Agreed. The school should be hit with every civil financial liability known to mankind.
What cannot be justified, though, are the calls for the death penalty, for shutting down the Penn State program.
The kids on that team, and the current coaching staff, had absolutely nothing to do with Jerry Sandusky, or the coverup Paterno clearly orchestrated.
Punishing them out of some misguided need for retribution is wrong, and it cannot be intellectually defended.
Why not? By that logic, no school could ever be sanctioned/severely punished as it would affect that kids. Use the Death Penalty, let all the kids transfer, and kill the program for 2 years.
Well, the NCAA has shown a willingness to severely decrease or eliminate punishments if the school shows a willingness to get rid of the people who caused or were involved in the problem. Everyone involved seems to be gone now. I think their penalties are typically used if they will hurt a coaching staff or an institutional hierarchy, but Penn State fired Paterno and the others resigned.
Furthermore, I think most people would agree that the death penalty at SMU was a disaster, and that it really shouldn't be used again. There are plenty of other ways to punish a school and cripple its program (long term bowl bans, loss of many scholarships, etc) without saying it's not allowed to play in games, which hurts anyone who might play that school.
AND, Joe Schad said on ESPN yesterday that it's likely that Penn State FOOTBALL didn't break any rules that the NCAA has. Sandusky wasn't working for the program at the time, and conspiracy to cover up a legal crime by someone not employed within the program isn't exactly under NCAA jurisdiction.
The Big Ten, on the other hand, could conceivably have their own penalties, or kick them out of the conference, like the OP said. That idea is very interesting...especially if they think they can get someone from another conference who would be a better fit (Kansas? Iowa State?).