ace Malloy surprised Joe Paterno with a $5 million endowment, an unexpected gift for the coach on the eve of his induction into the College Football Hall of Fame.

"I guess Christmas came early this year," Paterno said in a prepared statement.

At least for the football team it did. The university will invest the money and then spend a portion of the annual income -- all of it earmarked for the football team. The profit from the endowment will be spent on football players' academic support, special medical care and to pay some recruiting expenses, according to a university press release.

While the Malloy's gift is certainly a grand and generous gesture, it's unfortunate that money will be used solely for the Penn State football team, a program that already generates enough to revenue to support itself as well as most of the other varsity sports at Penn State.

Nittany Lion football players already have access to the Morgan Academic Support Center for Student-Athletes, where they can receive mentoring, academic advising and career advice.

Most signs also indicate they're also not waiting in Ritenour Health Center to have someone check up on that latest knee sprain -- in fact, the doctor who operated on Paterno's broken leg last year was Dr. Wayne Sebastianelli, the team's doctor. And in all likelihood, Paterno doesn't need any help footing the bill for his staff's recruiting trips.

Not to mention the football team has full use of the $14.7 million Lasch Football Building.

A destitute program it is not.

But there are people at this university in need. The Judo club received 10 cents in funding this year. Students entering into the education major are soon going to be required to spend $1,534 on MacBooks for class. And Penn State's official student government, the University Park Undergraduate Association, receives about $32,000 in funding, about $1.2 million less than its counterpart at Michigan State University.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg of students or student organizations in need of more funding.

While the Malloy's gift itself cannot be criticized, the money itself could have gone to a better cause than the football team.

But Paterno has full discretion of how the money is used, as long as the athletic director approves the use. Paterno has given back to the university numerous times, often to the library.

"He is so much more than a coach," Malloy said in a prepared statement. "He's an educator."

Let's hope that Paterno remembers that when he decides how to use his latest allowance.