I live in Poland now, and know of a number of truly EXCELLENT universities which next to nobody has ever heard of. There's Jagiellonian in Kraków, Humboldt in Berlin, I think it is, and Max Planck, perhaps in Mainz. And how come nobody ever heard of them? Because inter-university sports are next-to-NON-EXISTENT on the Continent. Even in the UK, as I'm given to understand, places like Oxford and Cambridge, at most, have truly amateur sports programs which are nothing more than ghosts of what exists in the USA. These places I mentioned, and many, many others besides, do GREAT, and do it all withOUT sports. They understand what their real, true, and SOLE purpose for existence is -- education.

You don't have to find "Joe Pa's" in colleges and universities. Just check the local high schools: Its filtered down to that level. Will Penn state close down football? Are you kidding me?? Z

I totally agree, and think NCAA should be behind the scenes to ask them to shut down. If not, then the lawyers for these victims should get a % of the winnings until all the cases are settled. I grew up loving sports, but we as a people need to put it in perspective with real world issues...

Of, by, and for the People.

Yeah! Let's get those guys! And not just the football program--shut down the university--all 24 campuses.

Penn State University should shut down the program for an undetermined time to really reflect what took place and give the University, the community and it's victims time and space to put things into perspective. I agree with you, a message must be sent that College football is not above everything else.

I agree that as soon as the Catholic Church shuts down Penn State should follow the excellent example set by the Church. You need to follow up with another article suggesting this.

The players didn't do anything - instead of shutting PSU down, ship 'em all to UMass so their initial season in the MAC is a good one! Seriously Bob, you're getting old and bitter - how about an early sign-off for you?

Rezeeric's posting hits a home run: "perspective". Start earlier with parents fighting at youth games; high schools with gag orders for fans attending contests, and the local papers devoting several pages to high school athletics, but not so much for other events. Move up, the football program building at Syracuse is bigger than the Engineering school. Look at BC's sports complex, UConn has exploded. How about The Orange Bowl extravaganza for the BCS Championship with hollywood halftime show (not the faithful schools' marching bands)? Look at Patriot Place and stadium with "franchise seating plans", Fenway Park and $200 tickets. Football players both college and pro incarcerated regularly, sports page some days reads like court docket. Then there's "Manny being Manny" antics all excused, and he, bought for an outrageous amount of money...and we cannot get enough of all of it. Mr Ryan, should we shut it all down for a couple of years? Fat chance!

You've been on this rant for weeks now. Give it a rest Bob. Shutting down the program would not help solve anything and would disrupt the lives of the current players, fans and the economy of the entire community. You may think you understand major college athletic programs but obviously you don't. State College is a tiny town that literally survives off the football program. Countless people would lose their jobs and have to move away. The athletes who went to school to play football and hopefully pick up an education in the process (like ALL major school athletes) would have their lives turned upside down, and the entire community would be deprived of it's only true passion, all to punish a few people at the top who may have been in a position to have done something. You want to carpet bomb State College to weed out the bad apples. Bad idea.

I could hardly agree more!

I could hardly agree more!

The excessive over-glorification of sports is a problem that extends both above and below the college level. Bob Ryan has made a career feeding off of the societal obsession with kids games, just as did JoPa. Sure, there's a difference in power and money between one spot and the other, but it's all part of the same system. Our culture needs gladiators to kill, no matter what the social and personal cost. Sometimes those who get killed aren't the ones seen on the field of battle.

Absolutely... the Catholic Church should also shut down all its churches in the USA for 2 years. Oh, wait - maybe that's what PSU's using for a model on how to treat this... though I don't recall the Pope ever requesting a former FBI director in to conduct an investigation of who knew what when about serial pedophile priests.

It's all about the money. The PSU board has 53 million reasons not to shut down the program. "Big Colleges" have become "Big Business."

jeez so. what about Max Plank and Jagiellonian and Humboldt? Why aren't many Americans going there? Because they haven't heard of them. Why haven't they heard of them? BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE NO STINKIN' SPORTS PROGRAMS. If they want to increase their enrollment, gaining lucrative out of country tuition from sports-crazy Americans, they should start football and basketball programs, join the NCAA, and hire American coaches at five mil a pop (um, that's US dollars, but if you want to pay 5 mil in euros, that's OK too). on the other hand...maybe things are OK for them the way they are.

Punish the guilty, not the innocent.

A major statement about this scandal can also be made by Penn State's football opponents. I think there are 12 teams scheduled to play them this year including Ohio, Virginia and Navy. Wouldn't that say a lot if even a couple of them said, "NO!" for at least a year. All of their programs would recover and they would be heroes in the eyes of many of us. Might be worth calling them, Bob, and asking if they've considered this action.

I agree with you, Bob, but you have been part of the growing problem for years with your glorification of sports. I bet that you could write fifty stories about corruption in sports without even checking your notes. It is time for many of you who participate in the cult of sports to challenge your own values. That will not happen because now you have Penn State to castigate. The corruption at Penn State has little to do major college athletics and the exploitation of young men by a system of greed. The criminal system can take care of Penn State. The corruption in college sports will only start to heal when about 100 schools are given the "death penalty" and even the name death penalty shows the pretension of this corrupt empire and those who shill for it.

I agree. But the athletes shouldn't be punished. They had no part in what Sandusky did, or the Penn State coverup. Let any football player leave for another school without the usual waiting period to play. But, yeah, shut it down.

1. PSU has already established that on it's own they cannot managed themselves within the appropriate legal and ethical boundaries. they will not shut it down on their own. Too much hubris and $$ (53m or so) to carry on the program 2. if the NCAA had an ba%%$s and common sense they would be employing the "loss of institutional control" in this matter- they have the right to do so and THIS case is example 1a of something to which this is warranted. Bottom line: a "death penalty" employed by NCAA on any school results in collateral damage - meaning the small guy (vendors, restaurants, local business) are affected so the argument is moot. If harboring a pedophile and, as the freeh quoted, "These men concealed Sandusky's activities from the Board of Trustees, the University community and authorities. They exhibited a striking lack of empathy for Sandusky's victims." is not a prime example of loss of institutional control then we live in an upside down world. Also, if NCAA employs the death penalty the players can transfer with their scholarships- so they are protected. Suddenly, paying college players looks like a misdemeanor (I'm not warranting this, i'm just stating the common sense opinion)

absolutely well put and exactly right. if smu could be shut down for paying players(as most SWC schools were doing at the time)and then have the board keep the ponies off the field an additional year then PSU should do the same thing as well. paying players was not illegal but aiding and abetting and covering up felony attacks on children should require 5 years or more. well done bob.

I'm going to say something completely off the wall here but I would say that football and basketball need to be pulled out of the colleges. They are causing more and more problems and are not worth it. The NFL and NBA need to set up a farm team system like baseball instead of using colleges to foot the bill for them to train their talent pool. And don't give me that crazy stuff about the kids education because how much of that is really going on. Or how much money it brings into the school because that money gets poured right back into sports. Now Penn State should shut down because they obviously can't manage having a football team at all. They have completely lost there way and forgotten what they are about. I wonder how many schools have hidden Sandusky's out there because you know Penn State can't be the only one.