409 Forever

409 foreverI think most people have heard by now that the NCAA decided to reinstate the wins they took away from Penn State and Joe Paterno. This is fantastic news for all Penn State fans and the Paterno family.

I know what some of you are thinking: “hey Josh, I thought you were okay with the vacated wins.”  Well I never really thought it was a big deal, but as time went on I started to realize that it was a bit stupid. I mean, the games were played. And whenever you watch a game, they always had to mention that Joe Paterno would have been all-time wins leader had the NCAA not vacated the wins.

Do I still think that Joe Paterno could have done more? Yes. I get that he followed the proper protocol. And I can think of a bunch of circumstances how he could have thought he was doing enough. This is one of those situations where a great man can make a bad decision and that does not invalidate everything he has done in his life. But this was not really the point of this post. Sorry.

You might be wondering what caused me to change my mind. Obviously the NCAA is a pretty crappy organization. Then the UNC scandal came out (and the Notre Dame stuff or the INSERT COLLEGE SCANDAL HERE). I have not heard anyone say “hey, the Tar Heels need to have wins taken away, because this was a clear case of a university lacking institutional control.”  To me, it just seemed like a case of hypocrisy.

Basically what I am trying to get at here is that I was wrong back then. I can admit to being wrong. It rarely happens, but when it does, I like to make that correction. I was basing my opinion on the facts at the time, and as time went on, it looked like the NCAA did a poor job handling, well everything.

Author: Ngewo