A lawsuit was filed today against Baylor, alleging that there were 52 acts of rape by football players between 2011 and 2014, including five instances of gang rape, and two of those involving 10 or more football players.
Other major quotes to take away from this article
She says that Chatman was accused of rape once before and the university failed to intervene. In that case, the suit says, a student athletic trainer reported that Chatman raped her at his off-campus apartment, so the university moved the trainer to a female sports team and agreed to pay for her education in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.
A Dallas-area high school athlete, according to the suit, said former assistant coach Kendall Briles once asked him, "Do you like white women? Because we have a lot of them at Baylor and they love football players."
Remember that Briles has been hired by Kiffin at FAU.
Full article can be found here
If this doesn't warrant the death penalty for the football program, I'm not sure what does. I think this is worse than PSU, because it's program wide, not just two scumbags hiding it. This is top to bottom cover-ups, and includes offering free education for a non-disclosure agreement.
Comments
It's insane how the definition of a 'scandal' in college football has changed. Louisville, Miami and Ole Miss cases are so insignificant compared to Baylor/PSU.
To give the death penalty (or a life long show cause penalty for the coaches), there has to be proof that there was a cover up. Unfortunately, the NCAA does not have subpoena power, so they really have to hope that irrefutable evidence becomes available during this case. If there is proof of the non-disclosure agreement, there might be a chance.
We've had threads about it before. As long as everyone behaves, this is topical within the realm of college football.
Just as long as everyone is mindful that this is a highly charged legal situation.
Thanks for chiming in. I updated the post.
52? Wow.
Completely agree... If proven and it still doesnt bring about the death penalty for football, idk what will.
Just get rid of the football program for 10 years. Allow all students athletes ,not connected, to transfer with no penalty with Baylor paying and fees associated with any hardship these players may have getting away from this mess.
If you add "money from Baylor University would be provided to the victims of the sexual assaults for support and recovery" to that list and you've got my vote
That would be a given
I don't know about letting any athletes not associated to transfer. I like to believe they have nothing to do with it, but do we seriously believe they had no clue the whole time? At best, they are ignorant, at worst, they were compliant.
Despicable
I would like to take a moment to remind everyone that Liberty University gave Ian McCaw a job. He was Baylor's athletic director that resigned after being sanctioned and placed on probation. This is a top down scandal and he got out free and came to our state of VA to be an athletic director again.
I would give him the benefit of the doubt, EXCEPT if there really was an NDA and payment to a victim, he had to have a first hand account of it occurring. He should be prosecuted either legally or under the NCAA with the same penalties as the coaches involved, if it ever reaches that point.
Still even if he somehow honestly pleads deniability, I would not want him anywhere near my program. As an AD, that is inexcusable not to know that this stuff is going on within your program at this scale.
I think he definitely knew. Here is one example that I found today (check out the third paragraph):
Not only that but the heads at Liberty have said they want to model their athletic department after how Baylor was able to become a power.
I want Gordon Ramsey to pay the Liberty powers-that-be a visit.
On a slightly related note, I'm kinda disappointed that my cadre didn't think to do this to us.
We've known for a while that some disgusting things happened there and that there was a cover up, but the number of these instances is shocking. How can so many people be willing to participate in a rape?
Sports. An entire school , admin and state is willing to ignore the going ons at PSU.
31 players (allegedly) committed rape between 2011-2014. There are 85 scholarship players and probably about 80? more came into the football program in those four years. I would be willing to bet almost all of those players were aware of at least one of those 52 rapes. I just struggle to understand how 150+ people knew about someone getting raped and didn't do anything about it. It's just sad.
A metric shit-ton of peer pressure. That doesn't excuse it, but that's why no players said anything.
I think I understand your real point, and the intent, but an explicit entire school and state doesn't sound very objective to that situation.
As a citizen of State College, PA
As a citizen of State College, PA who drove today, this did not happen to me.
I don't buy for a second this was only pertaining to the football program. You know it was athletic department wide but considering their top 5 ranked mens basketball team they're not gonna touch that...
