Penn State Scandal: The NCAA Will Monitor, Is There Anything It Can Do?

Everyone and everything is getting involved in the Penn State scandal, from the governor of Pennsylvania to the United States’ Department of Education.

However, the NCAA has been quiet on the situation. Until Thursday, that is.

President Mark Emmert released the following statement regarding the scandal:

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The NCAA is actively monitoring developments and assessing appropriate steps moving forward. The NCAA will defer in the immediate term to law enforcement officials since this situation involved alleged crimes. As the facts are established through the justice system, we will determine whether Association bylaws have been violated and act accordingly. To be clear, civil and criminal law will always take precedence over Association rules.

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The NCAA has come under a lot of fire for how it has handled different events like players receiving illicit benefits, but this has been handled surprisingly well by them thus far.

Just like the police, the NCAA will wait until all of the facts are on the table before levying any punishment and that is without a doubt the right thing to do.

The question is whether they can actually do something about it once the court case has been carried out.

Obviously, the first possibility that comes to mind is the infamous lack of institutional control. But that is typically used for things like paying players to play like with SMU or Miami.

The NCAA could make the case that the institution acted unethically and that would fall under the “Sportsmanship and Ethical Conduct Committee” and the “Leadership Council.” But that seems unlikely at this point.

Here is the bylaw that would come into play:

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11.1.1 Honesty and Sportsmanship. Individuals employed by or associated with a member institution to administer, conduct or coach intercollegiate athletics shall act with honesty and sportsmanship at all times so that intercollegiate athletics as a whole, their institutions and they, as individuals, represent the honor and dignity of fair play and the generally recognized high standards associated with wholesome competitive sports.

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However, under bylaw 10.1 “Unethical Conduct,” everything listed involves the NCAA or the academic institution, not law enforcement. The only way this could be used is if a coach or personnel member lied to Penn State officials over something in the NCAA rulebook.

There is a way that could happen, but it looks like a stretch at best.

Kids become eligible to be recruited following the eighth grade and while Sandusky was not a coach after 1999, he could be considered a booster for the program who provided benefits.

But there is something potentially more damning—this report of him telling a victim he could walk on to the team could be a major problem for the football program back when he was a coach in 1996 or 1997 (see victim four).

Like I said, it is a long shot but it appears to be a possibility at this point.

That said, the NCAA would be wise to just stay out of this whole thing because law enforcement will have a much stricter punishment than anything the association could do.