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Paterno Family Will Appeal Sanctions; NCAA Rejects Attempt

Visitors gather around the statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium Saturday in State College, Pa.
Jeff Swensen
/
Getty Images
Visitors gather around the statue of former Penn State football coach Joe Paterno outside Beaver Stadium Saturday in State College, Pa.

The family of former Penn State coach Joe Paterno said it intends to appeal the sanctions issued by the NCAA against the university in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

In a letter to the organization, the family repeated its accusations that the sanctions were decided in haste and without due process.

The AP reports that the NCAA quickly responded that their sanctions weren't up for appeal.

"The landmark penalties handed down last month included a four-bowl ban, scholarship cuts and 111 vacated wins from 1998-2011, meaning Paterno no longer has the most coaching victories in major college football," the AP reported.

"This matter may be the most important disciplinary action in the history of the NCAA, and it has been handled in a fundamentally inappropriate and unprecedented manner," the family's lawyers said in a letter obtained by The Patriot News. "To severely punish a University and its community and to condemn a great educator, philanthropist and coach without any public review or hearing is unfair on its face and a violation of NCAA guidelines."

Last month, the university decided to remove Paterno's statute from outside the football stadium.

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Eyder Peralta is NPR's East Africa correspondent based in Nairobi, Kenya.