The Nittany Turkey

Primarily about Penn State football, this is a tale told by idiots, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

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Archives for July 30, 2012

Covering Up the Cover-Up

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Give it a year and you’ll need the archaeology department to do a dig to find any Paterno artifacts at the site of his former statue outside Penn State’s Beaver Stadium. Landscape crews have planted trees along the sidewalk in the area, and it appears that there will remain no trace of what was once there. If you are looking for M.A. in Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology you need to know that an academic degree in Land of Israel Studies and Archaeology provides students with a rich background in the history, archaeology, geography and ecology of the Land of Israel and surrounding countries, and prepares them for a broad range of careers

The Centre Daily Times published a report with a picture of the work in progress, if you’re interested.

The statue, originally moved to an unidentified location within Beaver Stadium was moved to another unidentified location on Friday, according to the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Paterno’s name remains on the library — for now.

Joyner on STEP Program

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Tim Curley’s and Guido d’Elia’s pride and joy, the STEP program, could get some needed changes under the Joyner regime at Penn State Athletics.

The euphemistically ironic acronym STEP stands for Seat Transfer & Equity Plan, which was anything but equitable in the minds of many fans.

“Let’s say this: We’ve actually talked to some alums and supporters that have some ideas about it,” he said of the program. “We’re listening to them, and it was our intention to take a very strong look at the STEP program. We didn’t have enough time this year because of the way things unfolded. … But it’s been my intention to relook at the STEP program anyway for the next season.

“Now we’ll relook at the STEP program based on what we know the world is right now. So I don’t know what we’ll do, if anything, but we’re going to relook at it.”

Any changes would be implemented no earlier than the 2013 football season.

Many season ticket holders were pissed off when STEP was announced, and the students got screwed big time, with their primo seats being swapped with a much less desirable end zone location.

Last year, the first season in which STEP existed, had the smallest average attendance since Beaver Stadium was expanded in 2001.

This year, Penn State claims to have sold 85,000 season tickets.

With the program crippled by NCAA sanctions, how long can that last? How long can Penn State continue to sell seats at $400 and $600. Joyner needs to take a long, hard look at the details.

One Point of View

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The Orlando Sentinel, our local daily rag here in Turkeyland, published a letter to the editor about the current state of affairs at Penn State written by a PSU alumnus and friend whom I’ll call “The Commish”, for lack of a better pseudonym.

I felt that it was interesting and controversial enough to publish here, since the Turkey’s readership is far greater than that of the Sentinel. Well, maybe not, but it should be. They publish a lot more trash than I do and they want to charge for it. The Nittany Turkey is always free. Free crap! You can’t beat it. (If you do, someone probably put it in a paper bag, set fire to it, and yelled “Fire! Fire!”)

Here is The Commish’s proposal:

In November 2011 when this scandal became public, the football operation should have been curtailed IMMEDIATELY, rather than wait for the curmudgeon to be fired while dallying through his desire to retire “one week after the bowl game”. This failure suggested no atonement or contrition for the ugliness which occurred. No solemnity for the innocent victims. ??? ???? ?????

Common business sense says you negotiate from a position of leverage. Get the upper hand, which is what an immediate shutdown would have allowed. Then you evaluate various economic scenarios, one of which will soon be on your doorstep. None of this was done. Betcha getting the upper hand on the NCAA from a self-imposed punishment would have HALVED the consequence. Imagine the sincerity from abruptly ending the season and rejecting a bowl game. Which is worse: asking the NCAA for a two-year DEATH penalty, or being economically water-boarded for ten years?

The foolish, selfish Penn Stater says the latter. What if you threw in an EXIT from the Big Ten? Both parties in truth would have been ecstatic. Better yet, say they’re EXPELLED! The Big Ten looks mean and punitive, and Penn State begins to elicit sympathy. Shhh.

Today (07/26/12) it’s learned that the NCAA had recommended a FOUR-year death penalty. If Penn State negotiated with ANY leverage, it could have asked for TWO-years (last year’s abrupt ending plus this year) and likely gotten THREE.

Even FOUR years is much kinder than being economically water-boarded for ten years. WTF are their brains?

This Turkey is scratching his head. As far as I’m concerned, this is a lot of speculation straight out of left field. Commish must have been slightly out of commission when he wrote it. By his own admission, “[This] shows how little I have to do, and what this cultural backwater accepts [for publication].” This Turkey can’t believe they actually left a “WTF” in there.

Everyone wants to criticize how Penn State has handled this misguided penalty, but no one is taking shots at the NCAA for taking license to come down hard on the innocents on the field by invoking “the chillllllllldren.” Obviously, we can no more change how the football program was run last year than we resurrect its late lamented leader. So, what’s the point, Commish? Just throwing stones?

Hell, you couldn’t even bear to mention Joe Paterno’s name!

I believe that the NCAA was bluffing with the purported ultimatum giving Penn State the choice of the sanctions that would eventually be levied or the dreaded “death penalty” for four years. In my old fowl brain, I’m thinking that for the NCAA to impose either the “death penalty” or a TV ban would be cutting off its nose to spite its face. Too much non-Penn State money would be lost in either of those two cases. I’m thinking that we might never see those extreme punishments again. Follow the money.

I still don’t see the Penn State situation as a football problem. The NCAA used the unfortunate institutional cover-up to make it one, and thus put it under their purview. It was easy enough to do by spouting platitudes about “the victims” and “the children” to gain the public’s ear and sympathy. The sanctions brought down from on high won’t do anything to help the victims, although having Penn State create a charitable endowment to aid organizations created to benefit future victims of abuse was a positive step. The rest of the sanctions were superfluous, draconian, and downright sadistic. ?????? ????? No competitive advantage was gained, so why the hell should victories be “vacated” and what does a won/lost record have to do with the victims, anyway? All the punishments were football oriented with the only real connection to football being that a high-level administrator who happened to be a football coach screwed up on a non-football issue. But once again I rant pointlessly. ????? ??????? ?????? ????? I’m either preaching to the choir, or I’m not.

For what it’s worth, PennLive.com has published a report by Charles Thompson that chronicles the negotiations with the NCAA from beginning to end.