ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) -
The sanctions imposed by the NCAA on Penn State and its football program were the topic of the day in sports bars, on TV and on radio Monday, and the reaction was near unanimous.
Most people said they believed, for the first time ever, the NCAA got it right this time.
"I thought it was the right thing to do," said Gary Dyal, a sports fan.
"They gutted them pretty hard. It's going to be hard for them to be good for a while," said Jeffery Harden, a sports fan.
Penn state was hit with a $60 million fine, a four-year, post-season bowl ban and the loss of ten football scholarships a year, just to name a few of the sanctions. The NCAA stopped short of instituting the so-called death penalty, which would have shut down the football program completely.
"I guess they didn't call it the death penalty, but basically that is what it is. It's pretty close because I don't see how they are going to have much of a team for the next few years," Hardern said.
At WQXI, 790 The Zone, it was a one topic show on The Red Zone.
"It is the most egregious of crimes that we have in professional college sports, in my lifetime and probably ever. It would be hard to imagine anything worse than this," said Hans Heiserer, with WQXI.
"This is going to be the example that you put up for that moniker that says, lack of institutional control," said Doug Stewart, with WQXI.
Despite the severity of the punishment, not everyone is convinced it will hurt Penn State as bad as many expect.
"I think they can move on from it. I don't think it is going to hurt as much as people think it will," said Jose Serrano, a sports fan.
Copyright 2012 WGCL-TV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.