By Michael Kelley’ 14 & Mick Kowaleski ’14

As NCAA Mark Emmert stepped to the podium last Monday morning, there was a brief silence. The world was waiting for a verdict. AfterEmmert delivered the punishment for Penn State’s cover-up in the wake of the Sandusky scandal, there was a much longer pause as reality sank in: Penn State will never be the same.

The gavel was dropped in the form of a four-year bowl ban, a massive scholarship reduction (40 over four years), a $60 million fine, five years of probation, and the removal of all wins from 1998-2011.

Does the punishment fit the crime? Is it enough?

Kelley: Joe Paterno, the disgraced former head coach, once said in regards to Southern Methodist University’s 1987 football scandal, “It’s unbelievable to think that kind of corruption came from the top. The NCAA did what it had to do.”

Well, to use Paterno’s words so eloquently, the NCAA did what it had to do here, using an unprecedented punishment to cripple the Penn State football program for decades to come. The culture revolved around football and Paterno was at the head seat, the legend ruling the university. Attracting recruits and winning football games was higher up on the agenda than protecting children. Think about that for a second… absolutely sickening.

With the four-year bowl ban combined with the scholarship reduction, the one-time glory days of Penn State football will be forever gone. No high-end prospect will want to play there for at least four years and without top talent in the Big 10 conference, the Nittany Lions will soon be losing to the likes of Northwestern and Toledo.

111 wins have been vacated from Paterno’s record, moving him from first place all time with 409 wins to fifth with 298. This is a direct shot at his legacy. Former players are complaining, saying it was their blood and sweat that went into those wins. To this, I say too damn bad. Step back for a second and realize who the true victims are and how petty and disrespectful your arguments look.

My rant subsides with this: to the students of the university who slept outside the Paterno statue, protecting it before its takedown, you are absolute idiots. Be ashamed of your foolishness.

Kowaleski: In the wake of the cover-up, somebody had to pay. The NCAA decided it wasn’t going to punish just the football program or the athletic program, but the entire school for the crimes of a few.

By crippling the football program for years to come, the NCAA has thrown a rock into Happy Valley, and the ripples are going to rock the entire institution. See, by charging the school a whole year’s revenue from the football program ($60 million), they’ve also cost the rest of the athletics at Penn State valuable money. Most of the non-football sports piggyback off of the spoils of the biggest sport in America, and that fact is especially true for the Nittany Lions, whose football program is the third most profitable program in the country. Forty-six percent of Penn State’s total intercollegiate revenue stems from the football program. Take away just under 50 percent of the revenue, and it’s not just the football team who will suffer, but the volleyball, soccer, and swimming programs as well, programs which had absolutely nothing to do with the Sandusky scandal. This is not to mention certain facility renovations that may surface, or budget constraints that may need to be alleviated. The solution to this problem has been cut out thanks to the NCAA.

Now, I’m not saying that the NCAA did not need to levy out additional punishments. There needed to be repercussions for the cover-up. Taking some of it out on Paterno’s legacy is a start. But the NCAA needs to be more considerate, and more creative, when dealing the complete comeuppance.