The program seemed doomed. Some said that Penn State football would take at least 10 years to recover. NCAA president Mark Emmert levied damaging sanctions on the program during the summer of 2012, sanctions that no other school had seen since SMU in the eighties. The Penn State sanctions were in response to the Jerry Sandusky scandal that had come to light in 2011.
Now, four years later, the program is flourishing. Top recruits continue to come to Happy Valley, and the current Nittany Lions are getting set to face USC in the Rose Bowl.
After the sanctions were announced, Emmert gave his reasoning to Bob Ley of ESPN.