ESPN College Football

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• Evaluating the first season for Illinois' Class of 2012.
• Iowa still hasn't given any information out about assistant coaching changes, but the school posted an advertisement for a coaching position on its website. Hawkeyes product Marshal Yanda is playing in the Super Bowl, and his mom is enjoying every bit of it.
• Denard Robinson isn't fazed by talk of his sliding draft stock. Former Wolverines defensive coordinator Greg Robinson is looking to get back into big-time football.
• Mark Dantonio had his contract renewed until 2018. Spartans recruit Damion Terry is getting some more love in the star rankings.
• Four walk-ons committed to Minnesota.
• Sam McKewon sizes up the forthcoming NCAA recruiting changes and looks at some Nebraska recruiting issues.
• Maize-N-Brew reviews Northwestern's season.
• A shoulder injury kept Ohio State's John Simon out of the Senior Bowl and could require surgery. The Buckeyes are pushing the boundaries when it comes to ticket prices and structures. Some more on Joey O'Connor's decision to transfer.
• A look at Bill O'Brien's offseason to-do list at Penn State. The Lions landed another "run-on" quarterback. A victim's lawsuit claims that Jerry Sandusky tried to buy silence by offering him a pair of Joe Paterno's socks.
• Purdue reportedly found its offensive coordinator in John Shoop.
• Wisconsin got a surprise commitment for its secondary. The Badgers are making another push for an in-state defensive star.

Sorry we didn't post this yesterday, but it was a busy day full of New Year's Day bowl games. Anyway, Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett is expected to file suit against the NCAA Wednesday over the harsh sanctions levied at Penn State for its role in the Jerry Sandusky sex-abuse scandal.

The Republican governor has a news conference scheduled for later Wednesday on the Penn State campus to announce the filing in U.S. District Court in Harrisburg. The Associated Press reports that it will be an antitrust lawsuit.

SI.com's Pete Thamel first reported this story and wrote that Penn State itself will not be a party to the lawsuit. That makes sense, because the school has worked alongside of and cooperated with the NCAA.

Will this suit gain any traction, and will it lead to the lessening of sanctions against the Nittany Lions? It's hard to see how that will happen since Penn State leaders signed off on the NCAA action. This smells more like politics. Pennsylvania has a new attorney general about to take office who promised in her campaign to investigate state prosecutors' role in the Sandusky scandal. Corbett was the attorney general before becoming governor in January 2011.

We'll have more on this story as it develops. With this and Bill O'Brien's apparent courtship from NFL teams, it's a busy week at Penn State.

Brian Bennett examines four pressing issues as the Big Ten heads into Week 10.

Former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to at least 30 years and no more than 60 years on child sex-abuse charges. Sandusky was convicted on 45 counts of child sexual abuse in June.

The sentence means that Sandusky, who is 68, will likely live out the rest of his days behind bars.

Sandusky has maintained his innocence and did so again during the sentencing hearing. He spoke for about 15 minutes, echoing most of what he had said Monday. Three of Sandusky's victims read statements, and a statement was read from the mother of another victim.

Judge John Cleland told Sandusky that his repeated denials of guilt "make you dangerous." Sandusky's lawyer said he plans to appeal the conviction.

Former Penn State athletic director Tim Curley and former senior administrator Gary Schultz are scheduled to go on trial for perjury on Jan. 7.

We'll hear from Jerry Sandusky in court Tuesday, but on the eve of his sentencing for 45 counts of child sexual abuse, the former Penn State assistant coach released an audio clip from jail Monday night, proclaiming his innocence and denouncing his accusers.

Penn State's student radio station obtained the three-minute audio clip and aired it just after 6 p.m. ET. Sandusky begins by saying, "I'm responding to the worst loss of my life." He then laments what he believes was not having a fair opportunity to prepare for trial, says his wife, Dottie, has been his only sex partner and says the first accuser, who he describes as "a dramatic, veteran accuser and always sought attention," started the allegations and "a well-orchestrated effort" that included the media, Penn State, investigators, attorneys jumped in. He said he lost his case because of "speculation and stories."

"They could take away my life, they could make me out as a monster, they can treat me as a monster, but they can't take away my heart," Sandusky says. "In my heart, I know I did not do these alleged, disgusting acts."

Sandusky didn't testify during his trial in June.

Former Penn State assistant coach Jerry Sandusky will be sentenced Tuesday on 45 counts of child sex abuse and is expected to address the court and maintain his innocence, according to his lawyer.

From the Associated Press:

Nobody else is expected to speak on Sandusky's behalf during the sentencing hearing Tuesday in Bellefonte, defense attorney Joe Amendola said.

"What I anticipate he'll say is that he's innocent," Amendola said outside the courthouse.

