First, last and beyond everything else, it was the uniforms: blindingly ascetic white, with no names on the jerseys or insignia on the helmets.
When you saw Penn State on the football field, you saw team spirit and self-abnegation in action. You saw what coach Joe Paterno wanted you to see, which was his nameless players executing his grand design in religious obedience. The Penn State football team was a secular holy order, and because they looked so clean -- and because Paterno made sure they graduated -- he was seen as the pope of college football.
But it was a facade, and those who knew the story from the inside knew that. The program wasn't clean. Paterno wasn't clean. Penn State wasn't clean.
It was a masterpiece of relentless branding, built on a product that wasn't as advertised. It was a fake.
Now, let me note that several of my cousins attended the 45,000-student university. I've visited that mammoth facility that claims to be a leading university. And I know football legend Franco Harris, a smart, considerate, broad-minded guy, a credit to what is known as "The Pennsylvania State University." Franco played football there and then played for my hometown Pittsburgh Steelers, who are almost as dear to me as my family and my friends.
So I take no pleasure in saying that Penn State is a fraud, at least its top leaders certainly were. Louis Freeh's devastating report is an indictment not only of the university, but also of the idea that relentless commercial marketing is the key to success in academic administration or, for that matter, in life.
Before a relentless coach named Paterno arrived in 1950 by way of a football scholarship at Brown, Penn State was a nice enough but not very well-known ag-and-tech institution in State College, a small town in the heavily wooded middle of Pennsylvania. Other schools -- the University of Pennsylvania and Temple in Philadelphia, Pitt and Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh, plus numerous fine liberal arts colleges across the state -- were the mainstays of higher education.
But as the state legislature began pouring money into higher ed, and as Paterno grew his football program along with the university, something else happened: Penn State became a nationally prominent institution. It rose to that fame based on one thing alone, football.
How the university leveraged football into something approximating intellectual prominence is one of the great stories of salesmanship.
But now it stands exposed.
Skeptics have been peeling back the Penn State onion for several years now. In 2008, ESPN calculated that in the previous six years, 46 Penn State football players had faced a total of 163 criminal charges; 27 had been convicted or had pleaded guilty. Why the wave of bad behavior? ESPN said it was because the aging Paterno had had an unprecedented four losing seasons in five years.
The narrative that Freeh lays out makes vivid sense if you see it against the background of a football empire that had come to rest on shaky ground by the late 1990s. Paterno could not afford scandal. The university could not afford scandal. To hell with the raped kids.
And just what did all this fame gain Penn State or the cause of higher education? The school clawed its way from obscurity to mediocrity in the national academic rankings. It convinced the Big Ten Conference, with prestigious schools such as Michigan and Northwestern, to admit Penn State.
But especially for a school of its size and budget -- it has the largest campus in the Northeast and the 10th largest in the country -- Penn State doesn't match its football team's prominence in very many of its myriad classrooms.
I took a look at the U.S. News & World Report rankings to see where the school stood. Its professional schools are barely mediocre: Business ranks 44th, law ranks 76th, medicine is so obscure that I couldn't find it on the published list. The school is in the top rank nationally in only a handful of disciplines: earth sciences, criminology, and industrial and nuclear engineering.
Penn State's other major strength, at least until now, was in several sub-specialties of education: administration and supervision, counseling and personnel, educational psychology, and higher education administration.
The sad irony of these rankings is unbearable.
According to Freeh, the top four officials at the university chose to protect Paterno's football program by allowing Jerry Sandusky, a one-time assistant coach, to rape, fondle and otherwise terrorize defenseless boys over the course of many years.
That, evidently, is "higher education administration," Penn State style.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article said incorrectly that Penn State clawed its way from obscurity to mediocrity in the national football rankings; it was the academic rankings.
Follow Howard Fineman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/howardfineman
Thanks, Howard - you just proved a point. That the endless calls for Penn State's head are based out of petty hatred and have nothing to do with wanting justice for Sandusky's victims.
