Penn State

It was said to see the students of Penn State riot because their football coach was fired for failure to do the right thing when he was informed that a 10 year old boy was raped by his assistant coach. The students by rioting validate the reasoning that was used by all of the university officials, who have since been let go, that the football team and the image of the university was more important than stopping criminal activity. Big time college football gets a pass on crime as it is. It simply mystifies me how a large amount of the student body could come out in support of this type of criminal behavior. Contrary to what the goal of the administrators and coaches to limit damage to the football team and the university the investigation and the subsequent "protests" have caused irreparable harm to the university. The university will now be remembered as the school where football is king and that the law doesn't matter as long as there is a winning season. Instead of protesting the firing of a high paid (look at what professors who actually teach earn) football coach they should have been in the streets celebrating that firing and working to shield the school's academic programs.

All Big Ten universities survive on federal research grant money not football, however at Penn State they may have to start living on their football revenues. The federal government is investigating whether laws were broken and the penalty will be the loss of those federal dollars. We are talking potentially millions and that will be the true damage to the university.

Finally, the crime has got to hurt recruiting of the non-athlete, non-fan because the university has shown that football is number one and that they don't care about their students, potential students, or the greater community.