Penn State Scandal: Should the NCAA Allow Current Players to Transfer?

Penn State is currently 8-1 and sitting on top of the Big Ten Leaders division as the Nittany Lions go into this weekend’s big conference clash with Nebraska, but a football game is the last thing on the minds of anyone in State College right now after all that’s gone on around the university these past few days.

The sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky has rocked the entire community, and it’s now forced legendary—and now embattled—head coach Joe Paterno into retirement after coaching at the school for six decades.

The Penn State football program will have some dark days to deal with in the near future, and it remains to be seen how long it will take the school to recover from one of the worst scandals in sports history.

The innocent bystanders in this terrible and tragic mess are the current players at Penn State, who have now been thrown into a whirlwind of crisis.

One has to wonder if the proper move would be to let some of the younger players seek a new home after the season, to try to find some solace and finish off their football careers away from the spotlight of this awful scandal.

When it comes to letting players out of their scholarships, the NCAA has usually been strict and oftentimes unreasonable, but given all that’s currently going on at Penn State right now, this might be just the type of special circumstance to let players seek a transfer.

This is a program that hasn’t made any violations in terms of the NCAA, so there won’t be any penalties from that standpoint.

Still, the players have had their trust violated by the fact that a known child abuser was working out in the same weight room with them up until last week, and I have to imagine that will make at least a few players think twice about remaining a Nittany Lion.

After the season ends, there will likely be at least a few players who will contemplate transferring, and hopefully the NCAA sees the gravity of the situation and grants them an immediate release from their scholarships, if that’s what they ask for.