SB Nation's Bud Elliott describes the impact of the newly-announced sanctions on Penn State for the institution's behavior during the Jerry Sandusky scandal, focusing specifically on recruiting, where the NCAA's punishment will be strongly felt.
↵↵↵This is an enormous penalty. It's more severe than the penalty received by USC. It will almost certainly cripple Penn State and make the Nittany Lions the worst team in the Big Ten. Penn State will likely not have a roster of 85 recruited, scholarship players until 2018 at the earliest.
↵Already, Penn State cornerback Ross Douglas has decommitted from Penn State according to multiple reports. This follows a decommitment from star defensive tackle Greg Webb on Sunday.
↵Star tight end Adam Breneman, long the glue that had been holding the class together, offered a no comment on the situation.
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Yikes. The comment about Penn State becoming the worst team in the Big Ten as a result of these sanctions is particularly telling. Not that we didn't expect the program's punishment to be severe, but seeing it all in concrete terms like this makes it abundantly clear that its impact upon the team will be enormous -- it will directly impact the program's maneuverings for the rest of this decade, and will almost certainly have powerful indirect impacts beyond that.
↵For more on Penn State football, check out Black Shoe Diaries.