PENN STATE AND THE NCAA---CHAPTER 2

HARRISBURG, Pa. -- Gov. Tom Corbett said Tuesday he plans to sue the NCAA in federal court over stiff sanctions imposed against Penn State University in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal.

The NCAA sanctions, which were agreed to by the university in July, included a $60 million fine that would be used nationally to finance child abuse prevention grants. The sanctions also included a four-year bowl game ban for the university's marquee football program, reduced football scholarships and the forfeiture of 112 wins but didn't include a suspension of the football program, the so-called death penalty.

---ESPN, 1-2-13

Some in the media and the sports world have praised Governor Corbett for the antitrust suit he has belatedly filed against the NCAA. Let me suggest another approach to the question of how this multifaceted mess should have been dealt with, and how we should view the governor's actions.

At this point we all know the basics of the story. Crimes were committed, repeatedly, in the shower rooms of Penn State athletic facilities and other places. Young boys were sodomized and otherwise sexually abused by a respected member of the university community, and the crimes continued for a number of years. Other adults in positions of authority looked the other way or didn't want to believe the stories or instinctively protected the culture of secrecy that allowed this situation to develop. They bear some moral culpability, and maybe some criminal culpability, for the outrages that occurred. While the responsibility of the predator himself may be quite clear, the extent to which other men should be held accountable is less so. Some may be entirely innocent. Others are weak and perhaps corrupt, but should be allowed to slink away in shame. A few should go to jail. Much of that must still be sorted out.

Here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, we have trustees who oversee the universities and we have policemen and courts and judges and legislators. All of these individuals have certain responsibilities, defined by our laws, and all of them have a legitimate role to play in bringing bad people to the bar of justice and crafting policies that will prevent future crimes of this type. That, at least, is how the system is supposed to work. Today, however, we have become so accustomed to being bullied by NGOs, community organizers and advocacy groups that we have apparently forgotten what it is that has made us strong as a nation, and has made us the envy of people around the world. It's the rule of law and the enshrinement of due process principles in our legal system. But those concepts are so very complicated, aren't they? The rule of law? Due process? What does that stuff really mean? So instead, we routinely succumb to the caterwauling of those with big hearts and no legal authority.

Therefore, when the NCAA shows up and says, "Give us $60 million---it's for the children," we do. We all roll over. The president of PSU immediately agrees. The trustees agree. Corbett agrees. "It's only fair," they tell us poor slobs in the cheap seats. "We'll pay the money and then the healing can begin."

The only honorable response to the NCAA's demand for $60 million was to tell them to piss up a rope. Where does such a number even come from? How did they arrive at it? Is there some secret pederasty accounting software locked away in the NCAA's vault? Can we see it? Can we run the numbers ourselves? Why sixty? Why not $58.7 million? Why not $82.3 million? Why not a billion?

The abject acquiescence to the NCAA's demand for $60 million contains a lesson on why it's important to believe in something, why it's important to have values and know why you have them. If Tom Corbett, lawyer, Governor and former Attorney General of Pennsylvania, had any understanding of or appreciation for the rule of law, he would have rejected these NCAA demands instantly. He would have mocked them and named these faceless bureaucrats and demanded they resign from the NCAA.

He did not, of course. Corbett deserves no congratulations here. He has disgraced himself in this affair. The correct response to this attempt to extort money from the taxpayers of Pennsylvania was not a close call. It should not have been a difficult call, certainly not for a former attorney general.

The NCAA's action cannot withstand even a minute of consideration and analysis, which means that our Governor did not give it a minute's thought but simply wilted under the political exigencies of the moment. I mean, if somebody tells you to pay a $60 million fine, don't you even ask to see the law or the rulebook or the code of regulations? Governor Corbett didn't.

We all know the NCAA has a rule against giving a kid a free Jeep, right? And we all know there's a rule against giving a linebacker an A in English when he never went to class. Also, we have seen what happens when a car dealer gives a $20,000 no-show summer job to a college basketball player. Can't do that.

But where's the rule here? CAN WE SEE IT PLEASE? Where is the rule that says if one of your assistant football coaches screwed little boys in a locker room twelve years ago (events with no connection to the current players or coaches), the school has to pay the NCAA $60 million and have its football program hobbled for the next decade? If there's a rule that says that, and Penn State agreed to be bound by that rule, well, OK. We'll pay the money. But show us the rule, and show us the procedures you followed to determine we were guilty of violating this rule, and show us the calculations or decision-making process that was used to determine that $60 million was the appropriate penalty. Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but it seems to me that sixty million bucks used to buy a lot more transparency than it does today. Inflation, I suppose.

Any lawyer worthy of the name would have seen the due process issues crying out for attention. This is not hard stuff. It's what lawyers do---they see issues, even if they do not immediately know how those issues should be resolved. But Tom Corbett, former Pennsylvania AG, did not. "Sure," he said. "Sixty million? Great. No problem." Only now is he having second thoughts. Only now, six months later, has our esteemed Governor figured out that HE was the kid in the shower.

Copyright2013Michael Kubacki