MWB wrote:Rocco wrote:http://deadspin.com/5928267/penn-state-could-have-fought-the-ncaa-and-won
This obviously excludes the PR analysis that trumped legal analysis, but it's nice to see smarter legal minds mine agreeing with me.
Also, as to his last point about the B1G possibly walking out- the NCAA is held together right now on duct tape and promises. There's nothing stopping the big conferences from bailing and starting their own league where they don't share the money with the crap conferences. IIRC, nobody wants to be the first one to bail. If the B1G left, the rest would follow.
I just don't see how that really benefits PSU, big picture. Yes, they've got legal ground to stand on, but at what bigger cost? I think that PR angle is the bigger cost, which is a huge reason they went with the deal. As the last line of the article says, "[I]t's hard to take a stand on principle when youre being punished for facilitating serial child molestation."
From a legal perspective, signing the Consent Decree is an admission of guilt that essentially exposes them to liability in any civil and criminal proceedings. Now, if the plan is to just fall on the sword when the Feds and victims come calling and write them all very large checks, that doesn't matter a whole lot. After admitting guilt though they don't have any other options. (As I tell clients, if you want to cooperate with the police, you can, but you might as well tell them everything because once you tell them anything we're not going to be able to fight the charges and the only thing you will have going for you is your cooperation.)
I agree that there wasn't a good choice, and it was practically impossible for the BOT to reverse this once the news came out. Had Erickson gone to the board first I'm not sure the same outcome would have occurred.