Someone help me on the scholi reduction.
20 per year for 4 years, means what?
I thought the max per year was 25, so that would leave them with 5 recruits per year?
If so, that IS the death penalty.
I think it’s saying they can only field 65 players now instead of 85 per year.
That was my reaction as well, but I'd be interested in a full explanation from those "in the know," if my understanding of how the NCAA scholarship rules work is wrong.
At first glance, what the NCAA has done here may be rather clever, in addition to appropriately harsh. From what I gather, that $60 million fine is roughly equivalent to the revenues generated by the Penn State football program for one season. So, the school gets to keep its beloved football this season, but doesn't make any money from it. "You guys like football that much? Fine. Trying playing this whole season for nothing." The jock-sniffers get their Saturday afternoon entertainment, the hot-dog vendors can still sell their wares, and the State College economy isn't totally crushed, but the school takes it in the pocketbook.
Vacating Paterno's wins from 1998 may seem a meaningless symbolic gesture to some, but as Paterno's pursuit of the "all-time" Division 1 record was apparently that sad old man's obsession in his last days -- and may well have been what ultimately underpinned his willingness to, at a minimum, "look the other way" as to Sandusky -- it's a nice "twisting of the knife" in context. It's the NCAA's own way of "taking down the statue," as it were it.
And, as you say, if the NCAA really did reduce Penn State's allotment of scholarships as is being reported here, then they've killed Penn State as a Divsion 1 program without actually "killing it."
I hope all this proves to be the case.
NCAA limits scholarships in 2 ways... the total number AND the max number of NEW scholarships that you can give in any year.
So I’m guessing that PSU’s total scholarships are to be reduced by 20 total, AND the number of new scholarships that they can give each year is reduced by 10.