UPDATE - (AP) - INDIANAPOLIS -- One Penn State freshman says of today's sanctions from the NCAA, "You knew it was coming, but it was hard to hear."

Matt Bray was among a group of students and alumni at a student union on campus who gasped and groaned as they watched TV coverage of today's announcement.

The governing body of college sports imposed a mountain of fines and penalties on the football program, in response to the sexual abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky -- who has been convicted of sexually abusing 10 boys over 15 years. An investigation found that former coach Joe Paterno and several other top officials at Penn State had stayed quiet about the accusations against Sandusky.

The NCAA hit Penn State with $60 million in fines, and banned the football team from post-season play for four years. Scholarships will be capped at 20 percent below the normal limit for that time.

And 14 years of victories by Paterno, the coach with the most wins in college football history, are being wiped off the books. That means that former Florida State coach Bobby Bowden will hold the top spot with 377 major-college wins, while Paterno will be credited with 298.

Players left a team meeting today without talking to reporters.

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The NCAA has slammed Penn State with an unprecedented series of penalties, including a $60 million fine and the loss of all coach Joe Paterno's victories from 1998-2011, in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

Other sanctions include a four-year ban on bowl games, and the loss of 20 scholarships per year over four years.

NCAA President Mark Emmert announced the staggering sanctions Monday at a news conference in Indianapolis. Though the NCAA stopped short of imposing the "death penalty" -- shutting down the Nittany Lions' program completely -- the punishment is still crippling for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook.

Sandusky, a former Penn State defensive coordinator, was found guilty in June of sexually abusing young boys, sometimes on campus.

AP