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Report: NCAA to Hand Down ‘Unprecedented’ Penalties Against Penn State

The NCAA seems poised to bring the hammer down on Penn State — and what happens will apparently be unlike anything ever done before.

The university and football program will reportedly be the target of penalties that an NCAA source has called "unprecedented," according to CBS News.

"I've never seen anything like it," the source said.

NCAA President Mark Emmert is scheduled to deliver the announcement at 9 a.m. ET Monday in Indianapolis, where the organization is based.

ESPN is also reporting that penalties will probably include a large loss of scholarships and bowl appearances, rather than the "death penalty" that many have speculated may be handed down.

It also appears the NCAA may be going outside its usual procedure for determining the punishment — rather than conduct its own investigation, the organization apparently was content to use the Freeh Report.

Emmert had sent a letter to Penn State shortly after the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal broke in November, asking for a response from the school as to the ethical conduct of its authorities and whether there had been a lack of institutional control. Penn State's response would determine — despite some feeling that the NCAA would be on shaky ground to do so — if the school could be hit with sanctions for violating NCAA bylaws.

The possible sanctions are not the only serious development in the Penn State saga this weekend. The statue of Joe Paterno outside of Beaver Stadium was removed early Sunday morning, a decision perhaps hastened after the release of the Freeh Report, which had implicated Paterno and other top university officials in a cover-up of Sandusky's criminal activity.