Corman's "Total Victory" Didn't Silence Emmert or Reveal The Truth

Senator Jake Corman's claim of a "total victory" over the NCAA is being exposed for what it really was -- a spiking of the football on the one-yard line.

By
Ray Blehar

Today's interview of Mark Emmert was more evidence that Senator Jake Corman's claims of a total victory over the NCAA and the organization's surrender were greatly exaggerated.  

USAToday reported that Emmert called the sanctions levied upon Penn State as "right and appropriate."  

In addition, Corman's "total victory" didn't stop Emmert from continuing to hide the fact that he (and former PSU President Rodney Erickson) manipulated the process to result in the draconian sanctions levied on the PSU football program.  Instead, Emmert insisted that the NCAA Executive Committee (EC) had determined the outcome.

Emmert:  "I remain pleased with where the executive committee wound up in that case." 

NCAA EC Was A Rubber Stamp

Ed Ray and the Puppet-Master

The evidence exposed in the lawsuit revealed that Ed Ray, the head of the NCAA EC, had read neither the Freeh Report nor the language of the NCAA Consent Decree before he voted to approve the sanctions.  In fact, on the day the Freeh Report was issued, Ray contacted Emmert to find out when PSU would answer the NCAA's letter of November 17, 2011.

Unbeknownst to Ray, Penn State informed the NCAA in December 2011 that the Freeh Report would serve as PSU's response.  Other documents obtained from Old Main (in the course of my investigation) revealed that Emmert informed PSU (in January 2012) that he would "wait for Freeh Report."

After Erickson, Karen Peetz, and Ken Frazier publicly accepted the Freeh Report, Emmert and Erickson quickly decided to begin negotiating the penalties in a settlement arrangement.  The deposition of PSU BOT Chair Keith Masser (pages 25 and 26) and an email between Don Remy and Gene Marsh also confirmed that the discussions of a negotiated settlement began on Monday, July 16th --  before the NCAA EC first met to discuss the Freeh Report (on July 17th).  The penalties and the language of the consent decree were finalized before the EC met again on July 22nd.

The evidence revealed that the NCAA runs in a similar manner to the PSU Board of Trustees -- a small group makes the decisions which get rubber stamped during the "official vote."

Corman Complicit In Hiding The Truth

While Corman was right about many things about how the University was unfairly treated by NCAA, the above evidence reveals he cherry picked the facts to make the case that former PSU President Erickson was put in a no-win position by the NCAA.  

Jake's spiking of the ball on the one yard line and declaring"total victory" likely kept the "smoking gun" evidence of Erickson's cooperation with the NCAA from being fully exposed.  To date, correspondence between Freeh, Tomalis, and the NCAA, as well as the source materials used by Freeh, remain heavily protected.  

Had Corman not taken his foot off the throat of the NCAA, there is little doubt that PSU's Alumni-Elected Trustees would not have had to file a lawsuit to see the documents that remain hidden.


In another ironic twist, Corman charged the NCAA with utilizing the same tactics of the PSU Board of Trustees Inner Circle when he stated:  "there was a manipulation of the process to get a quick outcome.”  In essence, Corman was unwittingly making the case that PSU and the NCAA were cooperating.

As the evidence in the Sandusky scandal revealed, from November 2011 forward up until the recent decision to settle with more Sandusky victims, it has been the Inner Circle's modus operandi to manipulate the process and preclude meaningful debate to get to a quick outcome.    

It happened in the removals of Spanier and Paterno.  

It happened in the acceptance of the Freeh Report. 

It happened in the negotiations of the NCAA sanctions against the University.  

And, as stated previously, it happened on April 9th in the decision to settle the pending cases (and avoid discovery) in the civil lawsuits by Sandusky's victims.

Total Victory Was Hollow

In the restoration of Penn State's 112 football victories, statecollege.com lauded Senator Corman as Penn State's "knight in shining armor."   

Emmert still claiming victory

Unfortunately, statecollege.com and the rest of the media continue to report that the Sandusky scandal was about football.  Corman, the so-called "knight," did nothing to change that perception.

The bottom line is that result of Corman's lawsuit was PSU agreed to saddle its football program with $60 million in fines in exchange for 112 victories.  PSU remains penalized by the Big Ten and was required to enter into a new consent decree and Athletic Integrity Agreement with the NCAA

Corman's "total victory" was hollow...and Emmert knows it.