Penn State Football: If There's No Death Penalty, PSU Had Better Wish There Were

As the dust begins to clear from the removal of Joe Paterno's statue, the NCAA has already reached a verdict on Penn State's sanctions. The NCAA announced on Sunday morning that it will be holding a press conference at 9:00 a.m. ET Monday at its home office in Indianapolis to announce those sanctions.

The NCAA released no details on the specifics of the penalties, but CBS News had this ominous report:

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CBS News has learned that the NCAA will announce what a high-ranking association source called "unprecedented" penalties against both the Penn State University football team and the school.

"I've never seen anything like it," the source told correspondent Armen Keteyian.

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Sure, sounds scary. Certainly worded to make someone believe that a death penalty is coming with more years than SMU got. But as ESPN.com's Joe Schad reported, "unprecedented" here isn't about the severity of the punishment—and the death penalty isn't even involved.

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Penn State facing loss of bowl/s and scholarships, but not so-called death penalty

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) July 22, 2012"

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Penn State sanctions expected to be extremely harsh and could even be perceived as more damaging long-term than "death penalty"

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) July 22, 2012"

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Thee sanctions were not self-imposed or negotiated. This is Emmert taking a stand he felt he had to due to horrors in Freeh Report.

— Joe Schad (@schadjoe) July 22, 2012"

There's some dispute of that last tweet, though. Matt Hayes of the Sporting News (who also knows his stuff and is well connected) says Penn State was actually heavily involved in determining this punishment:

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#NCAA sanctions are #PennSt driven, and accepted by NCAA prez Mark Emmert.

— Matt Hayes (@Matt_HayesSN) July 22, 2012"

It'll be interesting to see where Penn State and the NCAA fall in terms of taking credit for what's coming down.

As for what this punishment's actually going to be, we'll see. It needs to be heavy and long-lasting, because if Penn State's not getting the death penalty, it had better be something that'll affect the program just as long. We're talking about something along the lines of the longest postseason ban the sport's ever seen and major scholarship losses here.

Otherwise, what's the point of the NCAA not only getting involved, but handing the keys over to Mark Emmert's office instead of going through due process with the Committee on Infractions? If Mark Emmert says "Don't worry, I've got this," and unilaterally enacts even moderate punishment, that's going to put the NCAA's legitimacy in tatters.

But from all indications, this is going to be a punishment unlike anything the NCAA's ever enacted, so the specifics are going to be hugely important here.

Let's see what those are. And let's hope they've got some serious teeth.