NCAA failure to give Penn State football the 'death penalty' means its football program can collect $20.7 million per year in TV cash

Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News acidly observed:

     While Jerry Sandusky was out raping boys, it’s not a reach to suggest Joe Paterno and his lackeys covered for him not only to protect the image of Penn State football, but to make sure the TV loot would continue flowing into the program.

     ESPN has a 10-year deal with the Big Ten worth $1 billion. The Big Ten Network pays the conference $2.8 billion under terms of a 25-year contract, while Fox pays the Big Ten $145 million in a six-year deal for the conference championship game. In its six-year deal, CBS pays the conference $72 million.

     This is a staggering amount of dough. Penn State would not have been able to collect its share if the NCAA had suspended the football program for a season or two.

A refresher from Wikipedia on the five times the NCAA has lowered the (ultimate) boom on college athletic programs, all for less egregious conduct than covering up ongoing child rape in the campus athletic department showers for more than a decade:

1. The University of Kentucky basketball program for the 1952–53 season. (Point shaving scandal; 3 players took bribes and another perjured himself about it.)
2. The basketball program at the University of Southwestern Louisiana (now the University of Louisiana at Lafayette) for the 1973–74 and 1974–75 seasons. (Academic fraud, recruiting violations and improper financial assistance.)
3. The Southern Methodist University football program for the 1987 and 1988 seasons. (Lying to NCAA officials, continuing to pay players, for which it was already on probation.)
4. The Division II men's soccer program at Morehouse College for the 2004 and 2005 seasons (Recruited 2 Nigerian ex-professionals, then played them before they actually enrolled in school.)
5. The Division III men's tennis program at MacMurray College for the 2005–06 and 2006–07 seasons. (Coach Neal Hart and his father arranged to obtain scholarships for 10 players from foreign countries. Division III schools are not allowed to offer scholarships.)

It really does all boil down to money, doesn't it?