Corbett Fires Back

The NCAA responded to Gov. Corbett's lawsuit against them in a motion to dismiss the case.  (No surprise there!)

Specifically, the NCAA claims:

“We are disappointed by the Governor’s action [Wednesday]. Not only does this forthcoming lawsuit appear to be without merit, it is an affront to all of the victims in this tragedy — lives that were destroyed by the criminal actions of Jerry Sandusky,” Remy said. “While the innocence that was stolen can never be restored, Penn State has accepted the consequences for its role and the role of its employees and is moving forward. The announcement by the Governor is a setback to the University’s efforts.”

Corbett contends the university and the state have been harmed by what he called “harsh penalties” over the abuse committed by Sandusky, a former assistant football coach.
 

Note the subtle but often used misdirection . . . the "affront" to all the victims.  Puh-lease.  This hasn't been about the victims from the start, and it certainly isn't about them now.  Let's be perfectly clear here:  What Jerry Sandusky did to those kids was inexcusable and he is being punished for that.  So let's focus on what this is really about . . . is Penn State and the current football team culpable in this whole sordid mess or not? And for the State of Pennsylvania, the issue is about the economic impact.  So for those of you who need things spelled out very slowly . . . the economic impact is NOT more important than the health of children . . .but are the current penalties fair considering all the evidence, not just the Gospel According to Freeh.

What many fans are arguing for is not whether or not crimes were committed against children and whether those are heinous or not, but rather is it appropriate to punish the players today for crimes perpetrated more than a decade ago.  The Freeh Report claims there was a conspiracy.  The NCAA acted on that information.  Many have questioned the validity of Freeh's conclusions, including a recent report sponsored by the Paterno Family which included a number of experts who not only critique Freeh's efforts, but seriously cast doubt on the conclusion that a conspiracy to cover up even existed.  And lost in all this emotion is the fact that no one at Penn State University has been convicted of failure to report so far.  Unfortunately, those trials may take years.

As an aside, I find it interesting that Sandusky can be convicted in months on 42 counts, but we can't get these other trials to court on a single charge of failure to report.

But not to be out done, Corbett has fired back in this game of ping-pong:

Corbett said the judge should not grant the NCAA's request to dismiss the case, saying college sports' governing body made a factual error when it said the penalties were voted on by the university's trustees.

"The NCAA wrongly claims that its arbitrary decimation of the PSU football program is no different than its enforcement of rules regulating player eligibility or uniforms - which do enhance collegiate competition - although PSU was not found to have violated a single NCAA rule and the NCAA's own president insisted that the consent decree was not an enforcement action," Corbett's lawyers wrote.

The NCAA has said the penalties are unrelated to regulation of economic activity so antitrust law doesn't apply.
 

So here's a radical thought . . . why don't we just let the COURTS hear these arguments and go from there?  Of course, the NCAA doesn't want to risk that, because they have NO LEGAL BASIS outside of the piece of crap CONSENT DECREE they are cowardly hiding behind right now.