NCAA lawsuit has dark logic

OK, Pennsylvanians, let's see a show of hands: How many of you were harmed by the NCAA's sanctions against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal?

Gov. Corbett says you were, so he's suing the NCAA, which slapped a $60 million fine and a four-year bowl ban on Penn State last summer. Corbett initially accepted the sanctions, but he changed his tune last week, arguing that the penalties "irreparably harm the citizens and the general economy of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania." But Corbett's suit doesn't provide a single piece of evidence to support that claim.

What the complaint does suggest is something much darker: that a Sandusky-style atrocity could have occurred at any number of football-worshipping universities that make coaches into idols. In an attempt to exculpate Penn State, Corbett has actually indicted us all.

As the lawsuit correctly notes, Penn State's football program represents an "important economic engine" for the university and the surrounding community. On game days especially, it supports jobs by generating income for hotels, bars, restaurants, and concessions.

But did the NCAA sanctions choke this powerful economic engine last season? Hardly. True, average attendance at the 107,000-seat Beaver Stadium fell to 96,730, a drop of about 5,000 from 2011. But attendance had been declining every year since 2006, so we don't know if the latest figures had anything to do with the NCAA penalties.

Nor do we know if the sanctions damaged Penn State's status as a "first-class state university," as the lawsuit also alleges. Student applications and alumni donations have held steady since the Sandusky scandal broke.

And even if the university did suffer a blow to its reputation, why should the NCAA be blamed? The NCAA didn't sexually assault 10 children, many of them on Penn State's campus. Nor did the NCAA cover up the crimes committed by former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky. According to a criminal complaint, former president Graham Spanier and two other university officials did that.

Culture of deference

But the NCAA has helped spawn a culture of "deference" to and "reverence" for big-time football, as the organization's consent decree with Penn State describes it. And that brings us to the most astonishing part of Corbett's lawsuit, which admits that Penn State has that culture - and then insists that other schools do, too.

See, the NCAA wants to maximize its "lucrative television and apparel contracts," the suit says. So it promotes the same reverence for athletics programs that it decries in Penn State's case. And you can find that culture at almost any big American university, it claims.

But this "argument" - if it can even be called one - echoes a childhood con: When you get caught stealing a cookie, just say that your sister did the same thing. This is an old whine in a new bottle.

Uniquely horrific

Yes, as the lawsuit notes, a University of Virginia lacrosse player murdered his former girlfriend - herself a varsity lacrosse player - after coaches allegedly ignored his multiple alcohol-related arrests and his attacks on another female athlete. And, yes, the Department of Justice has charged that the University of Montana failed to investigate numerous rape charges against its football players. In neither case, the suit adds, did the NCAA take action against the institutions, even though these and countless other episodes can be attributed to the culture of reverence surrounding big-time sports. "The notion that this phenomenon is in any way unique to Penn State defies credulity," Corbett's lawsuit states.

At Penn State, however, this culture led to uniquely horrific crimes. So Penn State has to pay a bigger price. It's as simple as that.

Suppose you were zooming down a highway well over the speed limit and caused an awful accident. If you told the court that other people were speeding, too, would you get a lighter sentence? Of course not. The better bet would be to plead guilty and beg forgiveness.

To their credit, Penn State officials have done precisely that. And in a statement last week, they said they would continue to comply with the NCAA sanctions.

Not so Corbett. I'll leave it to others to parse the political motives of the governor, who is up for reelection next year. Instead, I'll just quote his lawsuit: "Division I college football is a huge generator of revenue for all participating institutions, and virtually all 'football schools' treat their football coaches and programs with 'deference' and 'reverence.' "

At least the governor got one thing right: What happened in Happy Valley could have occurred in almost any big-time football program. And that might be the saddest part of the story.