New York Times:

The N.C.A.A. has sent Penn State a letter announcing it will begin an inquiry into the university’s institutional control and ethical conduct stemming from the sexual abuse charges against the former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky.
The N.C.A.A.’s move, which Penn State announced Friday, was called “very unprecedented” by Tom Yeager, a former N.C.A.A. investigator. Yeager, who was a longtime member of the N.C.A.A. committee on infractions, also expressed concern about the N.C.A.A.’s looking into issues that occur outside the organization’s typical rules purview.
In the letter, the N.C.A.A.’s president, Mark Emmert, said that the acts described in a grand jury report — including allegations that Sandusky raped or sexually assaulted eight boys over a period of 15 years — “try not only the integrity of the university, but that of intercollegiate athletics as a whole.” Emmert said that the N.C.A.A. would examine both a lack of institutional control, one of the most serious charges the N.C.A.A. can make against a university, as well as “the actions, and inactions, of relevant responsible personnel.”
“The circumstances are uncharted territory in many ways,” Emmert said in a telephone interview. “This is not in my mind or in many other people’s mind an unprecedented application of our bylaws and our constitution. It is a very unusual set of circumstances.”
Since the Nov. 5 release of the grand jury report in the Sandusky case, four prominent Penn State employees, including the president, Graham B. Spanier, and the football coach, Joe Paterno, have lost or stepped away from their jobs. The other two officials — the athletic director, Tim Curley, and the university vice president Gary Schultz — have been charged with perjury and failing to report the allegations to authorities.
State officials have questioned why Penn State officials did not do more to stop Sandusky’s suspected abuse, which the university first investigated in 1998.
Emmert stressed that the letter sent to Penn State was different from a formal N.C.A.A. investigation letter. It includes a series of questions for Penn State to answer, and Emmert said that the N.C.A.A. would monitor the case throughout the legal process. The N.C.A.A. will not send investigators to Penn State’s campus.

The rest here.