We will see what ends up as the final facts based on court trial, but from what I have read thus far, I'm gonna go puke and hope things get better for college football. I'd gladly go 0-12 to keep any part of this type of shit out of our school, I'm sure many Baylor fans currently feel the same. I spend far too much time focused on it, my highs are too high, my lows too low, but 50 years of no college football would be better than all this shit happening.
Just wanted to quote this for the purpose of repeating it.
It's truly disgusting to read. This is a Baptist university? What a display of pure disregard and ambivalence towards women. This goes way beyond sports. You can't even put a penalty in place really. All the perpetrators are probably gone. The school itself should take some accountability and self impose something. It's hard not to make a moral or political judgement here but it speaks to the character of the institution in many ways.
I am going to tread very lightly here and avoid religion. As a Baptist, I would like to clarify that Baylor University began moving away from Baptist leadership a long time ago. Just like Wake Forest University, I consider Baylor a university founded by Baptists, but currently governed by a secular, academia-based leadership. Baylor University does many great things, for instance its medical school constantly goes all over the world doing free health care clinics and surgeries in developing countries. But obviously, its athletics department was out of control. There needs to be a house-cleaning there, and a commitment to integrity and honorable behavior above athletic success. Truly hoping that happens.
One more reason my respect for Beamer, Bud and Weaver is still so high, because I believe they did things the right way, even at the cost of some W's. Go Hokies!
Yeah that is true, the only true Baptist institution at Baylor is their seminary. And even that may be independent from the university now.
Well said.
They must have moved away from it. I have to be honest here, until seeing your post and the one you responded to, I didn't even know they were a Baptist school.
I just read the entire lawsuit and it is disgusting to read. It makes it sound like the culture was not created and pushed by the players, but by the coaches and the administration.
How did they allow all of this to happen in a matter of 4 years? And all just so they could win the not that great Big12?
Edit:
Here is a very lengthy timeline linked below. NCAA already told them, they won't be any sweeping judgements or punishments at this time. But they have a small probe that might bring something forward. Title IX has already been filed multiple times, some have been dropped, some have been split into cases, but there is an active investigation already occurring from the Department of Education.
Click Click
I'm going to withhold judgment until the facts are known.
Yep. I only half-read the article, but pretty much all I saw were unsubstantiated accusations by plaintiffs lawyers.
It does state in about the fifth paragraph down that Baylor themselves have acknowledged 17 women's complaints of sexual assault involving 19 football players including four instances of gang rape, since 2011. The coach, AD etc were fired. So it's more than just unsubstantiated accusations
Most of the staff either voluntarily stepped down or "voluntarily" stepped down. Even if I had nothing to do with the problem I would want out of that shit storm as soon as possible to save my career and/or sanity. Still they have had at least a few convictions for rape/sexual assault from a couple different sports in the past 6 years.
Texts from the Baylor University head coach
The fact that this was university wide makes this worse than what happened at PSU. If this doesn't get the death penalty, I have no clue what does. NCAA needs to step up and make it clear they have at least some authority.
Briles should have a lifetime show cause, Baylor coaches and admin should all have loooonggg show causes, Baylor should lose a substantial amount of money for victims and future protection and teaching.
Reading the texts briles sent make me genuinely sick if this doesn't deserve the death penalty for the program I don't know what does
Edit: plus criminal charges for briles and those behind it this stuff is truly despicable
There are texts that show the coaches knew a player pulled a gun on another classmate and it was never reported and the player was never charged
After the Patrick Dennehy murder and subsequent cover up by the basketball program is unfathomable to have this happen again. Shut the whole athletic department down and put show clauses on everyone involved for life.
I had forgotten about Dennehy. A top to bottom gutting of the athletic department is definitely in order.
I know some people may not like deadspin but this article shines even more light on the situation. Absurd how many university employees are involved. This deserves the death penalty.
http://deadspin.com/lawsuit-text-messages-show-how-baylor-coaches-turned...
