Meet the latest leader in the race for most morally bankrupt college football program.
Our runaway champ, deep in the heart of Texas, is Baylor University, which just axed its winning football coach, Art Briles, because Briles apparently moonlighted as a flying pig and chief operating officer of the pay-no-mind club when it came to alleged sexual assaults by his players.
Baylor's athletic director Ian McCaw has resigned, a good thing, because he allegedly oversaw a toxic bog which was the subject of scathing findings by an independent investigation initiated by the school. It points to everything that can go wrong and wicked when winning, not human decency, runs the show.
Among some of the report's findings were that football and athletics personnel chose not to report alleged acts of sexual violence to administrators outside of the athletics department and that football staff conducted its own investigations and sought to discredit complainants — the alleged victims.
"I wish I could say I was more surprised," said Annette Burrhus-Clay, executive director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault, based in Austin. "I'm afraid that this kind of thing is happening in lots of universities. But the level to which this happened at Baylor is off the charts. They clearly put athletics over their students."
Kenneth Starr, the same Kenneth Starr who made a name with his velociraptor approach to alleged sexual misdeeds by President Bill Clinton, was removed as Baylor president after the investigation alleged Starr was part of an administration that looked the other way when it came to alleged sexual assaults by players. The university busted Starr down to … chancellor and law school professor.
Yeah, that'll learn him.
Can we get some justice here?
This case should be a reminder for every college athletic program, every college and for society.
It's about having a conscience.
Instead, Briles and his staff apparently put a campus and community in harm's way while watching players' backs. One player, Tevin Elliott, was accused of assaulting five women. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison on two counts of sexual assault. Another player, Sam Ukwuachu, was accused of sexually assaulting a Baylor female soccer player. He was found guilty. There are other alleged incidents.
There will be lawsuits. And probably Department of Education and Department of Justice investigations over possible Title IX violations.
"This isn't the first school that hasn't been adhering to Title IX," said Amanda Brennan, lead sexual assault victim advocate for the Crisis Center of Tampa Bay. "I think that we already live in a culture that not only shames survivors of sexual violence, but often places the responsibility for their own rape on them rather than the perpetrator. Our universities are no exception to this."
Art Briles has two grown daughters.
What if one of them had been a victim?
"I'm hoping we get to the point where we don't even have to consider that we have wives, daughters or girlfriends," said Burrhus-Clay, whose son played football at TCU. "This is about just giving a damn as people."
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Explore all your optionsLooks like Baylor didn't.