NCAA Restores Penn State Football Wins Forfeited After Sandusky Scandal

The NCAA has agreed to restore 112 football victories stripped from the Pennsylvania State University football program in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal, the Associated Press reports. The new agreement, proposed by the NCAA on Friday and approved by the university’s Board of Trustees, also resolves a long-running lawsuit challenging the NCAA’s punishments by spending the $60-million fine it imposed on Penn State within Pennsylvania.

The NCAA has been gradually rolling back the penalties it first imposed in 2012, beginning in 2013, when it began restoring scholarships it had previously cut and opened the door to lessening the penalties in the future. It made good on that idea last year, when it lifted the program’s postseason ban and restored all athletic scholarships. In November emails surfaced suggesting that NCAA officials doubted their authority as they rushed to punish the university.

The restoration of the victories makes Joe Paterno, the Penn State coach who died in 2012, again the winningest coach in the history of college football.