He disparagingly cites the poor ratings for the academic programs, such as US News & World Report only ranks the Penn State Business School as 44th in the nation. Being a Penn State BS and MBA in Business and familiar with this, I would say 44th is not too bad for the nation, however the polls I have seen in US News & World Report have shown PSU Business School to be in the top 10 for public schools and in the top 20 for all schools, especially for finance and supply chain management. He cites football player problems "27 had been convicted or had pleaded guilty", but this was over a period on 6 years, so this is like less than 5 per year. How does this compare to other large schools' football programs? I do not know, but I suspect very favorably. He does not say either but uses it to condem PSU.
I usually do not comment on media releases but this one was too egregious to pass. This was opinions stated as truthes supported by unsubstantiated facts pander to the gullible public in the pursuit of ratings.
This is a sad commentary on modern professional journalism.
http://www.gopsusports.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/121211aah.html
PennState football team has earned the top spot in fifth annual Academic BCS rankings, determined by New America Foundation's Higher-Ed Watch, which ranked teams in final 2011 BCS standings & determined PennState has #1 academic program with 117 points, followed by BoiseState (107), TCU (101) & Stanford (100).
Academic BCS compares data on team graduation rates University academic progress rates to performance of other teams, as well as general student body. The results are a look at how the schools in BCS Top 25 would stack up if academics determined a team's BCS ranking. Four NCAA and federal graduation rates and team's APR are factored to determine its point total.
PennState & Stanford are tied for top Graduation Success Rate at 87%, among teams ranked in Dec 4th BCS Top 25 rankings, according to data released by NCAA.
Nittany Lion football student-athletes enrolled from 2001-04 earned superlative GSR of 87%, tied with Stanford for #10 overall among nation's 120 FBS institutions. Penn State's 87% GSR was significantly higher than 67% FBS average & was second to Northwestern (94) among BigTen Conference institutions, according to NCAA.
PennState football student-athletes that enrolled in the University from 2001-04 earned a strong four-year federal graduation rate of 80%, also #2 to Northwestern (86) among BigTen squads. The Nittany Lions' 80%graduation figure was 24%above the 56%FBS average, according to NCAA.
Has the author considered that perhaps there might be other factors driving the rise of prominence of Penn State (and other institutions like it) as an institute of higher learning? I would think that campus setting (the relative attractiveness of the "college town" over an urban setting for some students), changes in the transportation network (making travel from the cities and inner suburbs to a rural campus a reality), student access to college loans and grants, a university's ability to attract and retain top instructors, and the earning power of graduates (in relation to other schools) would all play much greater roles than mere athletics.
Also, I take some satisfaction from the fact that Penn State's fledgling law program is already held in higher esteem than the University of Louisville (where Mr. Fineman received his JD). But I guess that's because of relentless branding, right?
football helped to turn a cow college into a major university.
they had the lion by the tail and couldn't let go.
One more item that discredits your article: you refer to Franco Harris as a conservative. What in the world does his political leaning have to do with anything, except to point out your obvious bias. Even a Penn State grade could figure out that.
I'm sure Penn is all that you say. But I find it hard not to believe the author is just pulling stuff out of the air. Certainly there must be some truth to what he has written....no?
Furthermore, Penn State does owe it's previous stature to the football program. Let's face it, part of the reason people are lured to a college has everything to do with the prominence of the school. Prominence that is perpetuated by it's athletic programs and the marketing that gives it the polish to attract academia's from around the world.
I get it....this whole debacle stings. No one would have guessed within a year a well respected college like Penn State would have had such a cataclysmic fall, least of all the students. My sympathy is with you.
There can be no denying that this will run it's course and the less the students and supporters of the school do to provoke the better. As long as the media glare is there, laying low and waiting for this to blow over is all you can and should do. The media lies in wait for any sign of chest thumping to feed to the masses. Don't give it to them.
By the way, congratulations Mr. Fineman. You went to the prestigious Colgate. I thought it was a toothbrush brand, but apparently it is the 21st ranked liberal arts college. You are apparently a very accomplished writer, but you did not use your talents whatsoever in this article.
Some rank the Huffington Post as rank.