College Football got a little of its dignity back last week. Let’s look at what happened and the ramifications:

1. The NCAA’s primary purpose is to exploit athletes to make money for big time programs and conferences. They have arcane rules used to keep players as indentured servants and then hand out wrist slaps to keep the public thinking they are holding up noble ideas why in reality they are down in the muck taking a piece of the pie.
2. Some programs stand up to this, like Notre Dame. One man truly believed in the ideals of a student athlete and spent over 50 years creating a world where sons and grandsons would play and be allowed to get a degree. The degree might have been in something we consider trivial, like parks management, but they would have earned it and gone through the process and the work for it and would be much better people for the rest of their lives because of it.
3. The NCAA hated this man and his principals. For decades they tried to find something wrong with his recruiting and coaching in their vast rulebook. They could finding nothing. He was clean, at least as far as regular on field on issues.
4. Then they got their silver bullet and shot it immediately. A terrible child sex abuse scandal perpetuated by a former assistant coach who was probably dismissed for it in 1998 but with no criminal proof found in an investigation. Sandusky was seen abusing a child on campus and the Penn State administration did nothing about it. They were found guilty and fired.
5. Joe Paterno was told and reported it to his higher ups, as is NCAA policy. He followed the letter of the law. Could he have done more? Sure. Hindsight is easy. Should he have done more? Probably. It is blight on his character and program, one those still alive still have to bear the burden of.
6. However, the NCAA response was vindictive and irresponsible. They finally could bring down that man they had tried so hard for decades to tarnish. They exceeded their authority and knew Penn State would cave because at the time they just wanted the scandal to go away.
7. The Paterno’s knew better. They hired an investigator to rebut the Freeh report.
8. A state senator investigated the internal NCAA communications and knew they were overreaching their authority.
9. A lawsuit was filed and instead of going to court, was settled, restoring the wins stripped away from a legend.
10. The statue that was ungraciously removed is the next step to redemption.
11. The fraud Bobby Bowden whose fans were crowing over the demise of Paterno, who knew the only way Bowden could be the most winningest coach was through using the system, crowed about how terrible Penn State was to get their way. Those people and Bowden have now been exposed and put back in their place – 2^nd. Remember, if you aren’t first, you’re last.

And so now the world is a little bit brighter. Penn State can start to hold its head up again, and the Big 14 can grow from this as their legacy as a historic conference gains the winningest coach ever back. I personally can’t be fully back on board till the statue is back, but I understand how some are ready to board the band wagon. There is a good chance the statue will be back though, here’s hoping.