ESPN Reporting that Sanctions to Be Announced Tomorrow: Not Death Penalty

Apparently 10 days after the Freeh report hammered Penn State Administrators and legendary coach Joe Paterno the statute has been removed.

Tomorrow the sanctions against Penn State are to be announced. I've been completely This article is really interesting because a former NCAA chairperson explains why any sanctions would be completely groundbreaking and he makes some good points about why the NCAA should not be involved in penalizing Penn State.

I've been pretty vocal and certain that Penn State should receive the death penalty, but this story makes me take a second thought about it. The former chairperson's explanation that sanctions are for teams getting a "competitive advantage" by their misconduct, be it paying players, players cheating, cheating in recruiting, etc. But, for strictly criminal conduct by school officials, sanctions have never been implemented and there isn't any NCAA rule that was broken unless they claim it is "lack of institutional control." Even then, the lack of control has always been to protect teams from the cheaters trying to get an unfair competitive advantage.

Plenty of coaches have commited crimes. Look at HC of Missouri Gary Pinkel's recent DUI. Mizzou didn't get any NCAA sanction. Heck, Arkansas Petrino was even worse with his affair with an employee within the Athletic Dept.

Should the NCAA be handing out sanctions for criminal conduct that isn't related to an athletics team getting an advantage? And, if the NCAA does seriously punish Penn State, do they appeal ? Talk about a no win position for Penn State. Clearly the sooner they get this over with the sooner they can start healing and moving along.

I think the NCAA needs to be careful if the force Penn State to challenge the punishment for being too severe. Hopefully the announcement will be that Penn State and NCAA have agreed on a "punishment" and process to address this unprecedented situation. Thoughts?