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more important than beating Ohio State. Penn State hasn���t exactly been batting 1.000 lately, but this is one major decision it can���t afford to get wrong. The other place where the fault lines meet is at NCAA headquarters, where president Mark Emmert is continuing to catch flak. Penn Staters who read the recent series on Emmert in USA Today likely did so with puffs of cartoon smoke coming out of their ears. There were allegations that he covered up problems in a massive construction project at the University of Connecticut, presided over a deliberately slipshod investigation into academic fraud in the LSU football program and helped create a culture of football worship at LSU and Washington by championing big salaries for head coaches. If you believe those charges, Emmert was doing a lot of the things that he attacked Penn State for doing when he handed down the sanctions last summer. In the face of heavy criticism ��� criticism that has only been amplified in the wake of the botched Miami investigation ��� he has insisted that the NCAA made the right call in hammering Penn State. ���We���re confident in the decisions that we made,��� Emmert recently said in an ESPN Radio interview. ���The facts were the facts, and we operated on those. I guess if somebody were to come forward with a whole new set of facts, that would change the world. But otherwise, we���re comfortable with where we are and know that we did it the right way.��� Well, OK. But if the facts are subject to potential revision at some future date, are they really facts? What if something were to come up at the trial of Tim Curley, Gary Schultz and Graham Spanier that changes our understanding of the conversation between Curley and Paterno that the Freeh report says was instrumental in the decision not to report Sandusky to the authorities? Then what? What if it turns out that Penn State officials knew less than we think they knew? The NCAA could abandon the bowl ban, the scholarship reductions and the fine, but it would have no way of compensating the school for the bowls it would have already missed, the attendance it would have lost and the scholarships it didn���t give out. That���s why the verdict generally comes after the trial. Of course, in order for Penn State supporters to pursue this line of attack they will, at some point, have to come up with some facts of their own. The Paterno report sifted through evidence that was already in the public record and drew conclusions that were more favorable to the former coach than those contained in the Freeh report. And Ziegler? His revelation that Victim 2 denies he was assaulted in the shower in 2001 conflicts with Mike McQueary���s sworn testimony. These assertions may or may not be worthy of consideration, but ultimately, they are assertions, not facts. They aren���t going to persuade the public or convince the NCAA to re-examine its sanctions. When facts are in dispute, everyone retreats to their familiar positions. And in Penn State���s case, those positions have been fixed for nearly a year. So where is all this headed? My guess is that the anger that���s coursing through Penn State���s fan and alumni communities right now will slowly dissipate over the next few years. The dejection that people are feeling as the scholarship reductions start to take effect will eventually give way to anticipation as the end of this long, dark tunnel comes into view. Might take a couple of years. Might take more than a couple. But normalcy will return, and Penn State will rekindle the championship aspirations that have driven the program for more than a century. As for Paterno, if you love and respect the guy now, chances are you���ll still love and respect him in a few years��� time. And if you think he had a hand in formulating a disastrous policy, you���ll still think he had a hand in formulating a disastrous policy. Does that sound anticlimactic? Undramatic? Well, maybe it is. But life isn���t always like the movies. www.AmericanAleHouse.net 821 Cricklewood Drive, Toftrees State College Now in 2 Locations

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