FB: Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[OzJohnnie]

Footy season is heating up and the Hawks are really hitting their stride.  In round nine they lost to Richmond by 67, an embarrassing defeat that left them looking uncommitted and in danger of missing the post-season.  Since then, they have burned the competition and left them for dead.  The Hawks have won seven straight by an average margin of 80 points.  The have conceded 457 points while scoring 1053 over those games, both league leading.  And they have moved to third in the standings, only one game out of first, and lead the league in scoring differential by a wide margin.

On Saturday the Hawks (then fourth in the standings) played Collingwood (then third) and demolished them (138 - 91, 25 points for the Pies coming in garbage time).  The final six games of the regular season have a tough schedule but good prep for the playoffs.  Hawthorn are set to play #7, #6, #5, and #1 in the run-up to the playoffs.

EDIT: on Friday night I'll be going to the MCG to watch Hawthorn take on Essendon (#6), Kubiak's ratbag Aussie friend's team.  The Hawks and 'Dons have been known to get a bit of the 'biffo' on, as they say in Aus, and Friday's match should be a highly charged affair as the Hawks look to take the regular season trophy and the Bombers are looking to stay in the top eight and make the playoffs.

And, yes, I'll be looking up at the video screens for the replays.

[faunch]

Did NCAA get it right w/ the Penn St. penalties and sanctions? 
IMO...they received a virtual death penalty...the football program there will find it difficult to bounce back w/ in 10 years.  I think the NCAA should have shut them down however that would be unfair to other Big 10 teams. 
Deep down I still can't believe that Joe Pa and others let this slide...disgusting.

[Knightstalker]

I am not so sure about the Freeh report.  It was sanctioned by the board of Trustees and as such they could have been instructed to find things in a certain way.  I think the NCAA should have conducted an independent investigation.  The players on Penn State are told they can leave but what school is going to offer them a scholarship at this point this season.  The current players are getting royally screwed for something that they had nothing to do with.  The NCAA needs to allow these kids to transfer after this school year.

[SUMMIT!!!!!]

my view is that Penn St got what it deserved. Yes $60 mill is a huge fine but does it adequately compensate for the damages done to untold young boys by Sandusky, which was allowed to continue for at least 14 years  by the admin, the AD and Paterno himself (regardess of what the Paterno family wants to believe)? As far as the non-financial parts of the penalty, I'd say the NCAA was spot-on, particularly vacating all wins racked up during the known coverup period.

I agree with KS that the current players are bearing a disproportionate share of a price. Yes, the NCAA should allow them to transfer freely (between semesters) for the next 12 months. The tail end of July doesnt leave them with much of a window of time and as KS points out most other schools dont have scholarships left for 2012-13 at this point.

Too bad the vacated wins dont become wins for the teams PSU beat...it would have doubled Brewster's career wins total!

[AO]

2 thoughts about Penn State:

1- Does the Freeh report actually release or detail the emails sent by Paterno?  I'm not sure Paterno ever really understood or was told about actual sexual abuse taking place.  He certainly thought he was covering for "horsing around", but I've yet to see evidence of his full understanding of the abuse.

2- The coverup didn't help win football games.  Penn State should certainly be sued or given a large fine and those responsible fired, but if it didn't help you get to bowl games in the first place, I'm not sure taking the bowl games away makes much sense.

[badgerwarhawk]

I'm probably missing something but with the exception of being unable to play in a bowl game I don't see how current players are being penalized.  I agree that they should be allowed to transfer and that the NCAA should make exceptions for those, like fifth year seniors, who would have used up their eligibility.  But PSU will still play a full schedule this year and in the years during which the sanctions apply so any player with potential to reach the next level will be able to be evaluated by the NFL.  Those who chose to remain with the program are not losing their scholarships.

The loss of scholarships certainly hurts future players and the loss of revenue due to the fine and failure to participate in a bowl game will hurt the programs of several other sports in addition to the football program if PSU, like many others, derives a significant portion of the athletic departments budget from the football program. 

[Boys of Fall]

As with most NCAA penalties a number of innocent people pay the price.  The students, alumni, fan base, community, and most of the administration knew nothing of what the animal Sandusky was doing, but they will be the ones paying the price by losing their football team, and who knows what other impacts.  The NCAA might be better off doing research into who the guilty parties were and penalizing them (i.e., financial, NCAA bans, etc.).  The same is true of recruiting violations, often times the guilty are gone and those remaining pay the price.  Regardless, this gives the whole game of college football a black eye.

