After interviews, the penalty the fans are maddest about is

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. I don't know about that

And there's way too much heat and light on PSU for it to pay this out of academics. In particular, the faculty itself is up in arms about the whole matter, and has been since October. You can bet that any attempt to cut any program will now be immediately interpreted as a diversion of academic funds to an athletic slush fund for the purpose of paying off this and other penalties, and will be stopped in its tracks. Indeed, PSU has been cutting vigorously over the last several years in response to the Corbett budgets, hacking off a fine MFA program from the English department, and getting rid of a Science, Technology, and Society program. Faculty and deans will now use this as leverage to oppose further academic cuts.

That said, the point is rather that PSU will not have particular problems paying this fine. This fine is 1 year of net football receipts. They're still going to make those, more or less. They won't have to divert funds from other programs, because those are going to keep flowing in. The idea that the football money will dry up at PSU as a result of the penalties is just silly. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised to see a net increase THIS YEAR.