NCAA restores Paterno’s football wins record in settlement

The National Collegiate Athletic Association reached an agreement that will restore 111 wins it stripped from former Pennsylvania State University football coach Joe Paterno after the Jerry Sandusky child sex-abuse scandal.

The agreement also resolves dueling lawsuits filed by the Indianapolis-based organization and Pennsylvania state legislators over the $60 million fine levied against the school for its inadequate response to reports of Sandusky’s abuse. That money will go toward programs that support survivors of childhood abuse.

NCAA President Mark Emmert said the future of that $60 million was the impetus behind Friday’s settlement. He said college sports’ governing body stands by the authority it used to levy the 2012 punishments and that it was too early to tell if this set a precedent for future discipline.

“No campus has ever seen a scandal of this magnitude occur around its athletic department,” Emmert said. He later added that he considered the matter finished.

In 2012, Penn State accepted a four-year bowl ban, a $60 million fine, five years’ probation and the loss of 20 scholarships annually for four years for failing to protect children from defensive assistant Sandusky, who is serving 30 to 60 years in prison for sexual abuse of underage boys.

In addition, all football wins from 1998 through 2011 were vacated. Today’s reversal makes Paterno’s 409 victories the most-ever at college football’s top level, 32 ahead of former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden.

Penn State’s football team went 7-6 this year and won a bowl game for the first year since 2009. The athletic department reported $96 million in revenue in the fiscal year ended June 30, third most in the Big Ten conference and seventh-most in the country, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Pennsylvania state Senator Jake Corman, one of two officials who filed a lawsuit challenging the validity of the 2012 punishments, called the settlement a “complete victory.”

“The NCAA has surrendered,” Corman said in a written statement. “This validates our position that the rush to judgment against the Penn State community was wrong, damaged uninvolved parties and disregards our values of due process.”

The NCAA four months ago lifted Penn State’s bowl ban two years early. It had previously given back five football scholarships, citing steps the school made toward ensuring its athletic department functions with integrity.

“Relaxing certain things that were originally there is really a reflection of the great job that Penn State as a university has done taking these things seriously, changing the culture that was there,” said Kirk Schulz, president of Kansas State University and member of the NCAA’s Division I board.

Paterno, who set records for longevity and on-field success as Penn State’s football coach, died Jan. 22, 2012, at the age of 85. He was fired in November 2011 after 46 seasons at the university, following criticism that he failed to contact police when told of abuse involving Sandusky. He was never charged with a crime.

Despite tremendous public support for Paterno, a College Football Hall of Fame inductee whose name is on a Penn State library, the university removed a statue of the coach outside its football stadium. The Big Ten also took his name off the league’s football championship trophy.

Paterno’s family sued the NCAA over the penalties in May 2013 in state court arguing that the association improperly interfered with and grossly mishandled a criminal matter outside the scope of its authority. Emmert declined to comment on that case.

“Today is a great victory for everyone who has fought for the truth in the Sandusky tragedy,” the Paterno family said in a statement. “This case should always have been about the pursuit of the truth, not the unjust vilification of the culture of a great institution and the scapegoating of coaches, players and administrators who were never given a chance to defend themselves.”

Schulz said he felt there was a misperception about the NCAA’s board and how it handles matters like Penn State’s punishment.

“We don’t have any desire to go in and have to do these sorts of actions with any of our colleague institutions ever again,” he said. “This was a truly extraordinary circumstance and the board felt like they had to quickly and decisively put forth a set of sanctions. I hope we never have to do this again."

The NCAA sued in federal court in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, challenging a state law passed in 2013 requiring the penalty be used in the state on child-abuse programs. That lawsuit followed one filed in state court by a Republican state senator seeking to enforce the legislation. The agreement announced today resolves the dispute. A previous complaint filed by Gov. Tom Corbett was dismissed in June 2013.

Former Penn State President Graham Spanier and two other school officials still face criminal charges tied to a 2001 abuse allegation against Sandusky.