Ncaa Sanctions

Central Florida basketball coach Donnie Jones said Wednesday that although he's still digesting the sanctions handed down this week by the NCAA for major recruiting violations, he's optimistic about his program going forward. Jones said the school has said it intends to appeal only the football program's one-year postseason ban. All penalties - including the 2013 postseason ban for basketball - are being reviewed by UCF officials. An NCAA bylaw also allows UCF seniors for both programs the opportunity to transfer and play immediately, since eligibility limits won't allow them to do so again if they were to stay.

CHICAGO — On Thursday, first-year Penn State coach Bill O'Brien, who'd spoken with beat reporters via a conference call on Tuesday and could be heard live on ESPN's "Mike and Mike in the Morning" show Wednesday, will make his first appearance at the Big Ten's annual 2-day preseason mediafest. On Friday, three of his players were supposed to do the same. At least according to the news release that had gone out on July 11. The same one that called this a prestigious event. Anyway, on Wednesday morning the word went out that senior defensive lineman Jordan Hill, junior running back Silas Redd and junior guard John Urschel will not join O'Brien here.

Pennsylvania State University's board of trustees will hold a special meeting Sunday to ratify the sanctions imposed by the NCAA because of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, a university spokesman said. The planned meeting follows attempts to appeal the sanctions by a trustee and by former Penn State football players and a past assistant coach. University spokesman David La Torre said the board would hold a conference-call meeting at 5 p.m. solely to consider ratification of the NCAA consent decree on the sanctions that the university accepted.

As the University of Minnesota men's basketball team left the floor after defeating Georgia, 66-65, on Dec. 28, the barbs started flying out of the Georgia Coliseum stands. "Probation, probation, probation," chanted the student hecklers. "Where are you playing in March?" one fan yelled at the Golden Gophers as they walked from the floor. J.B. Bickerstaff, Minnesota's junior forward, shook his head and smiled. "We'd better get use to it," said the son of former NBA head coach Bernie Bickerstaff, "because we're going to hear it all year.

STATE COLLEGE - Penn State trustees took no formal vote but the vast majority of members voiced support Sunday for the university president's acceptance of tough penalties imposed by the NCAA over the university's handling of its child molestation scandal. Board chairwoman Karen Peetz told fellow trustees during a Sunday evening conference call that the panel could not vote because 10 days' notice of the meeting was required, an objection two members raised at the outset of the call.

Organizers have canceled the "Rise and Rally Bowl," a three-day celebration involving Penn State's senior football players that was scheduled to be held next month in Atlantic City. In a statement released Tuesday night, the organizers said they decided to cancel the Jan. 5-7 festivities because the Maxwell Football Club of Philadelphia is set to honor the seniors at its annual awards dinner March 1 at Harrah's in Atlantic City. "In this economic environment, it is difficult for many fans to attend both events," the statement said.

Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien received oral commitments during the weekend from three high school recruits, according to several recruiting websites. One came from a linebacker who had backed out of his commitment. Zayh Issah, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound linebacker from Central Dauphin High in Harrisburg, committed to Penn State on June 29, less than a month before the NCAA sanctions were assessed. He withdrew his commitment on Sept. 7 but reinstated it after O'Brien hosted visits for recruits on Saturday.

More than four in 10 adults in Pennsylvania say the NCAA punished Penn State too severely over its handling of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, according to a new poll. Forty-four percent of Pennsylvania adults view the NCAA penalties as too severe, 33 percent call them appropriate and 14 percent say they're not tough enough, according to a Quinnipiac University/CBS News/New York Times poll released Thursday. Opposition to the NCAA sanctions rose above 50 percent among Pennsylvania residents with Penn State ties.

Chip Kelly is used to dealing with a hands-on owner. If anything, Kelly may find Jeffrey Lurie hands-off. There is no doubt that University of Oregon football had an owner. Phil Knight isn't just the CEO of Nike. He may as well have that title for Oregon athletics. He reportedly has spent at least $300 million on sports at the school. Michael Rosenberg reported in a 2011 Sports Illustrated story how Knight can put on a headset in his luxury suite during Oregon home football games and listen live as the Ducks coaches call plays.

