a fate worse than death?
Knowing the NCAA, they will try and do something splashy, but not wipe out PSU. Maybe murder schollies for 10 years, give a TV ban of 3-5, and no bowl for 3-5. To me that is the most extreme they will go (and it will probably be far less no matter how the NCAA spins it so they sound tough to the average fan and idiots in the media - remember, when the hit KU football under Mangino, at his response press conference Mangino said the NCAA sanctions on JCs and schollies would have no impact due to limits in place with the 85 limit already - the sanctions which the NCAA sold as severe were nothing but window dressing)..
PSU is eff'ed up, that is true. But, the NCAA also knows that they don't want to rally a bunch of big football schools to head out on their own where they don't have to pretend to follow the rules while also getting to keep all the TV money for themselves. If they get too utterly ruthless with PSU, it also hurts the other Big 10 schools. If the super name/money schools in that conference believe that the PSU penalties are hurting them in the wallet as well, they might start the lobbying with the top 32 or 64 schools (my guess is 32) to begin a move to create their own organization and say eff off to the NCAA (which almost happened in the 70s with the CFA when the money stakes were fare lower).
Now personally, I'd like PSU'ed to get Sanduskyed by the NCAA. But I have no faith in the NCAA whatsoever.