Jerry Sandusky Sex Scandal: Upheaval Didn't Cause Penn State's Loss to Nebraska

Penn State's football team lost to Nebraska on Saturday by a 17-14 score and its BCS hopes took a major hit in the process. However, there are two things to make clear: There are more important things than winning a football game, and the loss itself wasn't caused by the week's events.

The Nittany Lions were entering the most difficult portion of their schedule and were likely going to be exposed by a strong Nebraska team regardless of the circumstances. They hadn't knocked off a marquee team all season before Saturday and still haven't.

If Penn State proceeds to lose to Ohio State and Wisconsin on the road, which is a distinct possibility, fans shouldn't blame the Board of Trustees for making tough decisions. It would just prove their team wasn't BCS worthy this season.

And while you could argue today's game was a step in the right direction, the real healing will begin once football season ends and fades into the background until spring.

That will allow the school to examine everything they need to and make all the personnel decisions which need to be made. It's too tough to do all of that while the season is still ongoing and the media attention is unimaginable.

Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims should be priority No. 1 for the foreseeable future. The pain they've had to endure is infinitely more than losing any football game.

The university must do everything within its power to ensure nothing like the sex scandal ever happens again. Too many people had some knowledge of Sandusky's actions for them to go unreported. It was a systematic failure of monumental proportions.

While a football game may provide momentary relief from a brutal situation, the situation can't be ignored like Sandusky's transgressions were. It must be taken head on so that everybody, both inside and outside of the Penn State community, can be sure no stone is being left unturned.

A BCS bowl game would be nice. A return to normalcy would be exponentially better. And that's why it should be the main focus of everybody at Penn State.