Penn State fine surprises Big 12 Commish

Published Jul. 23, 2012 9:49 a.m. ET

foxsports

DALLAS — Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby was the first speaker at the conference’s media days Monday morning.

It took two questions during his Q&A session for the NCAA’s Penn State penalties to come up.

While Bowlsby said he hasn’t had much time to sift through the punishment, he was surprised by the $60 million fine handed to the school.

"The one piece that I was surprised at was the magnitude of the fine," Bowlsby said. “I would like to hear a little bit more about how that number was derived. I don’t know that it’s absolutely clear on what basis this becomes an NCAA issue. Having said that, there are certainly elements of our constitution and by-laws that go right to the heart of that. Clearly there are some ethical issues here."

Bowlsby also said the case just shows how a lack of institutional control can cause problems.

“Things can get pretty far afield when there are people are running the show that don’t get frank feedback and don’t ever have anybody push back against them,” he said. “It’s obvious this is a pretty insular circumstance.”

The decision also came quickly after the results of the Freeh Commission report were released. That also caught Bowlsby off guard.

"Acting quickly and the NCAA are seldom mentioned in the same sentence," he said. "I was a little surprised by that."