Paterno Loses Wins Record

NCAA sanctions strip former Penn State coach of 14 years of victories

Joe Paterno is no longer the winningest coach in major college football history.

On Monday the NCAA struck Penn State football with sanctions in the wake of the child-sex scandal involving former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky and the alleged cover-up by Paterno and other university leaders that was revealed in the Freeh Report.

The NCAA hit Penn State with a $60 million fine (amounting to one year’s worth of football revenues generated by the Nittany Lion football program), a four-year bowl game ban, a reduction of scholarships over four years and vacated wins from 1998 to 2011.

Paterno first allegedly learned of allegations of abuse by Sandusky in 1998.

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Those vacated wins cost Paterno -- who died earlier this year -- his record of the most wins by a major college football coach. His Nittany Lions will vacate 111 wins leaving Paterno at 298 wins for his storied career -- dropping Paterno out of the Top 10 list for career wins.

Paterno was fired in the days following the Sandusky allegations coming to light. Paterno’s last win as the leader of the Nittany Lions came on Oct. 29 when they beat Illinois to propel Paterno to 409 career wins -- one ahead of Grambling’s Eddie Robinson.

The 14 years of lost wins by Paterno's teams returns the wins record to Robinson. It also made former West Virginia and Florida State coach Bobby Bowden the all-time leader of Football Subdivision schools with 377 wins.

Other legendary coaches like Bear Bryant (323 wins) and Amos Alonzo Stagg (314 wins) also moved back ahead of Paterno on the wins list.

The vacated wins from last season also mean that one win by Paterno's interim replacement, Tom Bradley -- a 20-14 win over Ohio State -- was also taken away.

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