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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI don't think that Penn State is going to get the death penalty
My reasons are thus:
1. At Penn State, football is by far and away the biggest funder fro the sports program. PSU men's basketball may or may not make money, but football certainly does. It funds all the other sports from Men's golf to every women's sport. Every athlete on scholarship depends on football to pay for the scholarship. Every coach in every sport makes the mortgage depending on football. No football, it means layoffs. Who is going to pay for gas for the airplane ride to Lincoln for the conference swimming?
2. Penn State is now 1/12 of the Big Ten. Each of their opponents will have to not have a game if PSU is on the schedule this year.
3. The Big Ten Network makes $8.40 annually from each cable or satellite subscriber. Without PSU that means nobody in Philly, Pittsburg and the whole damn state will want to carry the netwrok since all they got it for is PSU football. The BTN cannot afford to lose the money since it shrinks the pie to each of the member institutions to pay for their athletic departments (not to mention the enormous fucking house that James Delany (head of Big Ten) has.)
The excuse that will be given: not to punish the athletes who are the innocents. Nevermind it just covers up for hundreds of greedy adults, but one cannot lose one's head just because dozens of boys got raped, no?
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Rambis
(7,774 posts)x
MadHound
(34,179 posts)A lot of people are lining up to take a crack at Penn State in civil court, and virtually all of them will walk away with settlements in the tens of millions of dollars.
The insurance company for Penn State's liability insurance is already trying to find an exit so that they don't have to pay out, so that would leave the Pennsylvania taxpayers on the hook. Worse yet, a university legally has to have liability insurance of a certain amount in order to function. No insurance, no university.
So tell me, what insurance company is going to be willing to insure Penn State? Yep, not a single one. No insurance, no university, it's that simple.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)All the bases would be heard without a jury in bankruptcy court. How much is the policy?
MadHound
(34,179 posts)But the question still remains, who is going to provide liability insurance for them? Unless the law is different in PA, if PSU doesn't have liability insurance, they simply can't operate.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)They pool their money into one giant pool, hire lawyers to defend them, invest the pooled money and buy an umbrella policy through Lloyyds for judgments over a certain amount, say $10,000,000. In other words they could self insure. I am not familiar with the need for insurance to have a university but they could self-insure.
lib2DaBone
(8,124 posts)The attorneys are circling like vultures. I knew the school was in dire trouble when it was revealed that ex-FBI director Louis Freeh was hired to gather evidence for the lawsuits.
What Sandusky did was horrific....no doubt .... but the attorneys will suck the lifeblood out of the university and ultimately the State of Pa.
"A shark can smell blood in the water from one mile away"
Are_grits_groceries
(17,111 posts)In addition, they have alums with deep pockets.
PSU will survive as a university.
rurallib
(62,448 posts)And the head of the NCAA loves his money.
sadbear
(4,340 posts)I don't think the NCAA will ever hand out the death penalty again. Too much money lost.
Initech
(100,103 posts)
Johonny
(20,889 posts)If keeps people from asking how many people in the power and money structure knew and actively hide criminal activity. Better to let the vultures eat at the football program for a few years than watch a real criminal investigation go after more than a few sacrificial administrators and a dead football coach.
SDjack
(1,448 posts)future) into a pool. There will likely be a (secret?) settlement in which the victims get paid annually from the receipts of the Athletics Dept. Ticket prices will be hiked to cover the new requirement.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)But I think it will be a one-time payment to the class. It will be secret, as you say.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)You're right about that.
The lawsuits will be settled, probably on a class basis, and probably within the next year or so.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)I don't know pa law but...
Why would you want to keep it quiet? Make them try case after case for years. One builds on the next. In Illinois cases are settled together but in mass torts each plaintiff has a right to a jury trial.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)But it won't happen. All the potential litigants have an interest in bottling the ends - PSU to make it go away quickly, the plaintiffs to get their awards in a timely manner. Nobody is going to drag litigation on this thing out for years as a matter of principle. I also don't think you'll get the dozens or hundreds of potential plaintiffs that some people here imagine. I don't doubt that there are that many victims, mind you, but there will be far fewer who come forward with actual standing. Some not on the criminal charges will be accepted into the class, but it's not going to get much bigger, and pre-2001 victims have a much weaker case against the institution. So, despite much of the hyperbole you'll see here, this thing will be settled inside of the next year, in a class action agreement. The notion that very public litigation will be waged in court over this matter is simply a non-starter. People can dream about it, but it's not going to happen.
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Perhaps I'm showing my ignorance but no such mechanism exists in Illinois law. You can have combined discovery to make it easier on the defendants but each person has a right to their own trial. In fact each case with the unique circumstances make torts bad class action vehicles.
This is federal but imagine a plane goes down somewhere. Suits are filed in NY, New Jersey, Illinois, Florida et al. If the Defendants can get diversity then it goes to the Federal Panel on Multidistrict Litigation. This is kinda like a class action but it just streamlines discovery and trial on the facts (under certain circumstances). It is not a class action.
"Class action" is a term of art and should not be used every time there are a bunch of plaintiffs.
alcibiades_mystery
(36,437 posts)My contention is simple: PSU will settle with all the plaintiffs, probably as a group, negotiating with a group of attorneys. It is in the plaintiffs interest to join in these settlement negotiations to reduce the time to award.
The idea that there will be repeated litigation over the next several years, all getting to trial, is what I'm disputing, as a matter of prediction, of course. My apologies for misusing the term of art.
Now, the substantive suggestion is that there will be additional plaintiffs coming out of the woodwork for the foreseeable future, and each of these will have a strong case, and therefore it will drag on and on. That's certainly a possibility, but I don't see it happening. You'll get the existing victims from the criminal proceedings, and perhaps a few more with strong post-2001 cases, and those will all sit in a room with the PSU people and talk numbers. Each will sign on a dotted line, and the awards will be paid, and that will be the end of it.
taught_me_patience
(5,477 posts)so they'll get a slap on the wrist.
USC got 10 scholarships/yr for 3 years + 2 year bowl ban for one player taking money from a wannabe agent...
therefore Penn State deserves 15 scholarships/year for five years, 3 year bowl ban, and 2 year TV ban...
They'll really get 3 scholarships/yr for 3 years and a stearn talking to.
