Again, it can be dealt with in the courts AND by the NCAA. There is nothing saying that both can't handle it.

However, the issue is clearly relevant to the athletic program. You have an institutional cover up of serious crimes of a former assistant football coach by the football coach, the athletic director and the president of the university. If you can't punish the athletic program of the institution for something like that, the NCAA is a bigger joke than it is even made out to be.

And the "guilty party" from the NCAA point of view is the institution...not just the individual people. It was a complete organizational breakdown. Part of what the NCAA is doing is making sure that the athletic department is operating correctly in the future - and that is certainly relevant to its authority. It's like saying you can't fine a corporation for something they did wrong 20 years ago because the management and shareholders changed. It doesn't work that way.