On Wednesday, Gov. Tom Corbett filed a lawsuit against the NCAA on behalf of the people of Pennsylvania regarding the strict sanctions that the association imposed against Penn State University and its football program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.
The suit alleges that the NCAA was “overreaching and unlawful” in how it punished the university, and that it broke antitrust laws and harmed residents in the process.
Dr. Ellen Staurowsky, a professor of sport management in Drexel’s Goodwin College of Professional Studies, agrees that the NCAA’s sanctions were excessive. On January 3, she told the Christian Science Monitor that the NCAA became vulnerable when it rushed to impose sanctions instead of deliberating with hearings.
She said, “The NCAA overreached and really ought to have had the courts handle this case. There was no NCAA rule that was violated. Within their rule structure, there was no violation of athlete eligibility or under the table payments. So if the wrongdoing [in the Sandusky case] did not fall under the purview of the NCAA, then why did they sanction? That is what this case is challenging.”
Read the full story here.
Members of the news media who are interested in speaking further with Staurowsky, can contact me at ahm62@drexel.edu.
What do you think – were the NCAA’s sanctions warranted or did they overstep their authority?
