NCAA To Slowly Ease Penn State Sanctions

Twenty-two months  after the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal, and fourteen months after the NCAA gave Penn State unprecedented sanctions the NCAA has decided to slowly ease the Penn State sanctions starting with the scholarship limit.

According to an NCAA official press release the NCAA will begin to restore Penn State’s scholarship limit over the next three seasons. Before the press release earlier today Penn State would have been only able to have 65 players under scholarship, now Bill O’Brien and his coaching staff will have the comfort of having ten more scholarships out on the recruiting trail and a total of 75 players under scholarship . In 2015, the scholarship limit will be raised to 80 players under scholarship. In 2016, Penn State will have the luxury of 85 players under scholarship which is the NCAA maximum for any college football program.

The NCAA opened it’s press release today with the following statement, ” Due to Penn State University’s continued progress toward ensuring athletics integrity, the NCAA Executive Committee is gradually restoring football scholarships the university lost because of sanctions more than a year ago. These changes were endorsed by the Division I Board of Directors and based on the recommendation of George Mitchell, the independent Athletics Integrity Monitor for Penn State and former U.S. Senator. “

Penn State’s independent Athletics Integrity Monitor and former U.S Senator George Mitchell stated the following ““While there is more work to be done, Penn State has clearly demonstrated its commitment to restoring integrity in its athletics program, The university has substantially completed the initial implementation of all the Freeh Report recommendations and its obligations to the Athletics Integrity Agreement, so relief from the scholarship reductions is warranted and deserved.”

Penn State head coach Bill O’Brien commented on the restoration of the sanctions with “”Obviously we’re able to sign some more guys and have a roster of 75 scholarship players next year,” he said. “So things will change, and we’ll see how things go. “We’re happy right now for our players. … They’re a resilient bunch of kids.”

The next question surrounding Penn State and their sanctions is if there is a possibility of a postseason ban reduction. Currently, Penn State is in their second year of a four year bowl ban. NCAA president Mark Emmert did comment on the bowl ban by saying “not in anyone’s mind” referring to the possibility of Penn State being declared bowl eligible this season. Though there may be consideration for more possible reductions next August or September.

Though it seems as Mark Emmert, believes that PSU could still have a culture problem as he would not answer any “culture problem” questions and bounced them to Mitchell who commented on Penn State’s culture saying “Penn State has undertaken a major effort on the issue of culture. ”

Dylan Callaghan-Croley currently covers Penn State and Fantasy Football for TotalSportsLive, he also covers the Eagles for  TheGreenPheed.com as well as the Phillies for Phielderschoice.com. He also covers the Philadelphia Flyers fo PHLSportsNation.com. Currently a junior in high school, he is looking forward to attending college for a business degree while possibly minoring in journalism.