HARRISBURG — A small group of Penn State board members that includes longtime defenders of famed football coach Joe Paterno is challenging as unreliable a 2012 university-commissioned investigation of the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal.

The investigation by a team led by former FBI director Louis Freeh concluded high-ranking administrators and Paterno hushed up the Sandusky scandal to avoid bad publicity.

But a new report argues it is implausible Paterno and the others would have knowingly exposed children to harm by letting a pedophile roam freely on campus.