Not reporting child rape to the authorities will not place in peril Paterno’s national titles, Big Ten championships or those 24 bowl wins he garnered over four decades. It doesn’t work that way. It hasn’t worked that way. There is no precedent for it. Let’s take a look back in history shall we.
Louisville head basketball coach Rick Pitino admitted in 2009 to an extramarital affair six years earlier and said he had paid for the woman to have an abortion. The woman, Karen Sypher, was charged with extortion for demanding $10 million from Pitino. There were calls for Pitino to be fired. He wasn’t. The NCAA never reprimanded Slick Rick or the Cardinals basketball program either.
Pitino still is able to hold onto all of his 526 wins.
The only other case that rivals the Penn State sex abuse saga was the horrific Baylor basketball scandal. It involving everything, including murder.
Former Bears basketball player Patrick Dennehy was found dead in 2003, after he had gone missing for a month. His then teammate, Carlton Dotson, was eventually charged and pleaded guilty to killing his friend.
An investigation then uncovered drug use by several players and illegal payments made to players to the tune of $7,000 — a serious NCAA violation. Then head coach Dave Bliss was fired and barred from coaching under a 10-year show-clause order for what the NCAA called “a blatant and sweeping disregard” of rules.
After Bliss was exiled, it was revealed that he had told players to make up a story about Dennehy being a drug dealer in order to pay for his tuition. The tale was intended to serve as a cover-up for Bliss paying Dennehy’s tuition. The school imposed penalties on itself and the NCAA placed the basketball team on probation, and eliminated one season of non-conference play.
It was the harshest punishment a school could receive short of the death penalty. Yet, every single win Bliss tallied while at Baylor (61) were not touched by the NCAA.
