Punishment hurts. It's not always fair. But it should have an educational and/or deterrent effect. That's why I think they should cancel the rest of the games. The collateral damage of lost revenues and "but these kids had nothing to do with it" outrage should pale in comparison to the effect of the punishment and the value of the lives of the victims.
See, that's where I disagree - and now it's not a philisophical debate, it is a pragmatic one. I just don't think cancelling the three remaining games will have the punitive impact on the bad guys you expect, nor the positive effect on the victims.
I think it is incredibly difficult to create a deterrent to child sexual abuse. There's a reason we call those who do it "sick fucks", they're not mentally right. They know the consequences already - and choose to act as they do. Sometimes I wonder if we're a little off target using a criminal hammer on a mental health nail. Criminal punishment is about paying one's debt to society, and getting a fresh start - and I just don't think that applies to pedophiles. Criminal concepts such as due process and rehabilitation just slow things down. These people just can't be free. Ever. I guess this is discussion for another time, though.
What we CAN deter is the covering-up of child sexual abuse, and to maybe send a message that yes, it happens, a LOT more than you think - and that thing you saw last week, really WAS what it looked like, and you SHOULD say something. Maybe if Joe Paterno understood that his friend was mentally fucked up, and needed to go somewhere far away from children for the protection of the children he'd abused, and for the protection of himself, this would have played out differently.
I'll admit, there may well be some pretty good rationale for cancelling THIS weeks game, in Happy Valley. There is the fact that the lost revenue punishes the machine that perpetrated these acts and cover-ups, there are legitimate public safety concerns, and it's going to be a media circus. Penn State made this mess, and having them pay a price for it isn't unreasonable.
It's the games in Columbus and Madison that matter to me. Ohio State didn't make this mess (ironic that they have their own mess, but THIS one isn't on them), and Wisconsin seems to have run a relatively clean program. The other consideration is; Just how big a pair of checks would Penn State have to write to Wisconsin and Ohio State as compensation? I don't pretend to know the numbers here, but the loss of one home football game revenue, plus the compensation to two other schools for loss of their home football game revenue might push past the range of "punitive" to Penn State, and closer towards "crippling". The figure would be expressed in fractions of billions of dollars - and I think the aim of any action here is to punish Penn State, not put Penn State out of business.
I reckon that if me and you were the committee for deciding what to do, we'd compromise and cancel this weekend, while keeping the other two games alive. I could live with that.
This all does point out WHY college football is out of hand. There's so much money at stake, that people can't always act as they should. That's not an excuse for covering up rape, but it shows cause for a lot of other acts.
I will note that it bothers me that some in here have so little regard for the people who work their asses off on the non-sport side of event production. That they're dismissed as "hot-dog salesmen" and "bar weiners". They're people, from day labor to skilled professionals, without whom YOU wouldn't have any games to watch - and yes, they matter. I really don't care so much about the actual players, and how hard they worked...they'll be fine, they're working towards something else, and pro scouts will find them if they're good enough. I'm not comparing these people and their importance with the victims of child sexual abuse, I'm just trying to get a little more respect for the work they do.