned in Watergate, the coverup is often worse than the crime itself, and in this case the crime was about as bad as it gets.  As the article pointed out, action in 2001, when they apparently knew about an earlier "first offense," would probably have ended JoePa's career earlier but would have shown institutional control.  A decade-long coverup involving high-ranking members of the university administration can't be swept under the rug at this stage of the game.  Severe penalties will have to be handed down or this will leave a stench that the NCAA may never recover from.  You just can't compartmentalize this to extricate the football program and the overall institution from these offenses of an admittedly rouge assistant coach, who was a former assistant coach during some of the time period in which the offenses took place.

I'll admit that I haven't followed this in minute detail.  And the truth about Penn State staff's involvement is still coming out.  But this is not about taking control of this once it hits the public eye.  This is about doing the right thing from the first moment.    The very reason to give their football program could be if this involved staff members.  I'm not saying death penalty is the right way to go.  But d.p. while giving the players freedom to transfer without sitting out any time might be reasonable.

This country's problems of all nature are significantly because people don't do the right thing.  They do the money and/or easy thing.

I don't think Baylor is a parallel situation, because there were NCAA violations separate and apart from the murder cover-up. I haven't seen that allegation with Penn State. It was most definitely a case of horrible judgment and cowardice, and those involved deserve punishment. But is the NCAA the institution to deliver that punishment? I'm not so sure.

I do think that, NCAA sanctions or not, the NCAA should grant all athletes in the entire athletic department the right to transfer without losing any eligibility or having to sit out a year. The sins committed are the sins of the entire institution, and if an athlete no longer wants to be associated with that institution, I think he or she should be able to make a clean break under these circumstances.

What the NCAA will need to decide regarding punishment, is whether this is a Penn State issue or a Graham Spanier, Gary Schultz, and Tim Curley one. Clearly the decisions those three men made to protect Sandusky were morally bankrupt ones. (And now we're starting to hear how much of the slime from this coverup is left on JoePa's legacy as well). Spanier, Schultz, and Curley should be (and will be) held accountable in our Civil Courts and probably in our Criminal Courts for their crimes.

Should Penn State be held unaccountable as well? I'm not so sure. The trustees at Penn State have reacted swiftly since last fall when this news broke. Don't forget, the reason that we have the information that we do today about Spanier, Schultz, and Graham is thanks mostly to a private investigation into the football program that they've contracted a former FBI agent to undertake. I'm not so sure that the NCAA has to come down hard on Penn State, but I am eagerly awaiting the chance to see our legal system go to work on Spanier, Schultz, and Curley. I think about it this way. Jerry Sandusky committed some horrible crimes, but at the end of the day psychologists would argue that he's a sick man who needs help (and to be locked away from society). What these 3 men did is almost worse in a way, knowingly allowing a monster like that to operate with impunity, putting children at risk for over a decade. 

Its not just a question of whether or not Penn State, the institution, should be held accountable: its a question of who are the proper authorities to do the holding. If Penn State as an institution is to be punished for this, I'd argue that the courts (both civil and criminal) and the State of Pennsylvania are the proper authorities. In addition to criminal/civil charges against the school's administration, the school itself might also be sued in civil court (depending on how soverign immunity works in Pennsylvania) and could theoretically be indicted as a corrupt/criminal organization (though it won't be, and probably shouldn't be). Further, it can/should be held accountable by its charterer, the state of Pennsylvania. This could occur through the budget process or from a whole sale house-cleaning. I just don't see criminal wrongdoing on the part of university administrators being something that should fall under the NCAA's preview. 

If this does fall under the NCAA, then where does the line get drawn? Should Missouri face NCAA sanction because Gary Pinkel didn't get fired following his DUI? How about Texas Tech, should it be found that Mike Leech was fired without cause? How about us? Should OHIO face NCAA sanction for taking so long to get rid of Larry Nighswander (under logic mentioned earlier today, he had the potential to come into contact and abuse OHIO athletes, and failure to dismiss him could be argued to demonstrate a failure to protect them from his photography "studio", denoting a lack of institutional control)

EDIT: Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples (http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2012/writers/andy_staples/07/02/penn-state-jerry-sandusky-ncaa/index.html?eref=si_writers) agrees with me in a better written argument than I made here.

That is a ridiculous comment. The NCAA has no say in this. This is the courts jurisdiction. This has no precedent and the NCAA has no right to punish Penn State. What happened was horrible, but seriously? Banned from competition? 

Sorry, but the NCAA has every right to have a say in this.  Like it or not, they are the governing body of college athletics, and the people involved in this situation work within college athletics.  There's no precedent, so the NCAA will take action to SET THE PRECEDENT.  The public will be watching intently on how they approach this.  If they don't do anything to Penn State, can you imagine the public outcry that would ensue?  This is beyond college athletics.  The courts will make their decision, but when you're dealing with something of this magnitude, you cannot ignore it.  

This clearly becomes an NCAA issue when these emails seem to point to the cover up being a tool to protect the legacy of PSU Football.

The NCAA DOESN'T have a say in what happens with Sandusky, that's already been addressed, so you're correct there.  And you're not incorrect when you say the students had nothing to do with it.  

But when some of the abuses occurred in Penn State locker rooms, and he used his status within to community to do the things he did, the NCAA cannot ignore it.  This man was a representative of Penn State athletics, and therefore a representative of major collegiate athletics.  I can't name a single bylaw that Penn State violated, because if I'm not incredibly mistaken, this is the first time any thing like this has happened.  

You're willing to say that because there's no precedent for this happening, that the NCAA cannot choose to take a stance, and that it's tied to its "bylaws"?

I'm sorry, but I don't agree with you.   

EDIT:  Punctuation marks.

or the politically correct thing.  NAMBLA contributes significant money to political campaigns through socially accepted organizations.  Many of which have chapters on the PSU campus.  Some people just don't like to upset the apple cart and take the criticism you get when doing the right thing.