Penn State President Rodney Erickson Says School Made Concessions to Avoid Death Penalty

Mark Emmert and the NCAA had Penn State in a rear naked choke hold. Which is why Penn State tapped out agreed to the bowl ban, scholarship reduction, and $60 million fine. According to school President Rodney Erickson, Penn State had no choice. If they hadn’t signed off on the penalties, the Death Penalty was apparently an option.

“We had our backs to the wall on this. We did what we thought was necessary to save the program.”
Joined by board of trustees chairwoman Karen Peetz and interim director of athletics David Joyner, Erickson said he signed the NCAA agreement because no better deal was available.
He said Penn State could have faced at least one year without football and still would have endured additional penalties.

Not to mention that fighting the NCAA’s penalties would have been a terrible PR look for the school.

Penn State President Erickson on NCAA sanctions: ‘We had our backs to the wall on this’ [Centre Daily]

Previously: Mark Emmert Brought Down Penn State, But Left Disturbing Precedent for NCAA

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17 Responses to “Penn State President Rodney Erickson Says School Made Concessions to Avoid Death Penalty”

Walking Underwear Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:08 PM

They made a deal….promise not to appeal and we wont death penalty ya

PAR5N2 Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:11 PM

I don’t know what this has to do with Adam Scott.

Walking Underwear Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:13 PM

Lots of fail, par5

AssaultWithAConcreteDildo Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:20 PM

OHHHHHHH so the NCAA extorted them, that makes everything okay then

ohheelyeah Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:32 PM

Not to mention that fighting the NCAA’s penalties would have been a terrible PR look for the school.

says who? I, for one, have mental capacity to separate the heinous acts of a few individuals (and their subsequent punishment) from the very real, extremely detrimental results that will stem from this semi-railroading job be the NCAA. Sure, there would be some backlash, but if you honestly have a “wait just a damn minute, here” feeling, then you need to stand up for yourself. However, if the path of least resistance is to roll over and be willfully complicit in your own extortion, then by all means don’t let me stop you.

Sir Spicious Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:39 PM

Mark Emmert and the NCAA had Penn State in a rear naked choke hold

Interesting choice of analogy.

The Fan's Attic Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 6:55 PM

Rodney Erickson to the PSUBOT:
“Well, folks, we are fucked. We can either take our chances with perhaps having the death penalty imposed on the football program and try to appeal the penalty as outside the jurisdiction of the NCAA or we can cut a deal that will make Penn State football irrelevant for 10 years, pay $60 million dollars and handcuff the rest of the university for a long time. I like to call the second option a near-death-by-drowning-with-lasting-brain-damage penalty. I think we should go for door number.”

[Erickson opens briefcase, holds up cloth bag, opens it up and dumps his balls in the briefcase.]

Erickson: “Anybody who is with me can stick their balls in this briefcase.”

[PSUBOT collectively cuts off their balls and puts them in the briefcase.]

Wide Word of Sport (?) Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:00 PM

Where is that $60 million going? Should we be surprised when Emmert unveils a new private jet?

squawkbox Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:19 PM

I love the idea doling out punishment to people that have nothing to do with a heinous act. It must be an awesome feeling wielding that NCAA hammer every few months.

squawkbox Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:22 PM

Where is that $60 million going? Should we be surprised when Emmert unveils a new private jet?

It’s been said that it’s going to a fund for victims of similar acts. Great. My follow-up question is “Who’s gonna benefit from the $59.85M needed to administer the $150K hat actually get put in the bank?”

Cheesus Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 7:24 PM

The NCAA ordered Penn State to pay the penalty funds into an endowment for “external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university.”

Unbelievably, it seems the NCAA actually made the right decision. I’ve seen people ask, “What NCAA violation did they commit?” I’m guessing this qualifies as a “lack of institutional control.”

jayhawk88 Says:
July 23rd, 2012 at 8:57 PM

I love the idea doling out punishment to people that have nothing to do with a heinous act. It must be an awesome feeling wielding that NCAA hammer every few months.

I see this argument get thrown around a lot, but no one ever has an alternative solution. Should the NCAA just throw up their hands every time they don’t catch a school cheating in time? “Ha ha, corrupt school, you got over on us again, but we’ll get you next time!”

Even if schools plowed every dollar made back into program infrastructure/player salaries, there would still be corruption issues. The NCAA is bipolar at best, corrupt themselves at worst, but what’s the solution?

orly57 Says:
July 24th, 2012 at 12:55 AM

“we had our backs to the wall on this.”
Better than having your hands on the shower wall no?

Benjamin Franklin Rodriguez has the highest WAR evah! Says:
July 24th, 2012 at 6:28 AM

As easily as they accepted this “deal” I think those on the BOT and the Academic realm viewed this as an opportunity to diminish the relevance of the football program at the school.

jstaylor62 Says:
July 24th, 2012 at 10:18 AM

I love the idea doling out punishment to people that have nothing to do with a heinous act. It must be an awesome feeling wielding that NCAA hammer every few months.

Penn State University is a member of the NCAA. The NCAA is punishing Penn State University for their involvement in harboring a effing pedofile!

roger from oz Says:
July 25th, 2012 at 10:29 PM

NCAA is a hypocritical piece of shit organization. I would tell them to f$#@ off. PSU deserved to be penalized, but this was over the top without doing their own investigation. Total kangaroo court. I hope this leads to the eventual decline of the NCAA.

Monster is Meth Says:
July 25th, 2012 at 10:48 PM