In the Club

On Sunday our local newspaper ran an  article from the AP demanding draconian punishment from the NCAA for Penn State’s football program for the program’s and the university’s officials  tolerating, covering up, and apparently abetting the crimes of a predatory homosexual child molester  over a period of many years. I agree with the author that severe punishment is called for, but I also think it is unlikely. The NCAA is a bureaucracy. Almost all bureaucracies are staffed by people more concerned with rules than with principles, and more interested in formula and procedure than reason or common sense. Since there is probably nothing in the rule book that specifically mentions what to do with something exactly like the Sandusky case, the folks at the NCAA  may be at a loss as to how to act, or at least how to act decisively and appropriately.  Beyond that, the NCAA is a corrupt bureaucracy, even apart from the pious nonsense its officials spew about “student athletes”.  The Ohio States and Notre Dames of the world get treated quite differently from the UNLV’s, Boise States, North Dakotas, and Texas Techs. Penn State is in the club.  I doubt the NCAA will hit it anywhere nearly as hard as (if the reports in the press are accurate) is deserved. The only reason it might is that enough people are watching this in disgust that the bureaucrats  at the NCAA might think their phony baloney jobs (or even their phony baloney organization)  are at stake.