I agree with both sides of the argument in different ways, but ultimately, if we go off of precedent then SMU got the death penalry for cheating and Penn State didn't get it for actually harboring a child predator and covering it up on multiple levels. If Penn State didn't deserve the death penalty, then nobody does.

Yes, you are right that the penalty given out after the fact offers no real healing, but the same can be said of SMU's offenses. The difference here is that real people got hurt in a very real and permanant way. At SMU, nobody got hurt...the only thing that was damaged was the integrity of the game. It's very telling to me that a more severe punishment was given for damaging the integrity of the game than for the actual crime of child molestation/sodomy and the decades-long cover-up or willful ignorance of the crime itself.