NCAA Lifts Penn State's Postseason Ban

[ASTalumna06]

http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireSto...n-ban-25354486

Penn State's football program got out from under the most severe on-field sanctions imposed on it two years ago over the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, learning the NCAA will allow it to compete in this year's postseason and that all scholarships will return in 2015.

The surprise announcement, linked to progress the school has made reforming its athletics programs, moved the university a step farther away from the fallout from Sandusky, the former assistant coach convicted of sexual abuse of 10 boys, including acts inside university facilities.

They say that the ban was lifted because of the progress Penn State has made, but I can't help but wonder if it was instead because of this:

http://www.centredaily.com/2014/09/0...-handbook.html

That is why language in the new book strikes a chord with some. In a resolution passed Aug. 6, the NCAA’s executive committee, the same body that imposed Penn State’s sanctions, spelled out how sexual violence should be handled. Among the recommendations are “know and follow campus protocol for reporting incidents of sexual violence; report immediately any suspected sexual violence to appropriate campus offices for investigation and adjudication” and “cooperate with but not manage, direct, control or interfere” with investigations.

Paterno has been roundly criticized for not exerting more of the power of his near-legendary status on campus and in Centre County to push the investigation against Sandusky. But does the NCAA’s report acknowledge that was not his place?

“The hypocrisy of the NCAA is beyond belief,” said state Sen. Jake Corman, R-Benner Township. “Report to superiors. That’s exactly what Joe Paterno did. ... This is just one more example of how the NCAA got carried away in the emotion of the time and rushed to judgment and got it wrong.”