Abstract
This dissertation was a post–operational analysis of the impact of the National Collegiate Athletic Association’s (NCAA) investigation of the alleged violations by the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) following the criminal trial of Gerald Sandusky on June 22, 2012, and the July 10th release of the Freeh Report (Freeh, Sporkin, & Sullivan, 2012), a self–study commissioned by the Penn State Board of Trustees on November 24, 2011, to get to the bottom of the Sandusky scandal. This dissertation examined the dynamics of the investigation, the synergy surrounding media coverage of the scandal, as it unfolded on November 5, 2011, with the arrest of Sandusky to October 10, 2014, and the changing impact of the NCAA’s decision on the organization as measured by qualitative analysis of media coverage and scholarly studies of the case. This impact study included pre– and post–case study of the NCAA and how the Penn State decision reverberated through the college sports world and changed it and the NCAA.