By Chip Minemyer, McClatchy Newspapers –
STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Faced with the prospect of the death penalty for his school’s football program, Rodney Erickson signed the agreement announced Monday by the NCAA calling for severe sanctions against Penn State.
Those penalties include the loss of scholarships for football, a four-year postseason ban and NCAA probation for five years, a $60 million fine and the vacating of all wins from 1998 through 2011. Those sanctions were based on the Freeh report concerning Penn State’s reaction to the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, including a reported cover-up by top university officials.
But the football program will not be shut down — a very real possibility, the university president said.
Erickson, board of trustees Chairwoman Karen Peetz and interim Athletics Director David Joyner addressed the NCAA penalties and Penn State’s planned response in an interview with the McClatchy Newspapers.
“We had our backs to the wall on this,” Erickson said. “We did what we thought was necessary to save the program.”
Erickson said he signed the agreement with the NCAA Sunday night. The next morning, NCAA President Mark Emmert detailed the sanctions during a news conference in Indianapolis.
Erickson said he conferred with his closest advisers and members of the board of trustees. He said he also considered concerns he heard from the local community that a football shutdown could be devastating.
“This is the decision you make: Accept the consent decree or the (NCAA) board will go in another direction,” Erickson said. “So we accepted that, and I signed it on behalf of the university (Sunday) night.”
“I think, generally speaking, that the community felt that playing was better than not playing,” Peetz said.
Erickson said Penn State could have faced a multiyear shutdown of football and still would have endured additional penalties had he not taken the NCAA’s terms.
“I accepted this consent decree on behalf of the university, knowing that if we did not accept the sanctions we most surely would have faced the death penalty for football over multiple years and the prospects of additional sanctions,” he said. “I felt, after conferring with board leadership and others, that it was in the best interest of the university to accept the sanctions that were offered rather than have the death penalty imposed on Penn State.”
He added: “I thought we’ll be able to recover more quickly from these sanctions than we would from the death penalty over the course of a number of years.”
Erickson called the penalties an “unprecedented set of sanctions by the NCAA.”
But, he said, “This, while severe, does still allow us to play.”
The $60 million fine will be paid over five years, Joyner said. Erickson said no taxpayer dollars will be used to meet the fine.
The money will go to organizations that work to prevent or address child abuse.
“We have a reserve fund which will be utilized,” Joyner said. “Beyond that, in order to complete the $60 million, we’ll have to look at our (athletics) capital maintenance budget and other budget items that we have that we can adjust and delay perhaps.”
The NCAA agreement dictates that other non-revenue sports must not suffer because of the football sanctions.
“All of our existing sports will not be penalized as a result of this action,” Erickson said. “And this represents an opportunity for us to turn the page, to move forward and really start a new chapter for Penn State athletics, and football in particular.”
Sandusky, Penn State’s former defensive coordinator, was convicted in June on 45 counts of child sexual abuse.
The Freeh report, issued July 12, said former Penn State President Graham Spanier, the late Joe Paterno, former Vice President for Finance Gary Schultz and Athletics Director Tim Curley were aware of Sandusky’s actions but worked together to keep the situation secret.
Curley and Schultz are awaiting trial on charges of perjury and failure to report a crime. A hearing in the case is scheduled for Aug. 16.
“As we evaluated the situation, the victims affected by Jerry Sandusky and the efforts by many to conceal his crimes informed our actions,” Emmert said in announcing the sanctions. “At our core, we are educators. Penn State leadership lost sight of that.”
Erickson pledged that Penn State will quickly begin incorporating the recommendations of the Freeh report, including greater oversight of athletics generally and football in particular.
“It isn’t just athletics. It’s the whole university,” Joyner said. “It’s about instilling a culture of accountability in the moment, and being accountable for doing the right thing at the right time, always.”
