Penn State fined $60M by NCAA (VIDEO)
Penn State University head football coach Joe Paterno watches his team during practice on November 9, 2011 in State College, Pennsylvania.
The NCAA has handed down its sentencing against Penn State, which includes a $60 million sanction, a four-year football postseason ban and a vacation of all wins dating to 1998.
In a statement to ESPN the NCAA said, "These funds must be paid into an endowment for external programs preventing child sexual abuse or assisting victims and may not be used to fund such programs at the university."
The $60 million is equivalent to the average annual revenue of the football program.
In addition to the fines, the school will be forced to cut 10 scholarships for this season and 20 scholarships for the following four years, USA Today reported.
The vacation of all wins may be the harshest blow to Joe Paterno and Penn State's legacy as it means Joe Paterno no longer is college football's winningest coach. He was fired in November during the scandal after 409 wins at the school, USA Today reported.
The punishment came after the release of the Freeh report earlier this month. The report found that Paterno and other top school officials failed to alert police about possible child sex abuse by assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. The report also claimed that Paterno and others repeatedly concealed facts to avoid bad PR.
In an interview with PBS last week, NCAA president Mark Emmert had hinted that the committee was discussing handing down a harsh punishment to the Penn State program, including the possibility of the "death penalty," which would have banned the program for one year.
The NCAA made the decision to penalize Penn State without the due process of a Committee on Infractions hearing, ESPN reported. the committee would normally issue a notice of allegations and then allow the university 90 days to respond before a hearing is scheduled. Instead, the committee used the Freeh report to penalize the school.
In a statement Emmert said, "We cannot look to NCAA history to determine how to handle circumstances so disturbing, shocking and disappointing. As the individuals charged with governing college sports, we have a responsibility to act. These events should serve as a call to every single school and athletics department to take an honest look at its campus environment and eradicate the 'sports are king' mindset that can so dramatically cloud the judgment of educators."
More from GlobalPost: Joe Paterno letter: A response to Freeh report? (VIDEO)
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