Ex-Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky was arrested in November 2011 on charges that he preyed on boys he met through the Second Mile charity. In June 2012, he was convicted of 45 counts involving 10 young victims. He hasn't been sentenced yet but likely will spend the rest of his life behind bars. Sandusky's defense has said he will appeal. In July 2012, the NCAA imposed sanctions against Penn State, including a $60 million fine, scholarship reductions, the vacating of 112 wins, five years' probation and a bowl ban for four years. 
Penn State University head football coach Joe Paterno on the sidelines during a 2004 game. Paterno's legacy was tarnished in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal. The fallout included NCAA sanctions in July 2012 that struck 111 of Paterno's 409 wins from the record book. The stripped victories stretched back to 1998 and removed Paterno's crown as winningest college football coach in history. He died of cancer in January. 
Head coach Jim Tressel with his Ohio State Buckeyes at the 2011 Sugar Bowl. Tressel admitted he knew several star players were trading memorabilia for cash and tattoos in violation of NCAA rules. The NCAA banned the Buckeyes from postseason play for the upcoming season, and OSU voluntarily vacated all 2010 wins. Tressel "resigned" in May 2011, a move OSU later deemed a retirement. 
University of Miami quarterback Jacory Harris throws a pass during a 2011game. Harris was one of 13 Hurricanes initially ruled ineligible after the NCAA began investigating allegations by Nevin Shapiro, an imprisoned former booster, that he for eight years provided 72 athletes with benefits that violated NCAA rules. Shapiro is incarcerated for running a $930 million Ponzi scheme. After Miami petitioned for the players' reinstatements, one player was vindicated, while the other 12, including Harris, were reinstated after serving suspensions and/or paying restitution. The investigation into the Shapiro scandal is ongoing. 
Reggie Bush of the University of Southern California carries the ball past Fresno State's Matt Davis in 2005. The NCAA announced sanctions in June 2010 against USC, finding that Bush and basketball star O.J. Mayo had received lavish gifts. Bush voluntarily forfeited his Heisman Trophy, while USC was given four years' probation, stripped of 30 scholarships and had to vacate 14 wins, including a national championship. 
Members of the Duke men's lacrosse team listen to the national anthem at their season opener in 2007. In 2006, members of the team hired stripper Crystal Mangum for a party, and she accused three players of raping her. The scandal forced the cancellation of the men's lacrosse season that year and the resignation of team coach Mike Pressler. The allegations later proved to be false, and prosecutor Mike Nifong was disbarred for ethics violations. 
The NCAA has found the University of Alabama football program in violation of its rules at least three times in the last two decades. The most notable incident came in 2000 when a booster paid a high school coach to steer a recruit to the Crimson Tide. An investigation found numerous other violations, and Alabama was placed on five years' probation, among other sanctions. In 1995, the NCAA forced Alabama to vacate wins after it learned coaches were aware one of the school's All-Americans had secretly signed with an agent, and in 2009 the university was sanctioned for misuse of its textbook distribution program by 16 athletic programs, including football. 
Jim Harrick Sr., then head coach of the University of Georgia Bulldogs, yells from the sidelines during the 2002 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. Harrick resigned as UGA's head basketball coach in 2003 after his son, Jim Harrick Jr., was accused of giving an A to three basketball players who didn't attend class and paying a phone bill for one of them. The NCAA punished UGA with four years' probation, and the school was forced to vacate 30 wins from 2001-2003. 
Baylor University basketball player Carlton Dotson reaches for the ball against Montana State in a 2002 game. In June 2003, Baylor's Patrick Dennehy went missing. Dotson confessed to killing him and was sentenced to 35 years in prison. The NCAA later determined that Coach Dave Bliss had instructed his players to lie to investigators and tell them that Dennehy dealt drugs to cover up the coach paying thousands of dollars of Dennehy's tuition. The NCAA put the school on probation until June 2010. It also was banned from playing nonconference games for a season. 
Chris Webber strolls upcourt during a home game in 1993. Webber pleaded guilty in 2003 to being paid by a University of Michigan booster to launder money from an illegal gambling operation. The NCAA put the program on four years' probation and banned the team from postseason play for the 2003-04 season. Charged with lying to federal investigators, Webber pleaded guilty to misdemeanor criminal contempt and paid a $100,000 fine. 
