Serious question - is it still appropriate to blame the Sandusky mess for the downward trend in Penn State's ranking? I'm sure that some of you have quite a bit of alumni involvement or relationships with faculty, so what is the general consensus as to why Penn State has gone down in the rankings? I don't want to hear "this ranking doesn't mean anything" or "this ranking is subjective and judgmental" because we were all pounding our chests back in the 90's and early 2000's when we were rising up the rankings. We have gone from low 40's in the early 2000's to low 60's in 2021.
I think that indirectly the Sandusky mess is a factor. It cost millions of dollars. To make up for the lost income the university began accepting more out of state students to get the extra tuition money. In order to do that they are taking less qualified out of state applicants.