is the football team then you're doing something wrong.

“Joe Paterno never cared about records. He cared about taking an 18-year-old boy and making him into a 21-year-old man ready to go out into the world.”

More time for studies now, ya know, the reason you are supposedly there.

who was being molested by Sandusky and whose molestation was being covered up by Paterno wondered "why is this happening to me".
Which is the worse event for someone to endure????

as everyone knows...

I'm stunned...

You're awesome!

Hooray for you.

their life dream of going to Penn State is now somehow dashed.

Wow

You're awesome!

Hooray for you.

this article fails to point out that it is insane to say such a thing.

The most pathetic thing in the exchange is the mother of the girl.

It really is too bad, because they've lost perspective. This might be the best thing that ever happened to them. They might go to a better school and get a better education.

Penn State looks like a toxic place to be right about now. Maybe in 10 years, after lots of hard work to restore its academic ascendency, it will improve. Hope so. But in the meantime, these kids should just look around and see what else is out there...there are business programs in LOTS of other schools these days...

Ohio State
Pitt
Va Tech
Virginia
Maryland

All are big schools with good academics and have had reasonable football success at some level.

It's easily to get state residency there

... concerning the way they have handled accusations of rape by members of the football team. (Theodore Hesburg in 1974: "I didn't need to talk to the girl; I talked to the boys.&quot Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if ND is just another Penn State waiting to happen.

Pity any rape victim who "gets in the way" of a high-school or college football program.

WalMart is always looking for greeters and baggers.

If all you applied for was to go to a football school, you've wasted everyone's time.

That is seriously screwed up. That includes any parents who encourage their kids to do so, or who don't tell their kids that is seriously messed up.

Many people like the big campus/big sports program college experience. Others don't. Many of the schools that have big-time football programs are research universities with quality academics. (e.g. Oklahoma, Alabama, Ohio State)

I've seen people pick schools because the campus was pretty. How is that less screwed up?

If you want to be a vet, but just LOVE the Tarheels and loathe the Wolfpack, you would seriously screwed up to go to Carolina instead of NC State. NC State has one of the best vet programs in the country.

So, yes, that's screwed up.

Sure, you'll learn to like gloves that go to your armpits, but we train very good vets, and we have outstanding football.

I think you pick the college you'll enjoy attending. If you are a 3rd generation Wolfpack hater and your family bleeds Tarheel blue, why go to NC State (or Duke or Wake Forest)? While State might have a very good vet program, it's not exactly like UNC is community college.

See, this is what I mean. I don't get it. It is ridiculous to me. I always root for Carolina in the NCAA, but I also root for all the NC teams, includng App and Asheville and UNCW.

And, Penn State still has a football team!

..although they really should pick Nebraska. Large animal vets are in high demand, but I digress.

Two things:

1) In many places (like Nebraska) the school's football program is a part of the fabric of social life. Husker football becomes the focus of parties and family gatherings. Often, multiple generations of family have gone to the school. I think it's natural that many kids grow up assuming that they'll attend that school as well. In that sense, I don't think most kids pick a football school in a vacuum -- there are other factors.

2) I think there's a big difference in the kinds of schools you look at for graduate programs versus undergraduate programs. Huge percentages of incoming freshman have no idea what they want to do in college. A substantial subset of that group is coming with the idea of a four-year party in which some studying might take place. In many cases, those kids will ultimately transfer to a different school once they get serious about their studies.

..and yes, PSU still has a football team in a big-time conference, and I hope the students will come out and support the rebuilding effort.

Or perhaps the ultimate example of that:

I regret the omission

That was the mindset of quite a few high schoolers I graduated with

And we raised as much hell as they did at Chapel Hill or State!

they do know about the 90,000 drunkards and hot-to-trot sorority girls packing the stadiums on ESPN and CBS every fall....

Yes, Penn State looked the other way while something horrible happened. They got what they deserved as an institution.

However, the kid who grew up wanting the Penn State experience did nothing wrong. Sports and parties are all part of the big school experience right along with exams and studying, and if you grew up in that part of the world, you dreamed of going to Penn State. You dreamed of having those experiences. I understand the disappointment.

The fact that this never goes away for the victims, or that JoPa died before he could get what's coming to him in this world, does not change that it's going to be a long, sad next few years at PSU.

But it is seriously narcissistic to say, "Why is this happening to me?"

I realized most young adults cannot empathize very well yet, but they can be less narcissistic.

if I had graduated last spring and had to enter the job market with a diploma that said "Pedo U" on it. And I would put the blame squarely at the feet of the university.

Wangsting about the football team? Meh.

... more about the football program than he did about the lives of the young boys who were raped by the pedophile coach. Apparently, many, if not most, of the Penn State fans have the same attitude and feel the same way. The football cult trumps decency, ethics, morality, and even the law. If a young person is physically assaulted or raped by a player or a coach, the tribe will rally without fail behind the perp or the perp's protectors and enablers; and the victim will either be victimized again or ignored. When has the opposite ever been true? Victims be damned! Justice be damned! Put that in your pipe and smoke it.

knowing what happened covered it up and did nothing. The message the college was conveying to the students was the college and football is more important than the students.

which part of child rape these kids don't understand.

I wouldn't be consoling my daughter, I would be educating her about child rape.

I can't imagine sending my kid off to Penn State in a couple weeks. OMG.

No way in hell my parents would have allowed me to go.

He'd be having a nervous breakdown over child molesters.

I couldn't go where I really wanted to because it was too far away. That school also didn't have a football team!

