Perhaps the most damning confirmation from the eight-month probe into the Penn State University sex-abuse scandal is former FBI Director Louis Freeh’s disclosure that there were “more red flags here than you could count over a long period of time.”

University officials over the years not only failed the boys victimized by former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, but officials also failed the university itself and everyone who has been loyal to it and its long-standing stellar reputation.

It’s doubtful that many will question the credibility of what’s in the report. The most important findings weren’t unanticipated, based on what information had emerged in the months since the scandal became public in November, and at Sandusky’s trial.

The scathing 267-page Freeh report doesn’t mark the end of this tragic scandal. Work must move forward, to bring closure to all that Sandusky wrought.

The upcoming trials of former Penn State vice president Gary Schultz and former athletic director Tim Curley and whatever might be forthcoming for former university president Graham Spanier are only part of the unfinished business.

The scandal has exacted a big financial toll on the university, not only regarding the costs associated with the Freeh investigation and settlements with the victims, but also with steps needed to repair other damage that the university has incurred since the scandal emerged.

Then there’s the matter of what the impact might be on the university stemming from the NCAA, which says Penn Sate must address four key questions concerning “institutional control and ethics policies.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Education is examining whether Penn State violated the Clery Act, which requires reporting of certain crimes on campus, including those of a sexual nature. There’s the uncertainty of what the fallout might be for the university if it’s determined that it did violate the law.

Freeh said the most saddening and sobering finding of the probe was “the total disregard for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims by the most senior leaders at Penn State. The most powerful men at Penn State failed to take any steps for 14 years to protect the children who Sandusky victimized.”

In addition, Freeh said Sandusky’s conduct was in part a result of the school’s lack of transparency, which stemmed from a “failure of governance” on the part of officials and the board of trustees.

For those who felt former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno was wronged in being fired as a result of the scandal, the report undermined that thinking, determining that Paterno “was an integral part of this active decision to conceal” and his firing was justified.

However, it must continue to be acknowledged that Paterno, who died of lung cancer in January, never had the opportunity to tell Freeh’s investigative team his account of what happened.

That fact will remain an asterisk in the Freeh investigation.

While the report produced no shocking disclosures, merely confirming what already was known or suspected, Penn State nonetheless has had its image dashed.

But that hasn’t damaged the university’s mission, quality of education and the many opportunities that exist there.

They will continue.

But amid that strong educational environment will remain the nagging realization of how so many leaders did so much that was wrong by not acting quickly and properly in response to the first clues of Sandusky’s crimes.

The lessons from this Penn State debacle must serve as a guide not only to Penn State, but to every other university.

Jerry Sandusky would be mostly forgotten if Penn State officials had acted correctly from the start — nearly a decade and a half ago.