The antitrust lawsuit filed by Governor Tom Corbett earlier this year against the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for acting hastily in imposing penalties on Penn State over the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal, was dismissed Thursday by a federal judge.

The lawsuit was originally filed seeking to remove all the sanctions as they would have impacted the economic climate of the state campuses. Corbett filed on behalf of stadium workers, shopkeepers, hoteliers and others whose businesses would have been affected by the penalties.

NCAA levied sharp scholarship reductions, a four-year bowl ban and a $60 million fine following a probe report by former FBI director Louis Freeh that partly blamed late Joe Paterno, Penn State's longtime football coach, and three school officials for conspiring to conceal sexual allegations against Sandusky.

In addition, the NCAA erased 111 wins over more than 14 seasons under Paterno, which was part of his college record of 409 career victories.

U.S. District Court Judge Yvette Kane said the lawsuit's arguments 'fail to advance the ball,' questioning the indirect economic impact of NCAA sanctions on third parties. "These are important questions deserving of public debate, but they are not antitrust questions."

Sandusky, a former longtime assistant football coach under Paterno, was convicted in June 2012 for molesting 10 boys over 15 years. He was found guilty of 45 out of 48 allegations against him and was sentenced to 30 to 60 years in prison.

In July, Paterno was accused of concealing allegations against Sandusky. The management dismissed Paterno in Nov. 2011, just two months before his death. He died of lung cancer at the age of 85.

At the same time, NCAA, the governing body of U.S. collegiate sports, introduced sanctions against Penn State for failing to stop Sandusky's sexual abuse of children.

After Kane announced the verdict, the NCAA said it hoped the decision would "serve as a beginning of the end of the divide among those who, like Penn State, want to move forward to put the horror of the Sandusky crimes behind the university and those who want to prolong the fight, and with it, the pain." Penn State was not involved in the lawsuit.

Corbett said he was dissatisfied and believed the sanctions 'have harmed the citizens, students, athletes, alumni and taxpayers of Pennsylvania.' "Countless individuals and small businesses throughout the state will continue to suffer because of the NCAA's actions," Corbett said.

Early this month, the family of Paterno and several campus community members including faculty and ex players filed a civil suit against the NCAA to annul penalties imposed against the university.

The lawsuit critiques Freeh's report as an 'unreliable rush to injustice,' and that the NCAA inappropriately banked on the findings instead of conducting its own investigation and delivered its sentence in less than two weeks after Freeh's results were reported.

The Freeh report revealed that Paterno and other university official's buried Sandusky's sexual abuse for years in an attempt to protect the multimillion-dollar football program.