Penn State Scandal: Would One Year Without Football Really Mean Anything?

At his weekly press conference on Tuesday, Penn State interim head coach Tom Bradley said that he had been informed by school officials that there will indeed be a football season next year.

That surely won’t please Penn State’s many wannabe executioners who are pleading for the program to receive the dreaded death penalty after the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal rocked the program last week.

The problem is, like I’ve said before, there have been no NCAA violations committed, so the NCAA has no jurisdiction to levy any sanctions against Penn State.

Some people seem to be disregarding that fact, though, as they continually call for Penn State football to get shut down.

The only way Penn State won’t be playing next year is if the school volunteers to shut down the program, and judging from the amount of money that the football team annually makes, I highly doubt that will happen.

Many are now searching for some heavy-duty justice after hearing about the horrible allegations against Sandusky, and the inexcusable inaction of Joe Paterno and his higher-ups.

The problem is, no one has the power to dole out the justice.

And what exactly would shutting down the program for a season do anyway?

How did that work out for SMU?

We’ve learned that you don’t need to destroy a program for decades to come. All you have to do is simply clear out everyone associated with the problem—Joe Paterno, Mike McQueary and anyone else involved in the alleged cover-up.

Then you can rebuild and recover.

Trust me, the football team will pay a big price when players transfer out and when the recruits refuse to come.

And then the school will ultimately pay a nine-figure price in lawsuits.

Penn State may not suffer the death penalty, but make no mistake about it, the Nittany Lions will suffer.

The rebuilding job at Penn State will take time, and taking a year off would only delay the recovery process.