Penn State just delivered a message to high school athletes in New Jersey, and it's one that every potential recruit and their parents should remember the next time one of its coaches comes knocking on their door:

We don't care about you.

That's the takeaway from the Nick Suriano news. Forget all the nonsense about putting the athletes first, about the athletic department in State College being one big, happy family. It's lip service.

Suriano, one of the nation's top wrestlers, wanted to come home. He wanted to return to New Jersey, where he was an undefeated four-time state champion at Bergen Catholic, and complete his college career at Rutgers. Forget his reasons, which Suriano and his family have not yet made known. This, the wrestler decided, was best for him.

In any sane world, that would be as easy as packing up his dorm room, filling out a few forms and registering for classes. The NCAA, as it has proven time and time again, is not a sane world.

Big Ten rules require that athletes get a waiver in order to transfer from one conference school to another without losing a full year of eligibility. If Penn State supported that waiver, Suriano's move to Piscataway would be little more than a rubber-stamp deal.

Penn State refused.

Suriano still plans to file that waiver, but it is almost certain to be denied by a Big Ten committee. That means he'd have three choices: 1. Stay at a university where he's not happy. 2. Give up a full season of college wrestling, one in which he would be favored to win a national championship. 3. Go some place else.

Remember: Suriano is unpaid labor. He is an amateur athlete who represented Penn State well on and off the wrestling mat in his one season with the Nittany Lions, and instead of helping him move onto the next chapter in his life, the response was, essentially, how dare you?

Cael Sanderson, who did not return a phone call on Monday afternoon, should be better than this. His program has claimed six of the last seven national championships -- including the 2017 title, with Suriano unable to compete due to an ankle injury.

His arrival in Piscataway would bolster the Rutgers program, but it certainly wouldn't swing the balance of power in the Big Ten. He doesn't need to keep Suriano from becoming a Scarlet Knight. Sanderson and his boss, athletic director Sandy Barbour, should have valued the needs of a young athlete over some antiquated rule.

They chose to do the opposite. The best hope for Suriano now is that powerful voices in college sports will use social media -- an important ally for college athletes -- to put pressure on Sanderson and Barbour to reverse course and do the right thing.

That's what happened with Daisha Simmons, a basketball player who Alabama blocked from transferring to Seton Hall until Jay Bilas, Dick Vitale and others started screaming from their Twitter pulpits. Alabama caved when it became clear that the negative attention could potentially hurt the athletic department in the long run.

"It's just disappointing in this day and age when college athletics are at their peak in terms of earning money that we're going to prohibit athletes from going to an institution where they can get the education they want," Seton Hall women's basketball coach Tony Bozzella said on Monday. "I mean, at this point, what are we doing?"

College coaches routinely walk away from one seven-figure contract to a bigger one, but when an athlete wants the same freedom to make a decision that's best for them and their families, they are powerless.

Penn State could have made a powerful statement that people are more important than rules, that relationships are more vital than winning. Instead, it sent the opposite message, and it's one that every recruit in New Jersey should hear loud and clear.

Steve Politi may be reached at spoliti@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @StevePoliti. Find NJ.com on Facebook.