Argumentative Essay: Penn State Vs. NCAA

Anisha Watkins
Professor Kaitany
Writing 150-32
13 February 2013
Penn State vs. NCAA Are you a college football fan? If not you’re just like me, I could care less about any form of football. Even though I’m not a fan of football the Pennsylvania State University scandal caught my attention. In 2011 former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was charged with 52 counts of child molestation with at least eight different young boys. Even though Sandusky was retired in 2011 he still had an office on campus because he funded the Second Mile program, a nonprofit charity that helps underprivileged youth; the program was where Jerry got most of his victims. In June of 2012 Jerry Sandusky was arrested and eventually sentenced to 30-60 years in prison. Investigators said that the molestation started in 1994 and ended in 2009. The president of Penn State, Graham Spainer and head football coach Joe Paterno were fired because they knew what
Sandusky was doing and they covered it up for several years. Vice president Gary Schultz and athletic director Tim Curley were fired for the same reasons. They covered it up because they didn’t want to ruin the school’s reputation. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) wants to punish the school’s football program by shutting it down for a season or more. The NCAA feels that the University should have been more protected and secure by making sure that everyone on the campus was safe and making sure that all of their staff had a clean record. The debate is over whether the NCAA should get involved with Jerry Sandusky’s punishment and penalize the school’s football program or not. Billy Hawkins, Professor at the University of Georgia believes that Sandusky’s criminal offenses go beyond the NCAA’s authority, meaning that the NCAA doesn’t have the right to ban the football program because of a criminal charge. As Hawkins said in the New York Times article “Repair an Irresponsible System” the NCAA’s mission is “To be an integral part of higher education and to focus on the development of our student athletes.” Professor Gary R. Roberts of Indiana University agrees arguing that the NCAA should not be able to enforce legal standards. In the New York Times article “Leave it to Law Enforcement” Roberts argues that if the Pennsylvania Legislature wants the university to ban the football program then that would be appropriate, but if not the NCAA should leave it to the law. Roberts further argues that if the NCAA were to shut down the football program the innocent will suffer for was the guilty has done (Roberts). Sports editor Dave Zirin also argues that if the NCAA shuts down the football program then a lot of innocent people will suffer. Football games bring in a lot of revenue and if the program got banned the university would lose a lot of money (Zirin). Author Buzz Bissinger wrote in the New York Times article “Suspend football, the root of the problem” said that if Sandusky wasn’t a part of the football staff then the incident wouldn’t have been covered up for so long. Bissinger refers to the football staff as a mafia. He said “Like the mafia, it’s a membership for life as long as you don’t snitch on other members.” Banning the program for two years still wouldn’t be a big enough consequence. According to Bissinger the NCAA has the authority to enforce any laws or rules that they please. Football players will be affected by banning the program, but they are probably not as innocent as they claim to be (Bissinger). Blog creator Jessica Danielle wrote in the New York Times article “For the worst scandal, the worst punishment” that the school should suffer some type of consequence. She understands that Jerry Sandusky is already being punished but she believes that the school hasn’t suffered any severe consequences. In the 80’s the NCAA shut down a school’s football program for a year because they were paying student athletes under the table, meaning they were paying athletes extra money to play for the school. This case is more serious and the football program should be banned for 2-5 years (Danielle). In my opinion the NCAA should not ban the football program at all; there is absolutely no reason to. The football program and its athletes have nothing to do with what Sandusky have done and what the others covered up. Jerry Sandusky has already been sentenced to more than 30 years in prison for his crime. Joe Paterno who is now deceased was fired from his head coach position. The president, vice president and athletic director of the school have all lost their job for covering up the crime. So everyone who had something to do with the crime or helped covered it up has had to face severe consequences. Justice has been served to those who deserved it. I agree with Professor Billy Hawkins when he says that the NCAA doesn’t have the authority to ban the football program because of a criminal charge. The NCAA’s job is to organize college sporting events and to make sure student athletes are maintaining their goal athletically and academically. I also agree with Gary Roberts and Dave Zirin when they argue that the NCAA should leave it to the law enforcement. The NCAA getting involved with criminal charges is just like the police suspending a student athlete because his/her grades aren’t good enough. It’s irrelevant and doesn’t make sense. The NCAA has no responsibility in the incident simply because there were no football players involved. Jessica Danielle argues that the NCAA banned a football program at another university for paying students under the table. I think that Jessica is mistaken because she overlooks the fact that in the 80’s the incident actually had something to do with the student athletes. Although I agree with Buzz Bissinger to a point, I cannot accept his overall conclusion that the NCAA can do what they want because they can’t. They can’t just go around trying to regulate criminal acts. I disagree with Bissinger’s view that banning the football program for 2-5 years wouldn’t be enough punishment.
Pennsylvania State University is facing several civil lawsuits from the victims of Jerry Sandusky. The University as a whole is put to shame and will be talked about for decades (forde). If the NCAA was to get involved and banned the football program they would be punishing innocent people. Pennsylvania State has not been left off the hook. The NCAA has already made Penn State pay a $60 million fine and caused the University to lose scholarships and grants. Pennsylvania State will always have a bad name and a bad reputation. It wouldn’t be fair to the players, students, fans or family members. They lost their head coach that has been there for over 4 decades and they will be looked at different just because they are from Penn State. Isn’t that enough punishment? The NCAA should not be involved with the Jerry Sandusky Scandal because it is a criminal act which has already been handled by the court of
law.

Works Cited Bissinger, Buzz. “Suspend Football, the Root of the Problem.” New York Times 8 August 2012, Web. 28 January 2013. Danielle, Jessica. “For the Worst Scandal, the Worst Punishment.” New York Times 8 August 2012, Web. 28 January 2013. Forde, Pat. “The NCAA has no business getting involved.” Yahoo Sports 9 July 2012, Web. 12 February 2013. Hawkins, Billy. “Repair an Irresponsible System.” New York Times 16 July 2012, Web. 28 January 2013. Roberts, Gary. “Leave it to Law Enforcement.” New York Times 16 July 2012, Web. 28 January 2013. Zirin, Dave. “Seek Justice, not vengeance.” New York Times 16 July 2012, Web. 28 January 2013.