Penn State has done a pretty good job of shooting off its own right foot. I don't see how the NCAA putting a slug or two through its remaining foot is going to benefit anyone.

The NCAA usually concerns itself with issues that, if unsupervised, would give a team an unfair advantage over opponents. They don't like it when prospects are bribed, ineligible players are allowed to play, or players use steroids. What occurred at Penn State did not give its team an unfair advantage unless one stretches the definition of "unfair advantage" to include retention of a coach who should have been fired for reasons totally unrelated to team performance. The crimes which occurred are beyond the NCAA's bailiwick. The only way they can be considered an infraction of NCAA rules is by stretching some vague ethics clause to cover the situation.

If the NCAA's goal is to "maintain a level playing field", it doesn't need to do so by taking Penn State's program down a notch. It's already dug itself into a hole the size of Pittsburgh.