STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) - NCAA hits Penn State football with $60 million fine and vacated Joe Paterno's wins from 1998-2011 in the wake of a devastating report that asserted top university officials buried child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant coach more than a decade ago.
The NCAA also imposed a four-year bowl ban, loss of scholarships and put the school on five years' probation.
Officials for the NCAA further admonished Penn State saying perpetuated a "football first" culture that must change.
One Penn State freshman says of Monday's sanctions from the NCAA, "You knew it was coming, but it was hard to hear."
Matt Bray was among a group of students and alumni at a student union on campus who gasped and groaned as they watched TV coverage of today's announcement.
The governing body of college sports imposed a mountain of fines and penalties on the football program, in response to the sexual abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky -- who has been convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. An investigation found that former coach Joe Paterno and several other top officials at Penn State had stayed quiet about the accusations against Sandusky.
The NCAA hit Penn State with $60 million in fines, and banned the football team from post-season play for four years. Scholarships will be capped at 20 percent below the normal limit for that time.
And 14 years of victories by Paterno, the coach with the most wins in college football history, are being wiped off the books. That means that former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will hold the top spot with 377 major-college wins, while Paterno will be credited with 298.
Players left a team meeting Monday without talking to reporters. Former St. Francis star Akeel Lynch did tweet "don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next. Spend your energies on moving forward towards finding an answer."