HARRISBURG, Pa. — The head of the NCAA, Penn State's former president and former FBI director Louis Freeh are among those who could take the stand in three weeks when a lawsuit brought by two Pennsylvania officials goes to trial.
A joint pretrial statement filed Friday said the Commonwealth Court trial in Harrisburg, scheduled for January, should last about five days and could involve dozens of witnesses.
State Sen. Jake Corman and state Treasurer Rob McCord, who brought the lawsuit, described the issues at stake as whether the NCAA followed its own rules when it entered into a consent decree with Penn State two years ago, whether that decree is valid and whether the NCAA acted in good faith.
The NCAA put it more narrowly, saying the issue was simply the consent decree's validity.
The 2012 consent decree, imposed over Penn State's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal, included a four-year bowl ban, a loss of football scholarships, the elimination of 112 football team wins and a $60 million fine.
Corman and McCord sued to enforce a 2013 state law that requires the $60 million be spent within Pennsylvania, and although the NCAA has agreed to that, the lawsuit has since morphed into a challenge to the validity of the consent decree.
Commonwealth Court ordered in April that Penn State be included as a party to the lawsuit and said more information was needed about whether Penn State and the NCAA acted lawfully when they signed the consent decree. In a lone dissent, Judge Dan Pellegrini wrote that no one had disputed the legality of the consent decree.
Last month, the state Supreme Court turned down an effort by the NCAA to avoid the January trial, but Justice Max Baer echoed Pellegrini, saying the NCAA "has presented ... a colorable argument that the Commonwealth Court ... inserted an undisputed issue into an otherwise moot case."
