NEW YORK — Penn State’s football team’s postseason ban was lifted Monday by the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which said the school has made significant progress toward ensuring its athletic department functions with integrity.
The NCAA imposed unprecedented sanctions on Penn State in 2012 in the aftermath of the child sex-abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The school’s punishment included a $60 million fine and a four-year ban on postseason football games.
After being ineligible for postseason play the past two years, the NCAA said Monday the Nittany Lions would be permitted to play in a bowl game after this season. The State College, Pennsylvania, school will get back its full complement of 85 football scholarships in 2015-16.
“I am gratified for the student-athletes who have remained resilient, committed and dedicated to Penn State during the past three years,” Penn State Athletic Director Sandy Barbour said in a statement.
The Big Ten Conference also said in a statement Penn State is eligible to play in this season’s league championship game.
The Nittany Lions are in their first season under head coach James Franklin, who was hired from Vanderbilt in January after Bill O’Brien left to join the National Football League’s Houston Texans.
“We are very appreciative of the opportunities the NCAA and Big Ten have provided,” Franklin said. “This team plays for each other. We play for Penn State, our families, the former players, our students, alumni, fans and the community.”
Penn State had records of 8-4 and 7-5 under O’Brien, whose tenure followed a 46-year coaching run by Joe Paterno that included two national championships.
The football team followed a 26-24 win over Central Florida in Ireland on Aug. 30 with a 21-3 home win against Akron two days ago in its second game this season. The Nittany Lions next play at Rutgers University on Sept. 13.
Monday’s decision follows recommendations by former Sen. George Mitchell, D-Maine, the university’s athletics oversight monitor, in his latest report.
“Penn State’s commitment to the integrity of its athletics department and its progress toward meeting the requirements of the Consent Decree are clear,” said Northern Arizona President Rita Hartung Cheng, who led today’s NCAA executive committee meeting.
Mitchell briefed the executive committee, NCAA Division I board of directors and presidents from the Big Ten schools on his work and Penn State’s efforts before the vote to lift the sanctions. Penn State President Eric Barron said the actions taken Monday by the NCAA are a “recognition of the hard work of many over the past two years” to make the school stronger.
If Penn State continues to make impressive progress at the conclusion of the 2015 report, Mitchell has suggested his oversight conclude substantially earlier than 2017, as planned in the original agreement between the NCAA and Penn State.
“Penn State has made remarkable progress over the past year,” said University of South Carolina President Harris Pastides, a member of the Division I board. “The board members and I believe the executive committee’s decision is the right one. It allows both the university and the association to continue to move toward a common goal of ensuring that educating, nurturing and protecting young people is a top priority.”
The $60 million fine, vacating of wins from 1998 through 2011 and five-year probation originally imposed by the NCAA will remain in effect, as will the monetary fine equal to Penn State’s Big Ten bowl revenue share during that period.
The NCAA sanctioned Penn State after a July 2012 report by former Federal Bureau of Investigation Director Louis Freeh said top school officials failed to protect children from Sandusky.
The former coach, who retired in 1999, was sentenced to at least 30 years in prison for abusing boys and the scandal led to the firings of Paterno, who died in January 2012, and university President Graham Spanier.
The initial punishment called for the NCAA to review the sanctions after two years.
The NCAA revisited some earlier than that, giving back five football scholarships in September 2013 after Mitchell noted the school’s progress. He suggested the modifications at that time focus on scholarships because that would most directly affect the athletes.