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<p>Five years ago this week, Jim Delany called it &#8220;the most difficult situation&#8221; he had ever faced.</p><p>The Big Ten commissioner spoke at Big Ten media days, shortly after the NCAA had enforced severe sanctions on Penn State in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.</p><p>&#8220;You can debate them all you want,&#8221; Delany said in July 2012, &#8220;but in my view, they had moral authority and responsibility to act, as did the Big Ten. From a personal and professional perspective, (it&#8217;s) a challenging period.&#8221;</p><p>At the opening of Big Ten media days on Monday, Delany was asked about his view of Penn State now with the Nittany Lions coming off of a surprising conference championship last season.</p><p>&#8220;It was maybe the most difficult set of circumstances I&#8217;ve ever been asked to participate in and assist with,&#8221; Delany told reporters in Chicago. &#8220;Having said that, I can look anybody in the eye and salute Penn State for the progress they&#8217;ve made, the seriousness with which they&#8217;ve treated this issue, the education that has been absorbed, the changes that have been made by various people, including (Penn State President Eric Barron and athletic director Sandy Barbour), and a variety of others.&#8221;</p><p>Penn State&#8217;s compliance in reforming its standards and practices with regards to reporting abuse &#8212; working with an independent monitor, former Sen. George Mitchell &#8212; led to the sanctions largely being rolled back ahead of schedule.</p><p>It was a more positive outcome than most anyone, Delany included, could have predicted five summers ago.</p><p>&#8220;I think the university is one of the great ones in the country,&#8221; Delany said. &#8220;I think the culture is one of the great ones in the country. And it&#8217;s obvious that, maybe the least important is how good their football team is. But their football team is now healthy after having come through sanctions over the last five years. They&#8217;ve got great leadership, great players, and we&#8217;re really happy that the&#8217;ve gotten to other side, if you will, after five years.</p><p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t think anyone forgets the victims or the circumstances that hurt a lot of people. So it&#8217;s been a tough road to go. But I think we&#8217;re on the other side.&#8221;</p><p><strong>Julius not with Lions</strong></p><p>Penn State kickoff specialist Joey Julius is not on the Lions roster, which was updated this week for Big Ten media days.</p><p>PennLive first reported Julius was no longer with the team.</p><p>Julius, a walk-on kicker from the Harrisburg area, rose to national fame last fall with his highlight-reel hits on kick returners. During the season he also revealed that he suffered from an eating disorder and had sought treatment at McCallum Place in St. Louis in early 2016.</p><p>Though he returned to school to play in the fall, Julius was not with the team during spring ball, writing on Facebook that he had returned to treatment. Penn State coaches and players said at the time they were hopeful he would be able to play again in 2017.</p><p>He responded on Twitter early Tuesday morning to let people know that he was doing well.<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"></p><p dir="ltr">Thank you everyone for the kind messages. Just so you dont worry I am in full recovery and have been discharged from treatment for awhile.&#8212; Joey Julius (@joey_julius) <a href="https://twitter.com/joey_julius/status/889709462361178112">July 25, 2017</a></blockquote><script charset="utf-8" type="mce-text/javascript" src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async=""></script></p><p>&#8220;Recovery is a wonderful and beautiful thing that I am working on returning (to),&#8221; Julius wrote in May. &#8220;There is light at the end of the tunnel. It is just a very long tunnel.&#8221;</p><p><strong>More honors</strong></p><p>A Big Ten preseason media poll assembled by Cleveland.com has Ohio State edging Penn State for the East Division title and winning the championship over Wisconsin from the West. The Buckeyes received 34 first-place votes in the East, compared to Penn State&#8217;s seven. Four voters picked the Lions to defend their title and win it all.</p><p>The Big Ten does not put out an official preseason poll, but the conference does take votes from media members and publishes a 10-man list of players to watch.</p><p>Not surprisingly, Penn State tailback Saquon Barkley and quarterback Trace McSorley both cracked the list for the East Division along with Indiana linebacker Tegray Scales, Ohio State quarterback J.T. Barrett and Ohio State defensive end Tyquan Lewis.</p><p>Honored from the West Division were Iowa linebacker Josey Jewell, Northwestern safety Godwin Igwebuike, Northwestern tailback Justin Jackson, Wisconsin linebacker Jack Cichy and Wisconsin tight end Troy Fumagalli.</p><p>Penn State elected to continue its tradition of bringing seniors out to Big Ten media days, meaning juniors Barkley and McSorley will be staying home. Coach James Franklin is scheduled to speak Tuesday along with safety Marcus Allen, linebacker Jason Cabinda and tight end Mike Gesicki.</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Monday he &#8216;can look anybody in the eye and salute Penn State for the progress they&#8217;ve made&#8217; in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/web1_delany-B1G-2.jpg</photo0><caption0>Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany said Monday he &#8216;can look anybody in the eye and salute Penn State for the progress they&#8217;ve made&#8217; in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal. </caption0><photoCredit0>G-Jun Yam | AP photo </photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>Times Leader</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><shirttailMeta><p>Reach Times Leader sports at 570-829-7143 or on Twitter @TLsports</p></shirttailMeta></div>

Big Ten’s Jim Delany lauds Penn State for post-sanctions progress