NCAA Hands Down Penn State Punishment
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR, "CNN NEWSROOM": And good morning, everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. It's 11:00 on the East Coast, 8:00 on the West. Our first look at the movie theater massacre suspect since his arrest. James Holmes facing a Colorado judge this hour. Live cameras in the courtroom. Penn State football escapes the so-called "death penalty," but the punishment just handed down by the NCAA may be even worse. And Drew Peterson goes on trial for the murder of his third wife while the disappearance of wife number four is still an open case. We begin with a "death penalty" for Penn State football. Well, not so much, but this is definitely going to hurt. Just this morning, the university got slapped with a massive penalty that will last for years to come. Among the most brutal, a $60 million fine, a four-year post- season ban and a forfeit of all football wins since 1998. You know what that means? Joe Paterno loses his title as winningest coach in major college football history. All of this in the wake of that child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant football coach, Jerry Sandusky. Rumors of the massive fine trickled out on Sunday, the same time Paterno's iconic statue on campus was wrapped in plastic, covered with a blanket and hauled away. The NCAA just made the announcement in Indianapolis. Mark McKay was there for it. So, Mark, this is a huge blow to this school.</s>MARK MCKAY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: A huge blow, certainly, to Penn State university, Kyra, but NCAA President Mark Emmert said that his organization needed to act and need to act quickly. He also added that no one feels good about this. You touched on the sanctions handed down just a couple of hours ago here in Indianapolis on Penn State. Let me bring them out. You mentioned the $60 million fine. That will be paid in $12 million installments by Penn State University over the next five years and cannot come at the expense of other sports programs. That money will be paid into an endowment for programs that serve victims of child sexual abuse. Penn State also vacating all wins by the football program from the years 1998 to 2011. The NCAA saying that 1998 is the year that the university's failures began. A four-year ban on post-season play. No bowl games for the next four years for Penn State and scholarship reductions from 25 to 15, capped at 65 for the football program. The president and the NCAA believes they have done the right thing in this case, all the while, remembering the victims.</s>MARK EMMERT, NCAA PRESIDENT: This is just an unprecedented, painful chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics.</s>MCKAY: NCAA also saying today, Kyra, that everyone needs to be reminded, especially the universities themselves, that the presidents and the chancellors are the ones in charge.</s>PHILLIPS: Final thought, Mark, explain how these penalties are even worse than a "death penalty?"</s>MCKAY: Well, you think about the "death penalty," which the NCAA president Mark Emmert said was on the table, it was being considered. The "death penalty," of course, being the football program being banished, disappearing for a while. He said, though, the sanctions here needed to reflect a change of the culture. He said, in addition to that, they do not want to bring harm to those that had nothing to do with the Jerry Sandusky case. So, it's a sense of moving on. But, yes, this university has been hit hard over these past three months. They're hit even harder today, Kyra.</s>PHILLIPS: Yeah. Mark McKay, thanks so much. And not only do the penalties mean that Joe Paterno has lost his title as winningest Division I coach, it also means that some players lost their own bragging rights. Take a look at this. Evan Royster, who started playing for Penn State in 2007 and now plays for the Redskins, tweeted out, "Oh, crap, so I lost every college football game I ever played in?" Twelve dead, 58 wounded and at least 17 people still hospitalized as the community of Aurora, Colorado, and the nation still grappling with Friday's movie theater massacre. In less than 30 minutes, that gunman believed to be behind the carnage will make his first appearance in court today. Twenty-four- year old James Holmes will likely face first degree murder charges. Police say Holmes spent months planning out his alleged rampage, gathering his arsenal, executing his plan and pulling the trigger with, quote, "calculation and deliberation." His court appearance will come just a few hours before his family is expected to break their silence, as well. Let's get straight to Don Lemon who is just outside the courthouse where Holmes will be facing a judge in half an hour. Don, this will be the first look at Holmes since his arrest.</s>DON LEMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly will be. And, you know, even covering this story for days now, Kyra, it's just hard to believe as you were reading about the suspect, about what happened. Yes, it will be the first time we'll get to see him. He has that red hair, as police say that he had when he was arrested. This is where he is now, they believe. That is the Arapahoe County Detention Center. He's going to be moved from this Arapahoe County Detention Center underground. There's an underground tunnel and then he's going to be brought just over here to the right to the Arapahoe County Courthouse and that'll be the first time we get to see him. Kyra, we should tell you that there are family members that are inside that courtroom now. Some in a courtroom, some are in a room that has been set aside for them. They're going to get to view it, view this hearing via closed circuit television. Members of the media will get to find out exactly what happens to him and what his frame of mind was, possibly. So, the first time we'll get to see him and possibly hear from the people who are defending him.</s>PHILLIPS: I'll tell you what, Don. We're taking hits on your live shots. We're going to try to figure out what the technical problems are. So, stay with us because we're going to be talking to you a lot throughout this hour. I apologize, Don. We just don't want to take a risk of breaking away from you again, so we'll come back to Don Lemon from just outside the courthouse as we await suspect James Holmes and his arrival there. Meanwhile, President Obama is waking up in San Francisco this morning. He changed his original campaign plan so he could visit the mourning community of Aurora, Colorado, actually, on Sunday. The president briefly addressed the media after visiting with the families.</s>PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I come to them, not so much as president as I do as a father and as a husband.</s>PHILLIPS: And Mitt Romney called the Colorado visit the right thing for the president to do. Romney also addressed the tragedy Sunday evening, saying, quote, "Our hearts are with the many people who have lost loved ones in Colorado and other places, but particularly, we are thinking of the people in Aurora, Colorado."