There has been no shortage of bad news for Joe Paterno in light of the Jerry Sandusky scandal at Penn State. The latest in the firestorm, albeit more trivial than any news preceding it, reportedly has Paterno's name coming off of the Big 10 Conference's championship trophy.
Big 10 commissioner Jim Delany said Monday that Paterno's name will be removed from the league's trophy, according to a report from CBS Sports.
"We believe that it would be inappropriate to keep Joe Paterno's name on the trophy at this time," Delany said. "The trophy and its namesake are intended to be celebratory and aspirational, not controversial. We believe that it's important to keep the focus on the players and the teams that will be competing in the inaugural championship game."
The trophy, awarded annually to the team with the best record in the league, will now be called the Stagg Championship Trophy, named after Amos Alonzo Stagg. A founding member of the Big 10, Stagg coached football at the University of Chicago from 1892-1932. Stagg led Chicago to seven Big 10 championships and two national championships while compiling a career record of 314-199-35 as a head football coach.
In an interesting side bar, CNBC sports business reporter Darren Rovell tweeted that though Paterno's name will be removed from the trophy, the league may have a hard time removing it from the tickets for the championship game, which have already been printed.
