BELLEFONTE, Pa. — The NCAA is facing a new legal attack after the family of the late coach Joe Paterno was joined by former players and others connected to Penn State in a lawsuit seeking to overturn the landmark sanctions for the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.
Long rumored to be under development, the 40-page lawsuit filed Thursday tries to show that the NCAA and its top leadership overstepped the organization’s own rules in levying penalties against the football program with uncharacteristic speed, representatives for the Paterno family have said. They hoped it would raise new questions about the university’s internal investigation led by former FBI director Louis Freeh, along with how and why the NCAA used Freeh’s report as a basis for its sanctions in July.
A statement late Wednesday night from Paterno family attorney Wick Sollers said the case would be “further proof that the NCAA has lost sense of its mission” after college sports’ governing body relied on Freeh’s explosive report. Freeh asserted last July that Paterno and three school officials concealed allegations against Sandusky, a retired defensive coordinator; the NCAA announced its sanctions less than two weeks later.
“If there was ever a situation that demanded meticulous review and a careful adherence to NCAA rules and guidelines, this was it,” Sollers said in the statement. “Instead, the NCAA placed a premium on speed over accuracy and precipitous action over due process.”
Its suit is the latest filing in a tangled web of litigation related to the sanctions. Most prominently, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett has filed a federal antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA, which also has faced criticism for a botched investigation of Miami and departures in the enforcement division.
On Wednesday, Sollers and other family representatives spoke with Bob Costas on his NBC Sports Network show, along with other media, in previewing the latest lawsuit.
The NCAA said Wednesday it had not received any such lawsuit and could not comment.