[finsleft]

my view is that Penn St got what it deserved. Yes $60 mill is a huge fine but does it adequately compensate for the damages done to untold young boys by Sandusky, which was allowed to continue for at least 14 years  by the admin, the AD and Paterno himself (regardess of what the Paterno family wants to believe)?

I disagree. Since when is adequate compensation for victims NCAA's role or mission?

[OzJohnnie]

I think they should have given a five year death penalty and given the players a twelve month free shot to transfer or the option to ride out their scholarship at Penn with no football.  I think it's immaterial if Paterno knew the full extent or not. He facilitated pure evil.  The NCAA penalty was too light.

As for the Paterno families concern for innocent victims like the players and other staff, I'm not interested in their moral guidance. They have an agenda other than fairness and truth.

[GoldandBlueBU]

I think they should have given a five year death penalty and given the players a twelve month free shot to transfer or the option to ride out their scholarship at Penn with no football.  I think it's immaterial if Paterno knew the full extent or not. He facilitated pure evil.  The NCAA penalty was too light.

As for the Paterno families concern for innocent victims like the players and other staff, I'm not interested in their moral guidance. They have an agenda other than fairness and truth.

I tend to agree with Oz's line of thought.  Whether or not Paterno knew all of the awful details of what Sandusky was up to doesn't matter.  He knew something was happening, and with that he had the responsibility to further investigate, or make sure that the appropriate people further investigated.

[stanbob]

RIP Joe Paterno

I hope that he can.  Cynical me thinks that now that he is gone he is going to be the fall guy for the scandal.

He will always have a black mark on his legacy for what happened, so in the court of public opinion he may receive the blame.
However, since they didn't formally charge him with anything while he was alive, I find it very difficult to believe it will happen in death.

Told ya so.

[AO]

I think they should have given a five year death penalty and given the players a twelve month free shot to transfer or the option to ride out their scholarship at Penn with no football.  I think it's immaterial if Paterno knew the full extent or not. He facilitated pure evil.  The NCAA penalty was too light.

As for the Paterno families concern for innocent victims like the players and other staff, I'm not interested in their moral guidance. They have an agenda other than fairness and truth.

I tend to agree with Oz's line of thought.  Whether or not Paterno knew all of the awful details of what Sandusky was up to doesn't matter.  He knew something was happening, and with that he had the responsibility to further investigate, or make sure that the appropriate people further investigated.

So Fire/Sue Paterno.  It didn't help the kids win games.  Do any oppnents from those vacated victories look back and say, geez if only Sandusky had been brought to trial earlier we would have won?  They were trying to protect their buddy, they weren't trying to win games.

[Mr. Ypsi]

I think they should have given a five year death penalty and given the players a twelve month free shot to transfer or the option to ride out their scholarship at Penn with no football.  I think it's immaterial if Paterno knew the full extent or not. He facilitated pure evil.  The NCAA penalty was too light.

As for the Paterno families concern for innocent victims like the players and other staff, I'm not interested in their moral guidance. They have an agenda other than fairness and truth.

I tend to agree with Oz's line of thought.  Whether or not Paterno knew all of the awful details of what Sandusky was up to doesn't matter.  He knew something was happening, and with that he had the responsibility to further investigate, or make sure that the appropriate people further investigated.

So Fire/Sue Paterno.  It didn't help the kids win games.  Do any oppnents from those vacated victories look back and say, geez if only Sandusky had been brought to trial earlier we would have won?  They were trying to protect their buddy, they weren't trying to win games.

What you say may be true.  On the other hand, how many of the recruits over the past 10+ years might have gone elsewhere if this had broken earlier?

Pure speculation, but something to ponder.

[OzJohnnie]

You've got a point on the vacated games, AO, which is why I say the penalty is too light. The issue isn't that they won unfairly, but the PSU ran a poison program. Shut down the program. Students harmed by this punishment should take up their grievance with the University for so miserably failing on their promises.

[bennie]

Sanctions can't "unring the bell". They can't make things how they would have been. All they can do is (hopefully) make schools handle things differently in the future. It could be that they hide things better or that they take appropriate actions sooner... This whole situation is so sad! What Sandusky did, what PSU didn't do and what the NCAA has now done... To different degrees, lots of victims!