Supreme Court Forces NCAA To Trial Over Penn State Sanctions

The NCAA will go to trial over the legality of its penalties imposed on Penn State.

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The NCAA is headed to trial over the sanctions it imposed on Penn State and its football program in 2012.

From the AP:

"Pennsylvania’s highest court on Wednesday turned down a bid by the NCAA to prevent a January trial over the legality of penalties imposed on Penn State over the school’s handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal.The state Supreme Court, in a brief order, rejected a request made by the NCAA after a lower court determined the trial will focus on the 2012 consent decree that included a $60 million fine.Justice Max Baer wrote separately that the NCAA was not entitled to what it was seeking because the judge did not exceed her legal jurisdiction."

The NCAA handed down unprecedented penalties on Penn State in 2012 that included a four-year postseason ban, vacating all wins from 1998 to 2011, a $60 million fine and a loss of 40 scholarships.

Recently released emails from NCAA decisions makers have shown that the NCAA questioned its own decisions at the time and relied on Penn State’s embarrassment on the matter to levy such punishments.

From ESPN:

"“I know we are banking on the fact that the school is so embarrassed they will do anything, but I am not sure about that,” Kevin Lennon, the NCAA vice president for academic and membership affairs, said in a July 2012 message to the NCAA’s then director of enforcement, Julie Roe Lach."

These recent developments certainly don’t spell a happy ending for the NCAA>

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