When it comes to one of the largest issues on college campuses — and in college sports — the NCAA has no system of accountability.

The NCAA’s Committee on Infractions investigated the culture of sexual assault within Baylor Athletics that culminated in a 2016 scandal, and the report illustrated a disturbing reality beyond the report’s findings: The NCAA has no rules for how schools should address sexual assault cases — and therefore, no way to punish a school that mishandles them.

“Baylor admitted to moral and ethical failings in its handling of sexual and interpersonal violence on campus but argued those failings, however egregious, did not constitute violations of NCAA rules,” the report read. “Ultimately, and with tremendous reluctance, this panel agrees.”

The governing body found a few other ways to punish Baylor for recruiting violations and impermissible benefits. 

The Findings

The committee’s report detailed several allegations of sexual assault or violence made against football players and how football coaches didn’t properly report them. 

Former head coach Art Briles “failed to meet even the most basic expectations of how a person should react to the kind of conduct at issue in this case,” the report said. (Briles’ attorney said in a statement the report “completely exonerated” him.)

When the committee realized that it had no bylaws with which to directly punish Baylor, it went in a different direction. It asked whether athletes received extra privileges when their coaches shielded them from investigations — something normal students wouldn’t get.

The NCAA’s discovery? Because this toxic culture existed throughout the entire student body, athletes weren’t getting any more protection than anyone else.

The committee was only able to hand down punishment for one issue related to sexual assault: Baylor’s use of a mostly female group tasked with helping recruiting events, the “Baylor Bruins,” constituted a recruiting violation. 

Baylor’s former Title IX coordinator said the Bruins were “at the disposal of players in a very inappropriate way,” the report said. 

NCAA’s Remorse?

During a press call, FOS asked infractions committee chairman Joel Maturi if they should have authority in the future to punish schools for mishandling sexual assault. 

“I think the seven members of the panel believe that there should have been, or could have been, an avenue for us to address this,” Maturi said. But he noted schools themselves vote on NCAA bylaws — so “it’s up for the membership to decide.”

At a Constitutional Convention this fall, a committee will reconsider the NCAA’s bylaws and its overall place in college sports governance. It couldn’t have come at a better time.

NCAA president Mark Emmert thinks the Constitution Committee should discuss how it can adopt rules to adjudicate sexual assault, mishandling of allegations, and/or other Title IX violations.

“This is a clear demonstration of why the Association needs transformational change,” Emmert said in a statement. If the committee chooses to rewrite rules, schools will vote on them in January.

Getting Involved or Not

At the Convention, the NCAA first has to decide what it wants to be, SUNY Cortland assistant professor of sports management, Lindsey Darvin, said. Is it just an organization that plans championships? Or will it “monitor other aspects of athlete and coach actions” — including sexual assault.

“It has to be all or nothing,” Darvin said.

Cheryl Cooky, Purdue associate professor of American Studies and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, believes “there needs to be a mechanism by which these universities were held accountable.” 

But she’s “not convinced” the NCAA is the right organization to do that. It already has a terrible track record with women’s sports. It prioritizes “its own self-sustainability, and has done so at the expense of student-athletes’ health and well-being.”

Dionne Koller, Director of University of Baltimore’s Center for Sport and the Law, said the NCAA could at least write rules to send a message that treating allegations appropriately is important.

But the NCAA “is not going to solve the problem of campus sexual assault,” she said.

Editing the Bylaws?

If she were invited to the Constitution Comittee, Koller would suggest adopting bylaws that make teams or athletes ineligible if they don’t comply with all aspects of Title IX — which include sexual assault and how schools handle allegations, in addition to equal opportunities for sports participation.

Koller was adamant the NCAA itself shouldn’t investigate allegations, but it should hand down sanctions based on the results of other investigations like courts’ decisions, outside legal reviews, or Department of Education reviews. 

“I think that a school like Baylor, that clearly has not been interested in general Title IX campus enforcement — I think if their athletic program was on the line, I think if star players could lose eligibility — that might nudge them to clean up the campus process,” Koller said.

Right now, survivors can try to hold schools accountable for mishandling assault allegations by filing a lawsuit, or filing a complaint with the Department of Education.

But those options can be deeply flawed, experts agreed. “The system fails the victims and survivors,” Cooky said. “The system fails the overall community in terms of its sense of safety. … The system does not fail, though, in the sense of protecting institutions.”

Experts think there may be a better way.

External Policing

For Cooky, the most effective solution would be to create an organization separate from the NCAA tasked with overseeing Title IX “writ large.”

Cooky envisions “a kind of law firm-esque kind of an entity that would be resourced and empowered in ways to investigate these matters, to have some sort of legal teeth,” she said.

Cooky would be concerned if it was tied to the Department of Education, because the Title IX standards set by that organization change with each president. 

The entity would have to provide “consistency in Title IX guidance that exists outside of an individual administration’s whims.” But Cooky noted: “That’s a pipe dream.” 

Involving Capitol Hill

At a Senate hearing in June, athletes asked Congress to help police how schools handle allegations. “We’re underestimating the interest of these coaches in winning games, or the athletic departments in protecting their image,” former Georgetown basketball player Sari Cureton said.

Athletes made it clear this was just as much of a priority as NIL rights, or other gender equity standards.

Darvin also believes the federal government should get involved — by creating a sports administration. “We are in immediate need of a governing body for all amateur sport,” Darvin said. “We need coach certificate standards, standard practices for handling sexual assault allegations, standard punishments, and we need safer play for all.”

“The NCAA is not and has never been the governing body that was going to take on these issues, and the federal government has tiptoed around these issues for far too long.”