The NCAA has ended the postseason bowl ban on the Penn State Nittany Lions, which was put in place in 2012. The team will be eligible to qualify for a bowl this season, and next year football scholarships will return as well.

The reason for all of these punishments goes back to the infamous Jerry Sandusky scandal.

The former Penn State assistant coach was convicted of sexually assaulting young children he met through his Second Mile Foundation. In all, he was charged with 40 counts of sexual abuse over a 15 year period. In the end, Sandusky was eventually found guilty and sentenced to prison.

Sandusky used to play football for Penn State as a defensive end in the '60s. He would also return as a linebackers coach and defensive coordinator for the University from 1969-1999.

At the top of Penn State Football is Joe Paterno. His involvement with the University goes all the way back to 1950. From 1950-2011 Paterno was an assistant coach and head coach for the Nittany Lions. It's still not 100 percent clear what his role in this matter was. Many people believe that he could have done more to stop what was going on, and he was simply protecting Sandusky because he wanted him for his defensive knowledge.

It was later learned that wide receivers coach Mike McQueary witnessed Sandusky abusing a young boy in the shower and told Paterno. Neither McQueary or Paterno told the local police, ignoring the huge issue. Paterno was later relieved of his head coaching position and his statue at Penn State was removed.

The NCAA came down hard on Penn State, placing a four year bowl ban and taking away football scholarships during that time period. A $60 million fine was also placed on the university and every win from 1998-2011 has been vacated.

So now that the football team is allowed to once again compete in bowl games and scholarships are returning next season, many are questioning this decision.

Obviously Sandusky got what he deserved for his despicable acts. It feels appropriate to allow the football team play at full strength once again, because they had no involvement in the situation. The average age of a player on the Penn State roster is just 19.9 years old, meaning most of these players were less than 10 year old when most of these incidents occurred.

Punishing players for something they had no involvement in or any awareness of years ago off the football field just isn't fair. An ESPN poll shows that 74 percent of sports fans believe the NCAA made the correct decision dropping the punishments.

The damage has been done. Jerry Sandusky is in prison, Joe Paterno isn't even alive, and McQueary hasn't had a job in football since the breaking news occurred in 2011. To continue to punish the current football team wouldn't make any sense.

Other programs (like USC and SMU) have experienced a lot punishments in recent years without the NCAA handing back scholarships or bowl game rights. That shouldn't be confused with this at all. Those programs were punished because of football reasons; cheating on the field, receiving money, illegal scouting and more. The terrible occurrences at Penn State had nothing to do with football.

Unfortunately, nothing can take away the terrible acts that occurred at Penn State years ago. Hopefully the NCAA sanctions have pressured Penn State to make sure something like this doesn't happen again.

For up-to-date sports news, scores, and more, follow Latin Post Sports on Twitter

FOR MORE NCAAF NEWS, TRADE AND FREE AGENCY UPDATES, CLICK ON THIS LINK TO VISIT LATIN POST.COM'S SPORTS PAGE