The shameless, always-greedy NCAA strikes again

Okay so the NCAA came out today and is penalizing Penn State for the sex abuse scandals under Jerry Sandusky and, as it turns out, Joe Paterno and that's all well and good, sure.

In their penalties for Penn State, the NCAA is giving them a 4 year bowl ban, scholarships reduced from 25 to 15 for four years and says they must vacate all wins from 1998 to 2011.

Oh, and one last thing.

They--the NCAA--is fining Penn 60 million dollars.

I'm sorry but it's a bit difficult to be anything but read that last little beauty cynically.

The NCAA is nothing if not a money hog that famously--and again, rather cynically--exploits student athletes and universities for millions upon millions of dollars and they don't otherwise serve any good, useful purpose, if they ever did.

Sports writer Frank Deford has written and spoken well and extensively on this, as just one source:



So chidren were sexually and physically abused at Penn State by Jerry Sandusky and one of NCAA's "solutions" is to fine--take, really--$60 million from their program.

Forgive me while I wretch and while I don't--absolutely don't--think this is any real solution or that any additional good will come from it.

Unless or until the NCAA turns that $60 million fund over to a sexual abuse prevention organization, I'll have to assume no good is coming from it and that it's only about that same NCAA's all-consuming greed.

Links: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/24/sports/ncaafootball/penn-state-penalties-include-60-million-fine-and-bowl-ban.html?_r=2&hp

http://www.npr.org/2012/04/11/150285525/the-ncaa-is-membership-worth-it

http://www.npr.org/2011/09/14/140433661/the-ncaa-and-the-so-called-student-athlete

A fantastic article here by American author, historian and Pulitzer Prize winner Taylor Branch on "The Shame of College Sports": http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2011/10/the-shame-of-college-sports/8643/