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January 3rd, 2013
10:15 AM ET

PA Gov. Tom Corbett getting criticized for putting football first at Penn State

Penn State is back in the news. This time Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the NCAA on the grounds that its punishments for the university are “overreaching and unlawful.” This lawsuit asks the federal court to throw out the penalties including a $60 million fine and still has the university complying with the punishment. He joins John and Brooke on Starting Point.

Though his main concern is on the victims of this case, he is filing the lawsuit alone on the behalf of his constituents. He says, “I did not have conversations with the board of trustees or with the president because I did not want them to be punished further by the NCAA for any actions that we took. I’m filing this on behalf of the citizens of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania number one.”

While Jerry Sandusky was on trial, one of the biggest criticisms against the school was for making football its number one priority. The same criticism is now gaining momentum against Corbett for waiting until the football season was over to file. He says, “I didn’t want to interfere with the momentum the team had. Coach O’Brien had done a great job with the team. The final decision to go forward wasn’t made until October. The lawsuit was then drafted, we went through many variations and at the end of the season was when I made my decision.”

He stands by his defense, stating, “This is going to be a very long case and the start of that case could easily wait until after the end of the football season.”