The Southern Methodist University football team warms up in 1988, two years after a scandal broke that SMU boosters had been giving football players thousands of dollars from a slush fund with university officials' knowledge. In what was the first and last time it gave the "death penalty" to a football program, the NCAA suspended SMU from playing its 1987 season and banned it from recruiting. The school also was not allowed to play at home in the 1988 season and lost dozens of scholarships. 
Bill Musselman watches court action during a 1990 NBA game as head coach of the Minnesota Timberwolves. In 1975, Musselman left as head coach of the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers. The NCAA later found 127 violations from his four-year tenure at the school, including direct payment to players for rent and transportation. 
Kentucky celebrates the 2012 national championship in April. Sixty years earlier, the NCAA opened an investigation into the University of Kentucky Wildcats basketball program, following a national championship season in which three players had been arrested in a point-shaving scandal. The subsequent probe revealed that 10 players had received impermissible financial aid. The NCAA banned the school's entire athletic program from playing for a year -- in effect, marking the advent of the so-called "death penalty," even though the penalty wasn't given the nickname until the 1980s. 
- College Football Hall of Fame's board members are expected to meet in early October
- "We're very aware of all of this," said Steve Hatchell, CEO of the National Football Foundation
- The group inducted Paterno alongside Florida State's Bobby Bowden in 2007
New York (CNN) -- Built into the by-laws of most sports Halls of Fame is something called a "character clause."
It's a loosely-defined metric meant to gauge whether a potential Hall of Famers' off-the-field conduct should prevent an athlete or coach from being honored.
The rules use words like integrity, sportsmanship and community to determine whether a sportsman or woman can be inducted into the prestigious club.
But once that tribute is bestowed and a Hall of Famer made, can it be rescinded and undone?
Wall around Paterno statue demolished 
"Mike & Mike" on Penn State's sanctions 
Emmert: It was the board's decision 
Tiki Barber: NCAA sanctions are 'harsh' "It would be unprecedented," said Brad Horn, a spokesman for the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York.
Do sanctions alter Penn State legacy?
"I suppose they could," added Rick Leddy of the body that governs the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame.
That question is now being tossed around about the late Joe Paterno, a college football Hall of Famer since 2007.
Officials at the professional basketball, football, baseball and collegiate basketball and football Halls of Fame say it's never happened before.
While governing-bodies may use the clause to keep out candidates, once inducted, a Hall of Famer's status is historically safe.
But this week's "unprecedented" NCAA sanctions against Penn State for its handling of a child sex abuse scandal threaten to shake that very bedrock and raise questions of whether Paterno will be removed from its ranks.
"The question is 'What do you want your Hall (of Fame) to stand for?' " said Sports Illustrated's Andy Staples, a college football writer.
"Is there a character component to it?"
An internal review found the former head coach could have stopped Jerry Sandusky's sexual attacks against young boys had he done more, and that he may have known more than what he initially told the grand jury.
Vestiges of the Paterno legacy, once an enduring symbol of integrity, have since vanished amid the scandal.
Within a two-day span this week, his famous bronze statue in front Beaver Stadium was hauled down, as was his record atop major college football's all-time wins list.
The NCAA wiped more than a decade's worth of Penn State wins from the record books, slapped the school with a four-year postseason ban and imposed a $60 million sanction after investigators blamed top university leaders, including Paterno, for their "total and consistent disregard" of victims while a sexual predator lurked on campus.
"This egregious behavior not only goes against our rules and constitution, but also against our values," said Ed Ray, Oregon State president and chairman of the NCAA's executive committee.
Penn State review recasts story of football hero Paterno
Paterno's official record moved from 409 wins to 298, dropping to him to 12th on the NCAA college football coaching list, while also vacating six bowl wins and two conference championships.
The College Football Hall of Fame board has not indicated its thinking on Paterno in the wake of the scandal or the release of the findings.
"We're very aware of all of this," said Steve Hatchell, president and CEO of the National Football Foundation, the Hall's governing body.
"Our group is very methodical," he said, when asked if the group was considering Paterno's removal, adding that board members are expected to meet in early October.
"Everything's taken into consideration."
