STATE COLLEGE — Penn State likely won’t provide the NCAA all the answers it wants by a Dec. 16 deadline for its inquiry into whether the school broke rules with its handling of the scandal that cost Joe Paterno his job.

School president Rodney Erickson said Tuesday the university would respond to the NCAA by the deadline as a “work in progress.” A Penn State spokeswoman cited the volume of investigations under way as a potential factor.

Investigations began after police arrested former assistant Jerry Sandusky last month. He maintains his innocence on charges he sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year span.

Beside the criminal investigation and the NCAA inquiry, the Department of Education and university trustees, respectively, are conducting their own, separate probes.

“We will make a response, even though our knowledge will not be complete by Dec. 16,” Erickson said Tuesday at a University Faculty Senate meeting. “We will respond as a work in progress to the NCAA.”

NCAA president Mark Emmert last month said in a letter to Erickson that the governing body for college sports will look at “Penn State’s exercise of institutional control over its intercollegiate athletics programs” in the case of Sandusky, the retired defensive coordinator expected in court Dec. 13 on charges of 40 counts of child sex abuse. Sandusky maintains his innocence.

Emmert has described Penn State and its trustees as being “extremely collaborative.”