Penn State Press Conference Canceled: Why University Made the Right Move

Penn State made the last-minute decision to cancel Joe Paterno's weekly press conference (via Washington Post), and, although everybody would like more answers about the ongoing Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, the university made the right move by calling it off.

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“Due to the on-going legal circumstances centered around the recent allegations and charges,” the university said in a statement, “we have determined that today’s press conference cannot be held and will not be re-scheduled.”

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Apparently, Paterno wasn't involved in the decision. Penn State was probably worried about the possible legal ramifications if its head football coach made a bad choice of words during the media briefing. In wake of such a large scandal, they are trying to avoid any more fires that need putting out.

Even though they sent out a memo yesterday saying today's press conference would be purely focused on football, it became painfully clear that very few people were there to talk about Saturday's game against Nebraska. Rightfully so, of course.

The school is already up to its ears in scandal-related problems and has lacked transparency in its decision-making process, imagine if it had to help Paterno through a public press conference? They clearly had no plans of letting him speak his mind.

You can't help but wonder what is going on behind closed doors at Penn State. Are they considering letting everybody linked to the scandal go? Are they trying to figure out the best way to repair the school's imagine, perhaps by calling this an isolated incident? Who knows.

One thing's for sure, the longer the administration waits to make their thoughts public, the bigger the scandal is going to become. They aren't doing themselves any favors by sending a herd of media members home without any new information.

But, they really didn't have much choice.

Basically every choice the university makes over the next few weeks will be of the lose-lose variety. The press conference was no different. They just have to accept the lesser of two evils and keep working toward a resolution.

Let's just hope shutting out the media doesn't become standard operating procedure. The public deserves answers.