Blue White Illustrated

BLUE-WHITE GAME PREVIEW | PENN STATE VS. HOUSTON BILLY BALL O'Brien's ar- rival helped the Nittany Lions recov- er. "There's a fresh start at Penn State, " recruiting an- alyst Mike Farrell said. "You've got a new coach, a mostly new staff and a new Penn State. " After a scandalous season, Penn State is regrouping more quickly than anyone expected MOVING FORWARD F 26 ew sports have been more ma- ligned by on- and off-field scandal in recent years than college foot- ball. Some of the giant institutions of the sport – including Miami, Southern Cal, Ohio State, Auburn, Tennessee, North Carolina, Michigan, Georgia Tech and Oregon – have all been marred by al- legations of impropriety. A P R I L 3 0 , 2 0 1 2 N AT E BA U E R | N B A U E R @ B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M Cash payments, prostitutes or free tattoos provided for players, a parent shopping the services of his Heisman Trophy-winning son, recruiting host- esses traveling hundreds of miles to lure top prospects, academic fraud, misbehavior by pro agents and the use of high school football scouts – these are just a few of the transgressions that allegedly took place at some of the na- tion's top football programs. And in many cases, cover-ups and blatant dis- regard for NCAA oversight managed to make matters worse. The morning of Nov. 6, Penn State unexpectedly joined the fray. Joe Paterno's pristine program found it- self not only engulfed in scandal, but in some respects, far beyond the fray – deserved or not. Immediately tied to scrolling ticker updates about a Pennsylvania grand jury investiga- tion into allegations of child sex abuse against former Nittany Lion de- fensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the question of the program's complic- W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M PennStateLive

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