HARRISBURG — The family and estate of Joe Paterno and others suing the NCAA over the penalties levied against Penn State for the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal added the university as a “nominal defendant” in the lawsuit on Wednesday.

The amended complaint also provided new details about the difficulties Paterno’s son and another former Penn State assistant coach have had in finding work.

The lawsuit is not intended to punish Penn State, Paterno family lawyer Wick Sollers said. Instead, the suit asks that the punishments levied against the school be thrown out.

“To be clear, we do not seek any monetary damages from Penn State, nor do we ask that the court order Penn State to take any action,” Sollers said.

The consent decree under which Penn State was sanctioned includes a fine of $60 million, a four-year postseason ban, a temporary reduction of football scholarships and the cancellation of 112 wins from the Paterno era.

In a statement, the NCAA said it intended to fight the lawsuit and stood by the consent decree.

“They have sued the very school they say they want to protect, asking for relief that Penn State itself has not sought,” said NCAA lawyer Donald Remy. “This is yet another step backwards and against all of the well-intentioned people who have made so much progress advancing the best interest of the university.”

A Penn State spokesman said the addition of the university as a defendant in the lawsuit was disappointing.

“Penn State will do its best to mitigate the expense, disruption to its operations and harm to its mission and interests, which are caused by the forced and unwilling inclusion of the university as a defendant in a dispute between private parties,” said Penn State spokesman Dave La Torre.

Sollers said the lawsuit is identifying Penn State as a “nominal defendant” because Penn State signed on to the consent decree. He said the concept was “well accepted in the law but not used often.”

The lawsuit claims the NCAA circumvented its own procedures and violated the rights of the plaintiffs in an effort to deflect attention from their own failures following the arrest of Sandusky, a longtime assistant coach under Paterno, on child sex abuse charges in 2011.