College Sports Scandals May Leave Lasting Mark
The unfolding terror that is the Jerry Sandusky investigation, has hit hard the world of college athletics, specifically Penn State University. Without diving into the denseness of the story, it can be summed pretty quickly. Jerry Sandusky, the former defensive coordinator at Penn State from 1972 until 1999, has been charged with the sexual abuse of young boys on and off campus starting in 1997.
Current wide receivers coach Mike McQueary allegedly witnessed Sandusky performing sexual acts on a young boy in a Penn State shower in 2002, however, failed to stop it, and after reporting it to head coach Joe Paterno never went any further with his knowledge. The rest is really history, it was never reported to police, was buried, and then recaptured several weeks ago, leading to the firing of a college sports icon in Paterno.
While financial scandals dominated the news in regards to the NCAA over the past 6 months ago, after the Penn State scandal, and the torturously slow unfolding story at Syracuse, many people are left at a loss of what has become of college athletics. Since Paterno’s hiring as coach in 1966, Penn State has been seen as a poster child for the way to run a football program, a concept that was crushed in a little over a week.
As the college sports world continues to evolve, changing standards will have to be implemented if that image is to be restored. Loyola’s athletic department provided a local aspect to the wide covering story, saying they expect changes in policy regarding all types of violations on college campuses. The official statement explains their feeling, “Through statements made publicly by NCAA President Mark Emmert, it appears that the NCAA will be changing the way they conduct compliance reviews in the future.”
The main question that comes up now is that will college sports bounce back, will they regain the steam that they led with for such a long period of time. Is it possible that making changes to the system will qualm the many fears that people carry towards college athletics? That is a question that cannot be answered yet, because there is so much more to be played out on all fronts from Penn State to USC, to every other scandal that is leaching onto the NCAA right now. It also rests on the legal system, and determining if justice needs to be served. As a fellow student of mine at the University of Maryland pointed out, everywhere, those charged, “are innocent until proven guilty”, and in the time being society cannot truly begin to move on.
