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Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett says he will file a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA in an effort to overturn what he said were "harsh penalties" against Penn State because of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

He's should.

When the NCAA imposed a $60 million fine for the university, along with four-year bowl game ban and the forfeiture of 112 wins for the football program back in July, it totally missed the mark.

The first thing that needed to happen was for each and every person who was either involved in the child molestation case, or had first hand knowledge of and and didn't do everything in their power to bring it to the attention of the proper authorities, be fired and/or arrested.  That for the most part has already happened and the NCAA had nothing to do with it.

Then, the NCAA should have avoided their emotion driven, knee-jerk reaction that led to the bowl ban and forefits of past victories.  The NCAA needed to send a message that this case was far more important than wins and losses, especially involving games that took place a decade ago.  Making the Penn State football program re-write history was a total grandstand play by the NCAA, and had nothing to do with the conduct away from the football field.  Altering the outcome of those games is meaningless.

In that same spirit, the NCAA once again lowered the boom on the same student-athletes it supposedly serves when it slapped a bowl ban on the Nittany Lions.  Not a single player or coach on the current Penn State roster had anything to do with this scandal and yet they are bearing the brunt of the punishment.  Once again, the NCAA's efforts are totally misguided.

As for the money, it is commendable that the NCAA wants to use money from Penn State to go toward child abuse prevention and treatment, but wouldn't it have made more sense to allow the football program to continue to compete without on-field sanctions, and then take whatever profit the program generates, including money from bowl games, and put that toward child abuse?  Given the over the top payouts to college football programs these days, it's safe to say the NCAA might have re-couped far more than the $60 million they're asking for now.

From now on, the NCAA needs to remember why it exists: It is an athletic institution -that's what that first 'A' stands for in N-C-A-A.  What they did here was more self-serving than upstanding.

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