Happy Valley may once again be a happy, or at least, happier, place.
A proposed settlement to restore the 112 wins Penn State earned under head coach Joe Paterno that were vacated by the NCAA in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal that rocked the region and the university has been reached, according to PennLive.com.
"The announcement was made by the NCAA, moments before state Sen. Jake Corman was scheduled to make an announcement regarding his lawsuit against the NCAA," according to PennLive. "The lawsuit, originally an attempt to keep the $60 million fine the NCAA imposed on Penn State in Pennsylvania, has become a case testing the validity of the penalties imposed by the NCAA."
With the settlement, the Penn State board of trustees will gather to discuss their impending lawsuit, according to the Associated Press.
"Penn State trustees' chairman Keith Masser tells The Associated Press that board members will have a private discussion early Friday afternoon about the lawsuit."
The penalties against Penn State included the $60 million fine along with the removal of 112 wins garnered by the university's illustrious football program under Paterno from 1998 to 2011, as well as a ban on bowl games and the reduction of scholarships.
The bowl game ban and scholarship reductions had since been lifted.
There was talk in recent days that a settlement which would restore the wins - a penalty most alumni viewed as the most egregious of the sanctions handed down by the NCAA - was in the works, according to PennLive.
With the wins restored, Paterno, who was the head coach at Penn State from 1966 to 2011, is again the winningest coach in major college football history, with 409 victories to his name.
