Do the Right Thing, NCAA, For Once: Shut Down Michigan St. Athletics

Posted on by

January 30, 2018

by Steve Thomas

Michigan St. University has proven itself incapable and unworthy of running a collegiate athletics department and competing in NCAA-sponsored competitions.

The University should be given the death penalty by the NCAA.  Not just the football or basketball teams; the entire athletic department.

ESPN recently published a damning article on Michigan St. failures, and I highly recommend everyone read it here.  The culture at Michigan St. University appears to be one of neglect and placing money and athletic prominence above the legal rights of, and their ethical obligations to, victims.  Let’s start with the most well-documented problem – Dr. Larry Nassar, who was employed by the university from 1997 to 2014 as a physician and assistant professor while simultaneously serving as team physician to USA Gymnastics, which runs the U.S. national team.  His story with regard to USA Gymnastics is long, disgusting, already well known, and not worth rehashing here. Suffice to say that he was arrested in December, 2016, and eventually pled guilty to possession of child pornography in federal court and to 7 state counts of molesting young girls at his clinic at Michigan St. and at his home.  At his state sentencing hearing, over 150 women gave victim impact testimony detailing Nassar’s abuse going back decades when most of them were children involved with the USA gymnastics program.  Although he received a 60 year prison sentence on the federal charge and 40 to 175 years on the state molestation charges, this in no way absolves the university from liability or responsibility.  This conduct was committed by their assistant professor, in some cases on campus, and in every case on their watch.  Many other women, Michigan St. student athletes, have alleged abuse by Nassar on campus and reported the abuse to various university officials.  The university ignored the problem for years until it had no choice but to finally fire him.

Nassar is just the tip of the iceberg.  The ESPN piece reveals a culture amongst university administration of neglect and cover up of reports of criminal sexual assaults against students by university football and basketball players, a failure to meet mandatory federal reporting requirements, and a willingness to allow the athletic department, or even coaching staffs, to investigate and handle assault cases.

Above all else, Michigan St. University demonstrated that silencing allegations and protecting their elite-level sports teams was more important than properly following their own regulations, NCAA rules, and federal law requiring proper investigation, discipline, and charging of these accused football and basketball players.  For example, according to ESPN’s article, in one instance the head football coach, Mark Dantonio, even punished one of his players for a sexual assault allegation only by making the player talk to his mother about what he had done.  That’s simply outrageous.  Dantonio deserves termination for that all by itself.

I could give excruciating detail about each allegation, but the ESPN piece cited above (click here) does a fine job at documenting the entire story.  My point is this:  Michigan St. University, like both Penn St. and Baylor University, has repeatedly placed the welfare of university sports teams and the athletes who play for them above the health and welfare of sexual assault victims, including in some cases pre-pubescent children.  It is disgusting, horrific, and un-American.

The overriding question in my mind, beyond the filing of appropriate federal and state criminal charges for this conduct, including possibly against university officials for their failure to follow federal law in reporting sexual assaults, is what if anything the NCAA is going to do about it.  Penn St. University, as an institution, at best ignored and worst sanctioned Jerry Sandusky’s rape of young boys on campus at the football facilities; as a result, in 2012, Penn St. was given a $60M fine and lost 4 years of bowl games and 10 scholarships per year for four years – which in my view amounts to a slap on the wrist.  I’m sure that during those four years the university took in more than $60M from wealthy alums and boosters eager to help their university escape with the minimum possible consequences, victims be damned – after all, these are the same people who still revere Joe Paterno despite his willingness to turn his head and ignore reports of Sandusky’s conduct for years.  Penn St. was back in the national title picture this year, its alumni gleefully putting the issue in their rearview mirror as if it never happened.  They should be ashamed of themselves.  Baylor University, for its part, covered up gang rape by athletes and victim shaming, among many other things – and that’s just recently; a Baylor basketball player murdered his teammate in 2003.  Baylor merely fired its head football coach, Art Briles (who not only participated in the cover ups, but led the way), and escaped NCAA wrath altogether.

The NCAA, while happy to bumble through investigations of athletes who were given an illegal ham sandwich for lunch, has proven itself to be woefully out of its depth when dealing with serious criminal conduct by university employees and players.  It hasn’t given any indication that it is capable of conducting a thorough investigation, and also lacks the power of subpoena and the ability to get warrants as can law enforcement.  Furthermore, I would submit to you that if you gave NCAA president Mark Emmert truth serum, he would admit that the NCAA would rather turn its head and ignore these kinds of actions than actually deal with them. Why?  Because the NCAA and its member schools, particularly major programs like Michigan St., Penn St., and Baylor, are making millions upon millions of dollars courtesy of their respective football and basketball programs.  The NCAA and these three universities, among others, have clearly proven that to them the allure of money, winning, and prestige overrides and outweighs the need to properly address horrific conduct by athletes who, in some cases would never qualify for admission to the school but for their athletic prowess.  I have no faith that any of these universities, Mark Emmert, or the NCAA will ever change.  The money and power is too great to let a few meager allegations of sexual assault stop the gravy train.

Allow me to be absolutely clear, once again:  the NCAA needs to levy its “death penalty” punishment against the Michigan St. athletic department, for several seasons, just like Penn St. and Baylor football should have received but didn’t.  A department that is so callous about the misconduct of its student-athletes and is willing to shame and ignore victims – including, in the case of Nassar, children – does not deserve to have an athletic program.  After all, the purpose of a university, theoretically, is to educate, not make money by competing in athletics.  An example needs to be made, and the NCAA needs to show the world that it is done allowing this sort of despicable conduct to go on.  At some point, this governing body simply must put its foot down.

In addition, the NCAA and university athletic departments need to take away the ability of the athletic departments and team coaches to in any way investigate misconduct allegations or discipline players for them.  This needs to be only handled by law enforcement and another independent branch of university administration.  Allowing coaches to counsel their players about sexual assault allegations as the only form of discipline is an offense to justice.

I am aware of the primary criticism of these kind of sanctions: why punish innocent students for the conduct of others by eliminating their chance to compete?  Well, you know what?  Sorry.  Allow these students to keep their scholarships and continue their education if they so choose.  Allow them to transfer to and compete for another university without having to sit out a year – if they were good enough to play at Michigan St., then they’re good enough to play for another university as well.  I’m sorry that a few students might be affected by the misconduct of Michigan St., but an example needs to be set for society.

I’m sick and tired of these stories.  I want them to stop. I want our institutions of higher learning to starting acting like universities again.  I want to see them stop protecting football and basketball players at the expense of victims.  I’m not naive enough to believe that these problems are limited to just three universities – I’d bet the house that this goes on at many, if not most, of the institutions with major power football and basketball programs, at least to one degree or the other.

The only way to put a stop to this and change the culture of athletics and money first, everything else second, is to drop the hammer.  Michigan St. is a good place to start.  So, for once, do the right thing, NCAA – give the Spartan athletic program the death penalty.

356 comments