NCAA Fines Penn State $60 Million, Four-Year Bowl Ban + More Penalities In Wake Of Sandusky Scandal

The NCAA announced the sanctions on Penn State earlier this morning, and though the university didn't get hit with the 'death penalty' - their punishment was still a stiff one. NCAA President Mark Emmert and Ed Ray, the chairman of the NCAA's executive committee and Oregon State's president, revealed that Penn State will be fined $60 million, banned from any postseason play for the next four years, and must vacate all wins dating back to 1998.

The career record of Joe Paterno will reflect the vacated records from 1998-2011, which will drop him from 409 wins to 298. In addition to erasing six bowl wins and two conference championships, the vacated wins will drop Paterno from the most winningest NCAA football coach in history, to #12 on that list.

Penn State will also be forced to reduce 10 initial and 20 scholarships per year for a four-year period. Emmert said that in this particular case surrounding Penn State, the results were "perverse and unconscionable."

No price the NCAA can levy with repair the damage inflicted by Jerry Sandusky on his victims," he said, referring to the former Penn State defensive coordinator convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse last month.

[via ESPN]

The entire Penn State athletic program will also be under a five-year probation and must work with an athletic-integrity monitor, to be chosen by the NCAA. The NCAA also said the $60 million fine was equivalent to the average annual revenue of the Penn State football program, and ordered the university to put the fine toward external programs that prevent child abuse and assist victims, unrelated to the school.

Former Penn State coach Jerry Sandusky, is currently awaiting sentencing after being convicted last month of sexually abusing 10 boys over the course of 15 years. Reports by former FBI director Louis J. Freeh revealed that former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno, and three other top Penn State administrators, hid allegations of child sexual abuse made against Sandusky to shield the university and its football program from any negative publicity.

Joe Paterno, who won 409 games in his 46 seasons as head coach died in January 2012, shortly after Sandusky's child abuse scandal went public and he was dismissed from Penn State. His iconic statue was removed from outside Beaver Stadium this weekend.

You can read even more details on this Penn State scandal and its fallout now at ESPN.