Thanks to the Corman lawsuit, the NCAA has reached an agreement to allow Penn State to divide the 60 million dollars that was a large part of the initial sanctions to various child sexual abuse charities throughout the state of Pennsylvania. They have also officially entered into an Athletics Integrity Agreement, which will keep Senator George Mitchell around at Penn State to continue to help enforce the university's athletic programs in regards to ethics and integrity. The previously vacated wins by Penn State's football team from 1998-2011 have also officially been reinstated.
The easy reaction to this is, "THE WINS ARE BACK, JOE IS OFFICIALLY THE WINS LEADER AMONG COLLEGE COACHES AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!". While it is nice to see wins restored that probably shouldn't have been taken away in the first place, that's not what's most important here. Giving Penn State the power to send a huge amount of money to child sexual abuse charities all over Pennsylvania is the best thing the NCAA could have done in all of this. There are so many different centers and services in need, and allowing PSU to directly donate to them will make for a much simpler and effective process. While there is no doubt that the NCAA would have done its part and seen that the money made it to the right places, there's no telling how long that could have taken with an organization on the scale of the NCAA.
As president of South Carolina and member of the NCAA Board of Governors Harris Pastides said, "Continuing this litigation would further delay the distribution of funds to child sexual abuse survivors for years, undermining the very intent of the fine."
The NCAA's initial plan had changed to moving the money to a state endowment to keep it within Pennsylvania, but it still would have taken a much longer time to distribute it than it will now.
The Athletics Integrity Agreement is a nice touch to the agreement, and sounds like it will simply cause for Penn State to continue their high standards for maintaining an athletics department that values education and ethics. Senator George Mitchell shared his thoughts on the new agreement, as well.
I am pleased to learn that financial resources to help child sexual abuse survivors will soon become available. I remain impressed with Penn State's progress to date and look forward to its many reforms and improvements continuing to take root.
Finally, the wins. Joe Paterno's (and Tom Bradley's) wins have officially been restored, and Paterno will once again be credited for winning 409 games in his Penn State career. While this is more a victory for the Paterno family than anything else (and it will surely lead to more outrage from various fan bases), it's still nice, as a Penn State alumnus, to see part of the school's history restored.
The day will never come that we will forget Jerry Sandusky's victims. Hopefully Penn State can continue to provide them with whatever aid they can. Thankfully, they can also now provide programs in Pennsylvania who deal with such horrors the financial means to make a difference.
To sum everything up, let's hear from Kansas State president and chair of the NCAA Board of Governors, Kirk Schulz.
Today's agreement with Penn State reaffirms our authority to act. The NCAA has a legitimate role when a member's actions threaten the integrity of college sports. We acted in good faith in addressing the failures and subsequent improvements on Penn State's campus. We must acknowledge the continued progress of the university while also maintaining our commitment to supporting the survivors of child sexual abuse.