Scandal cost Penn State $17M, so far

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STATE COLLEGE, Pa., Sept. 5 (UPI) -- Penn State University says the Jerry Sandusky sexual-assault scandal had cost the school almost $17 million by the end of June.

In a posting on its Web site, progress.psu.edu, the university put the expense at $16,754,149, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The investigation headed by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and other internal matters accounted for almost $10 million of the expense.

Sandusky, a longtime assistant football coach at Penn State, was convicted of molesting boys he met through a charity he organized for at-risk youth. The NCAA has ordered Penn State to pay $60 million and the university faces lawsuits by Sandusky's victims.

An alumni group plans to hold a rally Sept. 15, the day the Nittany Lions play Navy, to protest Penn State's handling of the scandal, the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa., reported. Speakers are expected to include Franco Harris, a Penn State football star in the early 1970s who went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

The group says members of the Penn State board should either resign or make public statements of wrongdoing. They want President Rodney Erickson -- and even Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett -- to resign.

Members of the group are also critical of Penn State for the forced retirement of longtime football coach Joe Paterno, who died of lung cancer shortly after his dismissal.