Oh Deadspin has been all over them recently
And it still gets worse
Its also worth noting that its coming out that Baylor instructed Pepper Hamilton to not fully investigate what happened, but only spot check certain cases to see how the staff responded. When PH came back with their findings on those select cases, Baylor went public saying those were the only ones, and patted themselves on the back for their actions in response to them.
Liberty must be so proud of their new AD...
You assume Liberty cares about any of this.
Remember, when they hired him, they explicitly said they want to use Baylor as the blueprint on how to be relevant... While this whole thing was blowing up.
1. After Instagram hack, Laremy Tunsil admits to taking money at Ole Miss
2. U.N.C. Investigation Reveals Athletes Took Fake Classes
3. Three former Louisville basketball recruits told NCAA investigators they attended stripper parties, had sex at them
4. New Lawsuit Accuses Baylor Football Players of 52 Acts of Rape in Four Years
I have no faith in the NCAA. I wish a law firm or organization could take legal action against them.
the ncaa is only as strong as the member institutions allow them to be. the member schools could do something about the ncaa and it's issues but no one wants to rock the status quo
This is an industry that badly needs some enforcement, but the most powerful voices have the least incentive to do anything about it.
Why would you want fair if you're benefitting from inequity?
So between the coaches, AD, paid lawyers, and Texas cops who all worked together to sweep these crimes under the rug; does this qualify as organized crime?
nah, b/c the cops probably weren't paid, just doing it for "school pride"
Seems similar to the Penn State situation, but with more people involved and a lot more blatant.
I figured it was a long shot since they were not organizing to commit a crime, rather organized to prevent a possible commited crime from being identified
We need a symbol for not only JUGS but our resident lawyers. Because these scum covered up crimes and covered up ongoing criminal activity so it could fall under some criminal status.
Any prosecutions would be extremely fact specific as to what each individual did. Would also depend on the laws in Texas (which is not where I practice). At the very least most states have an 'obstructing investigation' type crime, usually a misdemeanor, and a 'tampering with evidence' type crime, typically a felony. Any conspiracies could potentially rope more people into criminal liability. I'm not up to date on what the exact allegations are of coverup activities in this scandal, but the facts, what people knew, when they knew them, what they did about what they knew, and what they did to hide information will be important.
I don't 'do' organized crime or corruption stuff, it's just not part of my practice right now, so I won't speculate on that side, but the rumblings that I'm hearing would seem to implicate at least obstructing/tampering.
Also remember, you have the right to remain silent, so a football player not telling a cop what he saw or what he heard or what he knows does not constitute a crime. Saying nothing = not usually a crime. Lying about what happened to deflect attention/create an alibi is usually a crime. destroying physical evidence (burning the bedsheets, tossing a rape kit etc.) is usually a more serious crime.
I grew up a Tech fan and PSU fan, parents did undergrad at Tech and grad school at PSU. I graduated from Tech. Seeing all the scandals throughout the country and how they can spring up basically anywhere, I'm terrified of what might be in the closets in Blacksburg.
ETA: While I am a lawyer, I am not your lawyer, nothing in this post constitutes legal advice, etc. etc.
RICO, and I don't mean "suave".
No U.S. Attorney would ever try it, but they would certainly get attention if the words "Baylor University" and "RICO Statutes" were in the same sentence.
If the Baylor allegations are true, this was an administration actively trying to cover up a crime. I'm no lawyer, but I think this qualifies as obstruction of justice?
Paging ESQ
Baylor just fired their assistant strength coach after being arrested in a Waco prostitution sting. He was hired with Rhule and worked with Rhule at Temple for a few years.
Damn I still don't get why Rhule went down there.
Agreed really liked Rhule, thought he could have waited for a better opportunity.
I think it's pretty apparent that he wanted Hooker to be his QB. When he heard there were good hookers there went there looking for another Hooker to be his QB. Unfortunately for him when he sent his Asst. Strength Coach out to start trying to recruit the hookers he realized his mistake. Now he's just stuck at Baylor and he needs a new Asst Strength Coach.
Rhule seems like a good guy who would hire good guys. Guess the strength and conditioning coach was the exception to the Rhule.
Take your damn leg.