Penn State penalties: $60 million fine, 4-year bowl ban

July 23, 2012 - 10:35 am | Category: Sports

The NCAA on Monday hit Penn State with a $60 million fine, banned the football team from bowl games for four years and vacated all of its wins from 1998 to 2011 in the wake of the university’s child sex abuse scandal.

At a morning news conference, NCAA president Mark Emmert said Penn State will lose 10 football scholarships initially and gradually be reduced by another 10, dropping their total to 65 for the 2013-14 school year.

The $60 million in fines will go toward a fund for victims of child abuse. Penn State also will be placed on probation for five years.

The Big Ten has scheduled a teleconference for 10 a.m. CT to announce conference sanctions.

All of Penn State’s victories from 1998 through 2011 will be vacated. Coach Joe Paterno’s record will reflect the vacated victories, meaning he no longer will be recognized as the NCAA’s all-time winningest coach.

Paterno won 409 games in 46 seasons as Penn State’s coach. The vacated wins remove 111 victories from his total, dropping it to 298 and leaving him well behind new leader Eddie Robinson of Grambling (408 wins). Former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden now leads the list of FBS coaches with 377.