OK, Pennsylvanians, let's see a show of hands: How many of you were harmed by the NCAA's sanctions against Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal? Gov. Corbett says you were, so he's suing the NCAA, which slapped a $60 million fine and a four-year bowl ban on Penn State last summer. Corbett initially accepted the sanctions, but he changed his tune last week, arguing that the penalties "irreparably harm the citizens and the general economy of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

Gov. Corbett said Thursday that his thinking evolved over time regarding a series of NCAA-imposed sanctions against Pennsylvania State University and that he decided in late October that he would sue the organization. His remarks, in a series of television and radio interviews, came a day after his office filed an unprecedented federal antitrust lawsuit seeking to overturn those punishments by college sports' governing body and months after he urged Penn State to "accept the serious penalties" without argument.

The politically charged decision by Gov. Corbett to mount a late, rearguard legal attack over collegiate sports' harsh punishment of Pennsylvania State University seems unlikely to help the university - or the state as a whole - move beyond the school's scandalous sheltering of convicted sexual predator Jerry Sandusky. The antitrust suit Corbett filed Wednesday - which challenges the National Collegiate Athletic Association's $60 million university fine, four-year postseason football ban, cuts to athletic scholarships, and other penalties - sends the wrong message.

CONFUSION was our initial reaction to Gov. Corbett's decision to sue the National Collegiate Athletic Association over the sanctions it imposed on Penn State following the Sandusky scandal. We were confused because Corbett the governor, who was once Corbett the attorney general, is also Penn State trustee Corbett, and those NCAA sanctions were accepted by PSU trustees quickly after the NCAA issued them in July. And although it's permissible for the governor to bring such a suit and not the attorney general, it is very unusual.

No one can say that 2012 was an easy year for the Penn State football program. The fallout from the Jerry Sandusky child sexual-abuse scandal continued. Within a one-month period, Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts; Penn State officials such as coach Joe Paterno and president Graham B. Spanier were implicated in the damning report of the commission chaired by former FBI director Louis Freeh; and the NCAA issued crushing sanctions that included a four-year bowl ban, scholarship limitations, a $60 million fine, and the elimination of 112 wins.

Organizers have canceled the "Rise and Rally Bowl," a three-day celebration involving Penn State's senior football players that was scheduled to be held next month in Atlantic City. In a statement released Tuesday night, the organizers said they decided to cancel the Jan. 5-7 festivities because the Maxwell Football Club of Philadelphia is set to honor the seniors at its annual awards dinner March 1 at Harrah's in Atlantic City. "In this economic environment, it is difficult for many fans to attend both events," the statement said.

Penn State football coach Bill O'Brien received oral commitments during the weekend from three high school recruits, according to several recruiting websites. One came from a linebacker who had backed out of his commitment. Zayh Issah, a 6-foot-3, 220-pound linebacker from Central Dauphin High in Harrisburg, committed to Penn State on June 29, less than a month before the NCAA sanctions were assessed. He withdrew his commitment on Sept. 7 but reinstated it after O'Brien hosted visits for recruits on Saturday.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. - Even in South Florida's suffocating heat, Al Golden's trademark at Temple remains the stylish staple of his sideline attire. Not only that, legions of University of Miami fans, led by a foursome self-dubbed the "Fear The Tie Guys," show up at games dressed as clones of the Hurricanes' second-year coach - solid orange or orange-and-green striped necktie with a white, button-down shirt. Others sport a white T-shirt with an orange tie screen-printed on the front, as the most prized recruit of Golden's career, running back Duke Johnson, did at his National Signing Day ceremony in February.

It was the Monday after the NCAA sanctions hit, and Tom Hailey had just arrived at a Christian convention. And then his phone started ringing. The first caller was a coach from Clemson. "Once my phone rang once, it rang five to seven more times right after that," said Hailey, the head football coach at Steelton-Highspire High School. "UMass, Connecticut - you name it. They all said, 'Once you hear anything, let me know.' " They were all inquiring about a former player of Hailey's: defensive tackle Jordan Hill, one of the Nittany Lions' top talents.