Court Documents Show NCAA, Freeh Commission Worked Together During PSU Inquiry

New court documents suggest that former FBI chief Louis B. Freeh and the NCAA worked in lockstep as they investigated and imposed sanctions upon Penn State University in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.    

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Friday, Nov. 14

NCAA Provides Context for Released Documents

The NCAA provided an explanation of the documents released showing they worked with Freeh during the Jerry Sandusky scandal:

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The NCAA released a set of documents Friday that provide important context in understanding the events that led to the consent decree between the Association and Penn State University.

This context is needed because the ongoing litigation has resulted in the release of various NCAA emails and other evidence including depositions and exhibits attached to various court papers filed by Senator Corman. 

“When taken out of context, some of this material creates a misleading impression of the important issues related to the consent decree between the NCAA and Penn State,” said NCAA spokesperson Erik Christianson. “The NCAA believes the full story will emerge at the trial scheduled for January 2015.” 

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Documents Show Freeh and NCAA Worked Together in PSU Case

According to ESPN.com's Don Van Natta Jr., there was regular correspondence between Freeh's commission and high-ranking NCAA officials, including president Mark Emmert. That included emails, phone calls and face-to-face meetings.

This comes on the heels of the release of internal NCAA emails that suggest the organization made decisions regarding Penn State based largely on public relations, per Tim Gilbert of OnwardState.com.

Following the release of the Freeh Report, the NCAA imposed heavy sanctions on Penn State that included a $60 million fine, a loss of scholarships and a four-year postseason ban for the football program among other punishments.

Some of those sanctions were eventually lessened or dropped, but Pennsylvania State Sen. Jake Corman—who filed a lawsuit against the NCAA to challenge the $60 million fine—believes the relationship between Freeh and the NCAA was a conflict of interests, according to Van Natta Jr.:

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Clearly the more we dig into this, the more troubling it gets. There clearly is a significant amount of communication between Freeh and the NCAA that goes way beyond merely providing information. I'd call it coordination ... Clearly, Freeh went way past his mandate. He was the enforcement person for the NCAA. That's what it looks like. I don't know how you can look at it any other way. It's almost like the NCAA hired him to do their enforcement investigation on Penn State. ... At a minimum, it is inappropriate. At a maximum, these were two parties working together to get an outcome that was predetermined.

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Donald Remy, the NCAA's general counsel, responded to the report, via Van Natta Jr.:

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Remy said Corman's assertions are a 'mischaracterization of the evidence' and 'are inconsistent with the facts.' 'I think the communications between the Freeh group and the NCAA were consistent with the NCAA's commitment to cooperate with the Freeh group and our commitment to monitor the progress of that investigation,' Remy said. 'In no way do those documents demonstrate the NCAA was doing anything beyond that.'

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Jay Paterno, who is the son of legendary Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno, praised Van Natta Jr. following the release of the report:

It is unclear how these new court documents will impact the conflict between Penn State and the NCAA.

Freeh was supposed to be an independent investigator, but it now looks as though his report was influenced heavily by outside forces.

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