Seems like you are really after Baylor for some reason. How about you give the same attention to Tennessee or Mississippi State?
-- Scot House
The attention we paid to the Baylor scandal was due to the serious nature of the allegations and how it was handled by the university and the football program, which was deemed egregious enough by the investigators that the school dumped the school president and head coach Art Briles. And keep in mind that Briles was the most successful head coach Baylor football’s ever had and they just built him a new stadium. No one there was looking for an excuse to get rid of him. This wasn’t some 4-8 coach. This was a coach at the top of his game.
As for the Mississippi State story regarding Jeffery Simmons, Stew Mandel and I discussed it at length several times on our podcast, and I also wrote this column taking issue with MSU and AD Scott Stricklin.
As for the Tennessee situation, there are some significant differences between Baylor and UT’s handling of sexual assault cases.
According to the Pepper Hamilton investigation that Baylor commissioned, choices made by the Bears coaching staff "posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University... In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics. In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct.”
In addition, football staffers took steps "to actively divert cases from the student conduct or criminal processes. In some cases, football coaches and staff had inappropriate involvement in disciplinary and criminal matters or engaged in improper conduct that reinforced an overall perception that football was above the rules, and that there was no culture of accountability for misconduct."
In the case of Tennessee, all of these players who have been linked to any allegations of sexual assault or domestic assault — A.J. Johnson, Michael Williams, Treyvon Paulk, Von Pearson and Alexis Johnson — were either immediately suspended or dismissed from the team.
-- Scot House
The attention we paid to the Baylor scandal was due to the serious nature of the allegations and how it was handled by the university and the football program, which was deemed egregious enough by the investigators that the school dumped the school president and head coach Art Briles. And keep in mind that Briles was the most successful head coach Baylor football’s ever had and they just built him a new stadium. No one there was looking for an excuse to get rid of him. This wasn’t some 4-8 coach. This was a coach at the top of his game.
As for the Mississippi State story regarding Jeffery Simmons, Stew Mandel and I discussed it at length several times on our podcast, and I also wrote this column taking issue with MSU and AD Scott Stricklin.
As for the Tennessee situation, there are some significant differences between Baylor and UT’s handling of sexual assault cases.
According to the Pepper Hamilton investigation that Baylor commissioned, choices made by the Bears coaching staff "posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University... In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics. In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct.”
In addition, football staffers took steps "to actively divert cases from the student conduct or criminal processes. In some cases, football coaches and staff had inappropriate involvement in disciplinary and criminal matters or engaged in improper conduct that reinforced an overall perception that football was above the rules, and that there was no culture of accountability for misconduct."
In the case of Tennessee, all of these players who have been linked to any allegations of sexual assault or domestic assault — A.J. Johnson, Michael Williams, Treyvon Paulk, Von Pearson and Alexis Johnson — were either immediately suspended or dismissed from the team.