The attorney said others, including Sandusky's wife, have submitted letters on his behalf and that Dottie Sandusky stands by her husband and will attend the sentencing.

"He's going to fight for a new trial," Amendola said. He said "the important thing" about sentencing for the defense "is it starts the appellate process."

Sandusky likely will receive a life sentence for his crimes, as many of the counts carry minimum sentences of 5-10 years. He has been held in a county jail since his June 22 conviction.

Former Penn State football assistant coach Mike McQueary has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the university, seeking millions of dollars in damages for what he believes is defamation and misrepresentation.

McQueary, who saw former Penn State assistant Jerry Sandusky in the shower with a young boy in 2001 and reported it to former head coach Joe Paterno, claims that statements made by former Penn State president Graham Spanier after the scandal broke in November harmed his reputation. The lawsuit states Spanier told athletic staff after the scandal broke that he supported athletic director Tim Curley and vice president Gary Schultz, who had been charged with perjury and failing to report child abuse.

From the Associated Press:

"Spanier's statements have irreparably harmed (McQueary's) reputation for honesty and integrity, and have irreparably harmed (his) ability to earn a living, especially in his chosen profession of coaching football," the lawsuit said.

Messages left for Spanier and his lawyer on Tuesday were not immediately returned.

The lawsuit said McQueary learned his contract was not being renewed, meaning he was no longer a university employee, from a news conference held in July by the university's new president, Rodney Erickson. He said his salary last year was $140,000 and his future earnings as a coach would amount to at least $4 million.

McQueary's lawsuit hardly comes as a surprise, as his career options in football seemingly have been limited or completely eliminated by the scandal. The former Penn State quarterback and wide receivers coach testified in Sandusky's child sex abuse trial in June.

Michele Steele talks to Senior Counselor for APCO Worldwide, Vada Manager, regarding Penn State's handling of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless discuss if they will root for Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

Outside The Lines reporter Kelly Naqi talks with two jurors from the Sandusky trial about their experience, and the effect it continues to have on their lives.

More excerpts from Joe Posnanski's authorized biography, Paterno, are coming to light. The latest one covers what the book describes as a rocky relationship between Joe Paterno and his former longtime defensive coordinator, convicted child sex abuser Jerry Sandusky.

The Patriot-News reports on the relevant passages from the book, which divulges that Paterno had written what the family called a "Why I Hate Jerry Sandusky" memo in 1993.

"In it Paterno complained that Sandusky had stopped recruiting, seemed constantly distracted, had lost his energy for coaching, and was more interested in his charity, The Second Mile. "He would gripe about Jerry all the time," one family member said."

Of course, Sandusky retired in 1999, one year after he was investigated by police for showering with a young boy. Many have wondered if the two were related, though the Freeh Report found no link. The Freeh Report did conclude that Paterno knew about the 1998 investigation.

Posnanski writes:

"The general media takeaway from this email chain was that Paterno had convinced Curley to back off reporting Sandusky and to handle this in-house. Others familiar with the emails believed instead that Paterno had demanded they confront Sandusky."

Posnanski also asked Paterno if he considered calling the police after being told by Mike McQueary in 2002 that McQueary had witnessed Sandusky in a Penn State shower with a young boy.

"To be honest with you, I didn't," Paterno responded. "This isn't my field. I didn't know what to do. I had not seen anything. Jerry didn't work for me anymore. I didn't have anything to do with him. I tried to look through the Penn State guidelines to see what I was supposed to do. It said that I was supposed to call Tim [Curley]. So I did."

Argue away.

Penn State's board of trustees voiced its support for university president Rodney Erickson and will comply with sanctions handed down by NCAA.

Joe Paterno's family has just issued the legal equivalent of a Hail Mary pass.

The Paterno family, through attorney Wick Sollers, sent a letter of appeal Friday to the NCAA, requesting an open hearing on the sanctions handed down to Penn State as a result of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.

"This matter may be the most important disciplinary action in the history of the NCAA, and it has been handled in a fundamentally inappropriate and unprecedented manner," Sollers wrote in the letter to the NCAA's Infractions Appeal Committee. "To severely punish a University and its community and to condemn a great educator, philanthropist and coach without any public review or hearing is unfair on its face and a violation of NCAA guidelines."

They have a point about the unprecedented nature of how the NCAA chose to punish the school, an argument that many have made. But if the Paternos truly believe this appeal will gain any traction in Indianapolis, then they are delusional. If they believe they are the ones to restore Penn State football back to its pre-Sandusky status, they are living on another planet.

The family argues that it has the right to file an appeal because Paterno is an "involved individual," according to NCAA rules. Well, OK. But the only real sanctions against Joe Paterno were the vacating of his wins. There is zero chance that the NCAA would overturn that decision. But even if it ignored all previous precedent and restored those wins, who really cares in the grand scheme of things?

