Some of the choice words from NCAA President Mark Emmert:

“As we evaluated the situation, the victims affected by Jerry Sandusky and the efforts by many to conceal his crimes informed our actions,” said Emmert. “At our core, we are educators. Penn State leadership lost sight of that.”

According to the NCAA conclusions and sanctions, the Freeh Report “presents an unprecedented failure of institutional integrity leading to a culture in which a football program was held in higher esteem than the values of the institution, the values of the NCAA, the values of higher education, and most disturbingly the values of human decency.”

…

“We cannot look to NCAA history to determine how to handle circumstances so disturbing, shocking and disappointing,” said Emmert. “As the individuals charged with governing college sports, we have a responsibility to act. These events should serve as a call to every single school and athletics department to take an honest look at its campus environment and eradicate the ‘sports are king’ mindset that can so dramatically cloud the judgment of educators.”

Strong words, but do they really mean anything in the big picture of trying to send a message about the culture where, ” ‘Sports are the king’ mindset”?

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Earlier this morning the president of the NCAA, Mark Emmert, made public the sanctions against Penn State university for their administration’s action and inaction in the Jerry Sandusky scandal.  They are as follows:

1. A fine of $60 million dollars to be held in trust for child abuse awareness and prevention organizations.  The monies cannot be taken out of the athletic department funds nor can it impact any of the sports teams at PSU.  This is what he meant when he said the sanctions would also be “against the school” as opposed to only the football program.

2. Four-year reduction of grants-in-aid. For a period of four years commencing with the 2013-2014 academic year and expiring at the conclusion of the 2016-2017 academic year, the NCAA imposes a limit of 15 initial grants-in-aid (from a maximum of 25 allowed) and for a period of four years commencing with the 2014-2015 academic year and expiring at the conclusion of the 2017-2018 academic year a limit of 65 total grants-in-aid (from a maximum of 85 allowed) for football during each of those specified years. In the event the total number of grants-in-aid drops below 65, the University may award grants-in-aid to non-scholarship student-athletes who have been members of the football program as allowed under Bylaw 15.5.6.3.6.

3. A four year ban on playing post-season bowl games.

4. All current players can transfer without eligibility restrictions.

5. Vacating of all wins from the 1998 season to the 2011 season and recorded in the record books. This appears to be completely punitive but IMO fits the transgressions.  This drops Paterno to 5th in all time D1 wins.

The key punishment here as far as playing football goes is the cap of 65 scholarships on the roster starting with the 2104 season and for four years until the 2017 season.  Suffice to say the quality of Penn State football will be down for at least a decade

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Well, it has been an active 24 hours or so, hasn’t it?

The Joe Paterno statue has been removed. Reports swirl of unprecedented sanctions from the NCAA — that Penn State won’t fight — and quickly verbal commits start hedging on their future.

NCAA President Mark Emmert is going to be conducting a press conference this morning at 9am to lay things out on Penn State. This is all uncharted territory, but everything about this Penn State scandal is uncharted territory for college athletics and the NCAA.

Yahoo Sports reported on Sunday, citing two sources, that Mr. Emmert has been able to skip the normal enforcement procedure as part of a provision allowed in the NCAA constitution by getting permission from the NCAA’s board of directors. The board comprises 18 university presidents and chancellors.

Coincidentally, former Penn State president Graham Spanier endorsed the need for swift decisions by the board, like the type it has reportedly taken, at a summit of NCAA presidents last August.

“The board needs to be prepared to take stronger actions directly,” he said.

We’ll all find out in just a short while. Twitter may break on this one.