[NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

[Beamsley, Jeff]

Clearly a complex situation because there is the legal question and there is the moral question.

PSU appears to have covered themselves on the legal front.

There is the "he said/she said" discussion around what the Grad Assistant saw and then said to JoePa, the AD, and the VP.  JoePa appears to have followed PSU policy which was to immediately notify the AD.  The AD followed policy to notify the VP.  The AD and VP are now positioned to take the fall for the rest of the institution and the Grand Jury appeared willing to accept that trade.

So if it was my job to protect the institution of Penn State, I would do exactly what they are doing.  Limit the damage, cooperate with the authorities, blame the fall guys for bad judgment, pay for their defense, and hope that some dedicated alum will take care of them once they've served their time.  

I would also have Joe's retirement agreement in my back pocket in case this starts to reach beyond the existing indictments.  If it goes not further than these two, I would allow Joe to gracefully announce his retirement at a time in the not too distant future when it won't resurrect the whole scandal.  

Finally, I would have to ask myself if this job is worth the moral compromises that it has required me to make and might start to plan my own retirement.  But that's just me.

Jeff
 



-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Jim Leonard
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2011 10:44 AM
To: Northwestern Wildcats
Subject: [NU Sports] If you ran Penn State...

If you were the top person at Penn State (I assume it's a chancellor or provost), what would you do today? 
 
Would you let Coach Paterno's staff finish the season?
Would you selectively let Joe Paterno and Mike McQueary go?
Would you clean house between now and Saturday?   
 
This is not an easy situation. I would imagine that the top brass are hoping beyond hope that Tom Bradley can honestly say he knew nothing and can take over the reigns for at least the rest of this season. Joe Paterno may have a a thin veil of protection left, depending on what he was told. However, if it were up to me Mike McQueary would never represent the university again, starting today. 
 
Jim
 
 
PS - I have come to accept the fact that Ron Vanderlinden would never leave Happy Valley for Evanston but I wonder if that may change during the off season. 
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