Corman urges probes into NCAA role in Penn State case

The NCAA last month gave Joe Paterno his football wins back, but the bronze statue of the coach that for years greeted visitors outside Beaver Stadium remains in seclusion.

And a lot of people think that's wrong, a new poll shows.

Of 1,023 Pennsylvania residents polled by Quinnipiac University, 59 percent said the statue of Paterno with his finger in the air should be restored to a prominent place on Pennsylvania State University's campus. A quarter of those surveyed said it should not.

The poll numbers, released Wednesday, landed on the same morning that the state Senate majority leader repeated his contention that Paterno had been unfairly "scapegoated," criticized the NCAA president, and called for new probes into how the athletic association handled the fallout of the Sandusky sex-abuse case.

Sen. Jake Corman (R., Centre) said he would fire NCAA president Mark Emmert if he could. He also said Congress and the NCAA should investigate a "rush to judgment" against the school and its leaders.

The Quinnipiac poll began Jan. 22 - one week after the NCAA settled a lawsuit by Corman and former state Treasurer Rob McCord by agreeing to restore 112 football victories to Penn State, 111 of them under Paterno. The governing body had stripped the university of the wins as punishment for its role in the scandal.

The wins dated to 1998, when, officials asserted, Paterno and others first saw signs of Sandusky's misconduct and ignored them.

"It appears time heals all wounds and legends get a second chance," said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac poll. "JoePa's tarnished image may never be totally repaired, but Pennsylvanians seem to be in a forgiving mood."

The university fired Paterno as head football coach days after Sandusky, a former assistant coach, was charged with abusing young boys on and off Penn State's campus, despite alleged clues of misconduct over the years. But the report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that blamed Penn State leaders for ignoring or covering up Sandusky's crimes has since been challenged or widely criticized, most recently by new Penn State president Eric Barron.

At his news conference, Corman reiterated his claim that the NCAA overstepped its authority when it revoked the Paterno wins and levied a $60 million fine. He also said Emmert and others were driven by a desire to increase their power and show "they were in charge" in dealings with the NCAA.

Corman said he was making public on his website 4,900 pages of documents collected during his legal battle to force the NCAA to roll back its sanctions. "Our goal has been to bring light to the process," he said.

The NCAA responded quickly, saying Corman was seeking to reap political benefits by keeping the Penn State case in the news.

"It is no coincidence that his political career was simultaneously elevated during a litigation impacting the disbursement of money to child sexual-abuse victims nationwide," Donald Remy, NCAA chief legal officer, said in a statement.

Despite the salvos and the settlement, the university hasn't made any move to bring Paterno's statue back into the open.

Barron, at a news conference last month, declined to say when the time would be right to consider such a move.

Leaders on the board of trustees have been reluctant to honor Paterno while perjury and conspiracy trials related to the Sandusky case are still pending against onetime Penn State president Graham B. Spanier and two former administrators. Paterno, who died in 2012 at age 85, about two months after being fired, was never charged.

Alumni-elected trustee Anthony Lubrano, a longtime Paterno supporter, said on the day the NCAA settlement was announced that he would like to see the statue restored to its original perch.

"As far as I'm concerned, that needs to happen. It needs to happen very quickly," he said at the time.

According to the poll results released Wednesday morning, support to put the statue back was equally strong among men and women, and all age groups.

Nearly two-thirds of those polled also approved of last month's settlement, with 15 percent against it.