Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include comment from State Sen. Jake Corman.
Wednesday’s letter from sixteen United States Congress members condemning the actions of the NCAA has garnered support from state legislators as well.
The letter – drafted by Rep. Charlie Dent and Rep. Glenn Thompson, and signed by 14 other congress members from Pennsylvania – demands that the NCAA release all documents relating to the consent decree that Penn State signed.
State House Representative Scott Conklin says he “absolutely agrees” with the letter.
“If you look at the NCAA, and take all emotions out of the question, the NCAA got involved with issues not related to the football program that, in their own words, did not fall under their purview,” Conklin says.
Wednesday’s letter was partially in response to internal NCAA emails from 2012 that refer to the threat of sanctions against Penn State as “a bluff” and say the NCAA was “banking on the fact [the] school is so embarrassed they will do anything.”
“You can’t misinterpret what the NCAA said in these emails,” Thompson says. “They were trying to bluff the university into a consent decree that – in their own words – they themselves felt was a stretch and was without grounds for their sanctions.”
Penn State signed the consent decree with the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. That allowed the NCAA to impose sweeping sanctions including a $60 million fine, reduced scholarships, the loss of all football wins between 1998 and 2012 and a ban on bowl appearances.
State Senator Jake Corman filed a lawsuit against the NCAA last year in an attempt to keep the $60 million fine within Pennsylvania. The NCAA’s internal emails were made public through court filings in Corman’s lawsuit.
Corman says the NCAA has avoided releasing information “at every step of the way” in his lawsuit in commonwealth court. He says the congressional demands are “completely appropriate” and have his full support.
Corman is unsure how the NCAA will respond, and whether the letter will impact the proceedings of his lawsuit.
“At this point, the lawsuit and the congressional letter are working on two separate tracks,” Corman spokesman Scott Sikorski says. “But the NCAA should realize that this obviously means a lot to a lot of people.”
Thompson says the support from members of congress is bipartisan and encompasses all of Pennsylvania. He says many congress members from across the state have been following the situation with the NCAA and were happy to sign the letter.
“It wasn’t hard to gather support,” Thompson says. “Every member of congress has a branch campus in their district. Penn State is an economic and educational engine for the commonwealth.”
The letter ends with an implied threat, warning the NCAA that “we hope you are not ‘banking’ on the fact that we will not pursue further action.”
Thompson says he hopes the NCAA complies with the request without the need for further action. If not, he says the Congressional Energy and Commerce Committee has the ability to call a hearing in which representatives from the NCAA would be required to testify before members of congress. If need be, the committee would also have subpoena power to obtain documents and information from the NCAA.
Corman says the a congressional hearing would have greater reach and subpoena power than his proceedings in state court, “which would be pretty intimidating to me if I were the NCAA.” He says that cooperating with the congress members request is in the best interest of not only the NCAA, but everyone impacted by the athletic organization’s actions.
“If the NCAA just complies with our request to be fully transparent with this information, I’d be happy – especially if they restored the [Penn State football] record,” Thompson says.
Representatives from the NCAA declined comment.
The NCAA has previously argued in official statements that the internal emails are “selectively released” and purposefully misleading. The NCAA says the emails reflect only a small part of an appropriately thorough process that weighed all options for how to respond to the scandal at Penn State.
The full text of the letter can be read below.
Congressional Letter to the NCAA
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