[CNN] The state of Pennsylvania will file a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, seeking to have a judge throw out all sanctions the association levied against Penn State University in the wake of the child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett said at a press conference Wednesday.
Corbett said the penalties – a $60 million fine, a four-year ban on bowl games, football scholarship reductions, and the stripping of 14 seasons of football victories under the late head coach Joe Paterno – were unfair to the university, its students, and Pennsylvania citizens because the Sandusky criminal matter already is being handled in courts.
The NCAA “piled on … penalizing people who had nothing to do” with the Sandusky situation, Corbett said.
“These sanctions are an attack on the past, present and future students” of Penn State, Corbett said. He said the NCAA’s actions were unlawful and overreaching, and that it essentially forced Penn State to accept the sanctions under the threat that if the school didn’t accept them, the NCAA would impose on the football program a “death penalty” – a suspension from play of a year or more.
Is this incere or a fantastic PR move? Do you care?
Frankly, what does it matter? If Corbett gets the sanctions reversed, than who cares when or why or how he did it. Just do it!
