[NU Sports] NYT Column on Penn State

[Dennis W. Brandt]

<First, it should announce that it will not participate in a postseason bowl 
game this year

Why?  The football team and its fans bear neither legal nor moral 
responsibility in this matter.

< Second, it must discipline the rioters.

Agreed in spades, and "discipline" should mean permanent expulsion as well 
as legal ramifications.  But good luck identifying more than a handful of 
them.

<Third, it must promise not to use its status as a state institution to 
shield itself from the inevitable civil lawsuits

Pragmatically, there is nothing Penn State can do to prevent law suits, and 
it would be an unmitigated PR disaster for the university if they tried.

<Fourth, Penn State should establish a compensation fund.

No problem there.

< Finally, Penn State should announce that it will cancel the 2012 football 
season.

Stupid.  See "first" above for part of the reason why.  Joe Paterno and Mike 
McQueary's actions in this matter followed exactly the letter of 
Pennsylvania law, which is why neither is being prosecuted.  (Whether you 
believe that law is adequate is not relevant ex post facto.)   Legal 
culpability falls on the athletic director and higher-ups whom state law 
clearly defines as those required to report the incident to the authorities. 
If you cancel the football season, then you logically must cancel every 
other intercollegiate sport in which Penn State participates because the 
guilty parties oversaw all sports.  Also given that football pays most of 
the bills for every other sport except basketball - and then possibly just 
the men's team - you may have to do that anyway if you follow Joe Nocera's 
pound-of-flesh advice.