In 2007, the group inducted a still actively coaching Paterno alongside Florida State's Bobby Bowden, amending rules that required a candidate to be retired to qualify.
The Hall currently says in his biography, "No coach has been as synonymous with one school as has Penn State's Joe Paterno."
"More important than all of the wins and titles he has accumulated may be his legacy with the influence he has had on his players, Penn State Students and alumni," it reads.
In 1992 and 2006, the foundation awarded him the Distinguished American and the Gold Medal awards.
Although the board hasn't indicated its thinking, students at Penn State now offer mixed impressions about the prospect of yet another trace of their former coach wiped from the public sphere.
"I don't think they should remove him (from the Hall of Fame)," said Tierra Brisco, a 21-year-old Penn State senior.
"Well, I don't know," she then wavered. "That's a touchy subject. He built up our school. He was a philanthropist and he did a lot for us. ... But he should have done more."
The issue has again put front and center the question of whether sports figures, often lauded as heroes, should be judged in the annals of sports history by way of their off-the-field conduct.
In Major League Baseball, sports writers with the Baseball Writers Association of America vote not only for athletic prowess, but also on a player's "integrity, sportsmanship, character, and contributions to the team(s)."
Banned from baseball amid World Series fixing and gambling scandals, White Sox great "Shoeless Joe" Jackson and the league's all-time hits leader Pete Rose are barred from even being considered.
Photos: Paterno through the years
But at the National Football League, voters decide based solely on what happened on the field.
"People asked us during the O.J. Simpson trial, that if he were convicted, would he be kicked out?" said Joe Horrigan, a vice president for communications at the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio.
"The answer is simple: No."
Players and coaches' behavior outside-the-lines doesn't change what got them inducted, Horrigan explained.
In college, the rules are different.
While football coaches must boast at least a 60% winning percentage and have coached for a minimum of 10 years and 100 games, candidates must also demonstrate a laudable "post-football record as a citizen."
"He must have proven himself worthy as a citizen, carrying the ideals of football forward into his relations with his community and his fellow man with love of his country," according National Football Foundation website.
Those standards for years kept out Billy Cannon, a 1959 Heisman Trophy-winner from Louisiana State University, who was nominated in 1983 before his arrest and confession to a $6 million counterfeiting scheme.
The scandal rocked LSU and prompted the foundation to rescind his membership bid before induction.
But a quarter of a century later, the former running back-turned dentist was offered a second chance and formally inducted in 2008.
Others like ex-New York Giants star Lawrence Taylor, a Chapel Hill stand-out who last year pleaded guilty to sexual misconduct, have not gained entry to the club despite appearing on the ballot.
Meanwhile, Sandusky -- a former assistant coach who continues to maintain his innocence -- awaits sentencing for sexually abusing minors over a 15-year period.
Some of the abuse occurred in the same campus building where Paterno worked, according to the findings of former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his team of investigators.
The Freeh report drew criticism for its lack of access to critical witnesses, including Paterno, who died in January.
His family also reminded the public that "Paterno has never had a hearing," and that tearing down his statute would "not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky's horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State Community."
Photos: Final tributes, Paterno statue removed
But the report -- albeit limited in scope -- shed new light on the scandal and raised questions about whether Paterno's marred legacy will affect his spot among gridiron greats.
Nicknamed "JoePa," fans adored him for a storied coaching career that brought Penn State football to national prominence.
But the university's board of trustees fired Paterno in November 2011 following a 46-year career because his "decision to do his minimum legal duty and not to do more to follow up constituted a failure of leadership."
Paterno reported to his superiors a child sex abuse incident in a university shower that involved Sandusky in 2001, but did not inform police.
His ouster prompted student riots, overturning a news van and clashing with police, who used tear gas to break up throngs of angry protesters.
Since then, material reminders of that legacy have faded.
At State College, the name of a popular football camp-out is now called "Nittanyville," rather than "Paternoville," and a famous local mural no longer shows a halo painted above the image of the school's former head coach.
But it's unclear whether Paterno's place in the Hall of Fame will go the way of his famed 900-pound bronze statute removed from the university earlier this week, a structure that once exuded a sense of permanence that greeted fans at Penn State.
Penn State alum: We deserved NCAA penalty
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