Beyond that, Paterno's name is about as radioactive as it gets right now in the halls of the NCAA. There will be no sympathy for his reputation at this time, and that probably won't change unless new information comes to light.

The letter also seems to ignore the fact that Penn State accepted the NCAA sanctions and agreed to not have any kind of hearing on the matter. Or that the school accepted as fact the findings of the Freeh report, which it had itself commissioned and paid for.

Yet the Paternos apparently think their letter of appeal can get the NCAA to consider changing the sanctions against a school whose leadership agreed to the penalties, simply because the family of one of the main figures responsible for the sanctions doesn't think it was fair?

Yeah, um, good luck with that one.

Indeed, the NCAA rightly batted away the appeal late Friday. But, ESPN.com's Don Van Natta Jr. writes, the Paternos could use that denial as the basis to sue the NCAA. So perhaps this is just legal wrangling. But what, really, will the Paternos seek to gain by any kind of lawsuit? I'm no lawyer, but most people have heard the phrase "you can't defame the dead." The Paternos don't seem to have any standing to fight the sanctions against the football program since they are not currently associated with it. So all I could see them angling for is the restoration of wins. Which, again, would be pointless and wildly tone deaf, given all that has gone on in the program.

We get that the Paternos are upset and want to defend JoePa's honor. Fine. Try to find some evidence that disputes the Freeh report. But actions like these only make them look like they're grasping at straws.

When Gene Marsh got the call on the morning of July 17, he was holed up in a one-room cabin -- with no running water and no toilets -- in woodsy Chebeague Island off of Maine. "A shack fit for the Unabomber," says Marsh, a 60-year-old tart-tongued Tuscaloosa, Ala., lawyer. Only six days earlier, he had been hired by Penn State to help negotiate sanctions from the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal. On the phone was Donald Remy, the NCAA's general counsel. The news was grim. Remy said Penn State was facing an unprecedented punishment: a multiple-season death penalty, no football for years.

"Are you overselling this?" Marsh asked.

"Absolutely not," Remy said.

As he sat in his cabin, "I just imagined an empty stadium," says Marsh, a former chairman of the NCAA's infractions committee who has since defended many schools and coaches before it, including former Ohio State coach Jim Tressel. "I thought about the wind blowing through the portals and all the economic and social and spiritual ramifications of that empty stadium. And this would last … years?"

• Read more from Don Van Natta Jr. on the inside negotiations that brought Penn State football to the brink of extinction.

CHICAGO -- Penn State linebacker Michael Mauti had just come off the field from 7-on-7 work around 8 a.m. Thursday morning when he got a call from head coach Bill O'Brien.

"Hey, Mike," O'Brien said. "You've got to be on a plane at 9:30."

Mauti was a last-minute addition to Penn State's player contingent for Big Ten media days, a contingent that very nearly didn't come to Chicago at all. But Mauti ended up being arguably the best interview subject here, offering an impassioned defense of his team and railing against the NCAA transfer rules.

The senior -- who led a players' statement of loyalty on Wednesday in State College along with teammate Michael Zordich -- drew a lot of notice for what he said. Mauti returned to his hotel room on Thursday evening and spent three hours going over emails sent to him. The correspondence came from fans, alumni, heads of Penn State departments and professors -- some who had taught Mauti and some who had not.

Mauti said he got one email from a couple of fans who told them they'd sworn never to go another Penn State football game after the Jerry Sandusky scandal broke. But they told him that after watching him talk, they promised never to miss another game.

"That's why I know we're doing the right thing here," he told reporters Friday. "I told coach [Thursday morning], I'm going to let it fly, man. We've got to let the public and the world know we're sticking together. We wanted this platform, of course we did."

All of the Nittany Lions here in attendance -- defensive tackle Jordan Hill and offensive lineman John Urschel were the other players -- handled themselves admirably through the media crush. Hill said he also received scores of supportive emails.

"When Mauti and Zordich were there with the team behind them, there was a tremendous amount of groundswell coming off of that video," Penn State athletic director Dave Joyner said. "It's the players that are really continuing to put a stake in the ground for this program."

Mauti could become the face of the team this year -- if he can stay healthy. He missed the 2009 season with a torn right anterior cruciate ligament and played only four games before blowing out his left ACL last year. When he's on the field, he's one of the best linebackers in the Big Ten.

Mauti says he feels great now and credits the work he's done with new strength coach Craig Fitzgerald and trainer Tim Bream.

"I've never been stronger in what I've been doing as far as weightlifting, and I haven't put a [knee] brace on all summer," he said. "The last time I was doing this rehab, I never took the brace off, so mentally I'm a whole lot more confident in my legs.

"I feel as good going into the season as I ever have, and it's a testament to those two guys."