NCAA restores Paterno’s victories

On Friday, the NCAA reversed yet another one of their controversial sanctions upon Penn State following an investigation of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. This time, the NCAA has decided to restore each of the 112 vacated victories stretching from 1998 to 2011.

With the restoration of his 111 victories (one goes to interim head coach Tom Bradley), former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno is once again the all-time NCAA wins leader with 409 career victories over his 46 year career. The restoration of the victories effectively bumps former Florida State head coach Bobby Bowden down to second place with 377 career victories.

The decision to restore the 112 victories is part of a settlement that the NCAA and Penn State have been working on to avoid a looming trial on the legality of the consent decree that the NCAA used when handing down the sanctions in 2012. The move to restore the victories is the third sanction that the NCAA has taken away as they awarded Penn State a full complement of football scholarships and postseason play. The program was expected to be in a postseason ban until the 2016 season.

The only remaining sanctions that the university is under include providing $60 million towards the state of Pennsylvania as well as not receiving any profit from post-season participation. NCAA president Mark Emmert, who has taken heat for the way he handled the scandal and the sanctions following, commented on the settlement on Friday, saying “We are not at all admitting that we didn’t have the authority to impose the penalties.”

Penn State fans have seen their team go from a national embarrassment to “restoring the roar” to where the program stands today; on the verge of contending in what is quickly becoming one of the top conferences in college football. Penn State fans have one more wish however: return the Joe Paterno statue that was taken down in the summer of 2012 following the scandal. According to rumors, the statue is in storage somewhere on the university’s campus. Will the statue be out front of Beaver Stadium next season? Only time will tell.