Gov. Corbett Calls Out NCAA on ‘Factual Errors’

Gov. Tom Corbett, in his response to the NCAA’s motion to dismiss the state of Pennsylvania’s lawsuit, said the first page of the NCAA’s motion has the ‘egregious error’ of asserting the Penn State Board of Trustees voted to ratify the consent decree between Penn State and the NCAA. 

Corbett filed his response in Harrisburg on Monday to the NCAA’s motion to dismiss the antitrust lawsuit he filed in January. According to court documents, Corbett said the false accusation made by the NCAA about the board alone is enough to raise “material factual disputes that cannot be resolved on a motion to dismiss.” 

The consent decree was signed by Penn State President Rodney Erickson and NCAA President Mark Emmert in July, accepting Penn State’s sanctions. The board never formally accepted or ratified the consent decree. 

Corbett calls the NCAA’s filing a total contradiction of his complaint, and refutes the NCAA’s claim that the ‘unprecedented sanctions,’ including the $60 million fine, can not be considered commerce. The Penn State football program also violated no NCAA rules, the governor wrote, as he did in the original complaint. 

“The roots of this litigation lie not in an NCAA rule violation, or any activity that jeopardized competitive fairness, but rather in the criminal conduct by Gerald Sandusky, a former assistant football coach,” the document stated “The NCAA did not investigate PSU’s conduct, but instead relied on a report commissioned by PSU to investigate the Sandusky Offenses (the “Freeh Report”).

Seven weeks after Corbett sued the NCAA, the NCAA sued Corbett and the state of Pa. over the governor signing into law legislation that attempts to prevent the NCAA from dispersing Penn State’s $60 million fine outside of Pa. 

Court dates have yet to be set for either case. 

Corbett v. NCAA by