Penn State Sanctions: Timeline of Sandusky Scandal That Brought NCAA Penalties

With the majority of the facts out on the Sandusky case, the NCAA decided to wait no further on what the punishment will be for the Penn State program. NCAA president Mark Emmert recently made his announcement and handed out some of the harshest sanctions in recent memory.

Usually the NCAA takes much longer to make a decision, as it prefers to go through everything with a fine-toothed comb. But with the Sandusky trial and the recent Freeh Report, the NCAA had heard enough and decided to jump on things earlier than usual.

Here are some of the key dates from the Sandusky trial that helped the NCAA come up with some of these sanctions.

1969: Sandusky was hired as a defensive coach on the Penn State staff.

1977: Sandusky helps found The Second Mile. It is a group foster home that helps troubled children with dysfunctional families. 

1994: A boy known by the grand jury as Victim 7 met with Sandusky through The Second Mile. He went on to tell the grand jury that he has a "blurry memory" of when he was showering with Sandusky in the locker rooms on the Penn State campus.

1998: University police and State Department of Public Welfare investigator interviewed Sandusky. No charges were brought up, and Sandusky said he would no longer shower with children.

1999: Former head coach Joe Paterno told Sandusky that he would not be the next head coach at Penn State. Sandusky later retired but was able to keep special privileges, such as access to the Penn State facilities. 

2000: A janitor witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a young boy, who is known as Victim 8 in the reports. The janitor went on to tell coworkers and his supervisor, but none of these reports were brought to the attention of authorities. 

2002: Penn State assistant Mike McQueary told Penn State officials that he witnessed Sandusky having sexual contact with a young boy in the school showers.

2009: An investigation by the Pennsylvania attorney general begins once a boy had told authorities that Sandusky had inappropriately touched him during a four-year period. 

2010: Sandusky retired from The Second Mile club, saying he would prefer to spend more time with family.

Nov. 5, 2011: Sandusky was arrested and faced up to 40 criminal counts. He was held on $100,000 bail.

Nov. 7, 2011: Athletic director Tim Curley and vice president for finance and business Gary Schultz stepped down from their positions. They also face charges in a perjury case for not alerting police when allegations on Sandusky were brought to their attention.

June 11, 2012: The Sandusky trial began.

June 22, 2012: Sandusky was found guilty on 45 of 48 charges for molesting up to 10 boys over a span of 15 years.  

July 12, 2012: The Freeh Report was released. Louis Freeh is a former FBI director who was hired by the university's board of trustees to investigate what happened. One of the main things that came out of the report was the fact that school officials covered up the scandal by not reporting what they knew.

July 23, 2012: Penn State was hit with sanctions from the NCAA that includes a $60 million fine, a four-year bowl ban, five years probation, loss of scholarships and the allowance of current Penn State athletes to transfer to another program without suffering consequences.