A lot of Mizzou fans will not allow their kids to go to kU simply because it's kU

About to start his final semester (yay!!) and has a summer job on campus. He's upset by everything of course. But academically, PSU is still a great school, and this isn't going to change that.

Unless you're a football player, it won't affect you ONE BIT.

I went to a great Big Ten university that has had a shitty football program for 40 years. I went for the education, which was excellent, not the damned football team.

Grow up, fer chrissakes.

Bobby Bell, Carl Eller, Sandy Stephens among others. And the Gophs made the Rose Bowl in '61 and '62. Last conference championship was in '67 but they didn't go to the Rose Bowl as it was a tie and the other team had not been to the RB in a longer time.

Since then, not so much.

I am glad I got a good education there.

The Dragons lose most of their games.

was played in September '83. The Gophers lost 84-13. Believe me the game was nowhere near that close. The Huskers scored three touchdowns in each QUARTER. By the second half they had the third string in and still ran up and down the Metrodome field like it was a track meet.

Whether the 55-0 loss to Iowa in 2008 was worse remains an open topic of debate.

....who would give anything to go to a good school, regardless of the football team, but unlike spoiled little brat Cecile Pastore don't have mommy and daddy's money and pull to coddle them thru life.

I know because that's what I did for grad school, although the academics are impressive as well as this is a top 10 university. In fact, spending several frozen weeks in a tent in line for basketball tickets and eating crappy pizza are some of my fondest memories.

My undergrad alma mater was also the state school that you picked if you (a) loathe the Tar Heels and/or (b) want to be an engineer, architect, vet. For me, both (a) and (b) applied, though I ended up majoring in something else. But again, (a) is athletics-related.

Some people pick schools that have great drama departments or great music departments so that they can complement their studies with activities like acting, playing an instrument or singing. I don't see anything wrong with that.

What I do find sad from this article, though, is that this freshman is totally oblivious to her reason for being there in the first place - academics. Penn State is a great school - football or not. She should be happy she was accepted. I'm sure if she's so devastated, she can let some other qualified applicant take her place.

No, they will (or damn well should) become known as Penn State's years of shame. That's the whole fucking point - these were the years during which the football program systematically covered up child rape.

now imagine getting raped in the lockerroom by one of the coaches, and then get back to me about the loss of central parts of your childhood, adolescence and college days, you fucking selfish, arrogant shitstain.

You go to college to LEARN THINGS. I have nothing but contempt for the idiots that treat college as one long party.

Does Skull & Bones have a chapter at Penn State?

NOTHING.

So she won't be able to see her school go to a Bowl game.

THAT is the extent of her problems.

Perhaps her mother should sit down and talk to her about what is truly important in life.

The football program also funded women's sports. The fines and lawsuits will also divert tens of millions of dollars from the University, which could cause higher tuition, higher fees, and budget cuts.

They had a huge influx of alumni donations since the story first broke. More then enough to pay the fine.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-07-09/penn-state-donations-rise-sandusky-scandal/56115178/1

What, the dream of getting a college education? Maybe she doesn't understand why people go to college?

Which is like twelve different kinds of pathetic.

nt

Time to grow up and grow some empathy for the TRUE Penn State victims, and one of them ain't YOU. And Penn State is still offering classes and graduating students, aren't they? Just what dream has been snatched from the Little Princess, anyway?

Diane
Anishinaabe in MI & mom to Taz, Nigel, and new baby brother Sammy, members of Dogs Against Romney, Cat Division
"Dogs Aren’t Luggage--HISS!”

Then face the horror of what happened on your campus and was covered up by your hero for years.
Future fucking Repug cult members, no doubt. No sympathy for generation zero !

I went to Nebraska from 1995-2000. It was a blast during my freshman year to go to every game, knowing we would win, and just partying with the other students. I loved it in 1997, when we ran down to O Street after the Tennessee game and partied with the mob. It was a great time and I am happy we had such dominating teams during that time.

Yes, I understand that in the grand scheme of things, the bachelors and masters in accouting I got were/are much more important. I also understand I had good times with many other campus events over those years. However, it was damn fun to be a part of those great teams and the partying that surrounded it. It is a part of my college experience I would definately want.

Instead of punishing innocent students, they should have ruled that the University's administrators are not allowed to go to any outside conferences or conventions for 5 years.

After all - the problem was not only the administrators who were charged - it also was other administrators who kept the Dean of Students from enforcing university rules against past football players.

I missing here? How does a diminished football program change that?

I grew up in Philly, and as a kid, every Christmas, my grandparents gave me PSU shirts and sweatshirts. None of them had gone to college. My parents didn't go. But they were going to make sure I went. And I was going to go to PSU.

Now, as things turned out, I did not go to PSU. I went to St Joe. And I was not Catholic. Weird, I know.

But ... I can imagine a kid who has been told by parents and grand parents that they WILL be going to that school, and joining a "great tradition", suddenly realizing that the can not join the same tradition that their family had. Its not like it was a goal she picked in the last few weeks ... she was probably pushed by family to go where they went ... experience PSU, spend entire football games in the parking lot, knowing what happens inside based on the crowd noise (I've done this).

Families are not just connected to PSU, they are connected to MANY universities. And in THIS family, you go to THIS school. Period.

Seems silly, but if this is what you knew from before you were 10, it would be crushing to have it go away when you were 18.

No it does not compare to what Sanduskies' victims faced, but it is part of the fallout.

Kids who did nothing suffer.

And maybe we should let those kids feel their own undeserved pain, and not judge them too harshly.

I have horsed around with kids. I have showered after workouts. I have hugged them and I have touched their leg without intent of sexual contact. So if you look at it that way, there are things that would be accurate.”