The attention-grabbing news this week from a lawsuit between Penn State University and its insurer was the disclosure by the judge that the university’s former football coach, Joe Paterno, may have been told in 1976 that Jerry Sandusky, a longtime assistant coach, had molested a child.

Before the judge’s order was reported Thursday night, even Paterno’s harshest critics could not point to any evidence that the legendary Penn State coach had known about Sandusky’s widespread sexual abuse of minors before 1998 — 13 years before the scandal broke.

But the bigger news for Penn State may have been elsewhere in the opinion, where the judge, Gary Glazer of the Philadelphia County Court of Common Pleas, rejected the university’s argument that its insurer was obligated to cover all of the nearly $100 million in settlements the university has paid to 32 of Sandusky’s accusers.

Rather, Glazer concluded that instances of abuse after 1999 would be subject to trial. He found that the insurer would be responsible for paying settlements reached for instances of abuse before 1992. He also found that the insurer was not responsible for claims stemming from abuse between 1992 and 1999 — which accounted for many of the claims, according to Tom Kline, a lawyer for one victim who settled.