For me, it's clear that the powers in Baylor did no where near enough to fix the issues at Baylor. Firing a lame duck coach, getting rid of his buddy AD, and removing the figure head Starr was "something" just for appearance sake. If they had actually worked for real change they wouldn't have one of their premier program's coaches saying to fight people if they questioned the legitimate issues going on down there (and that super weird uncomfortable apology later). You see their fan base is still attached to the culture they've created and it's not getting better.
You want them sanctioned because their fans are fans? There isn't a college fan base in the country that wouldn't behave like Penn State, Baylor, KU, or USC fans would. I know it's cool on here to not care but many college sports fans view their school/program with the same reverence as they would a family member. When an institution behaves reprehensibly there will always be a sector of fans that will deny and obfuscate, after all the school they've devoted most if not all of their lives to could never behave in such a way. These people will always be the most vocal because they have the strongest feelings about their school.
If something like this happened at K-State I would be furious if others attributed the viewpoint and behaviors of kstatefans.com posters to the culture of Kansas State University. It's a bullshit trick to lord some superiority complex over others. We have many people who would respond the exact same way.
I would like to know from you or anyone else what the NCAA can do to fix the issues at Baylor. I view the issue at Baylor as one of how women are viewed and treated, and I don't think that issue is at all unique to Baylor even though I do think the private and highly religious culture feeds the issue even more than at a public university. So if you view this as the issue tell me how the NCAA or the Big 12 Conference fixes that? My issue with nearly everyone posting about this is that what people really want is punishment and not something truly cultural changing that makes Baylor University a safer place for women.
A lot of what you're saying can fit with in the themes of my post. First we've discussed how rules from the NCAA's arsenal. It isn't a stretch to say Baylor had zero institutional control when it allowed it's football team to run rampant on the community. I found this nice piece from George Mason on the "lack of institutional control" charge that shows it's pretty non-descriptive on what's required.
GM And this from the NCAA.
NCAA I fully grant that the lack of institutional control has previously only been used in cases of recruiting and competitive advantage. But this is the type of nightmare scenario where the NCAA must find ways to apply rules in new ways, and if needed stretch them to the last letter in the rule. I would point to the
NCAA's bylaws on ethical conduct and see there is room there to say that Baylor not just violated those rules but flaunted them for some time and obstructed necessary investigations. The Big 12 also has
bylaws (page 43) which could have the necessary elastic verbiage to confront this unprecedented issue.
I appreciate your comments that a lot of fan bases would react this way. But I feel that many wouldn't, and most would not if they were given a better signal from the university Admin (regents, deans, faculty) to say this is wrong what has happened, and we will have an open and honest discussion about what happened. I'm not sure where this lies between Baylor's reaction and Duke's reaction after the LAX scandal. But what we know is that the personnel at Baylor conducted their investigations in darkness, hid evidence, sequestered reports, and created conspiracy theories impede legitimate investigations. At that point we so altered what a fan bases reaction could be, it's hard to say how things could have played out if there was proper work done. It reminds me of Trump fans believing anything that comes from his mouth instead of the hard work from the 4th estate and even our own intelligence services. I agree there are certain cultural influences that make this an uphill battle. But that work doesn't need to be hindered by men like Starr tearing up the tracks in front of the investigation's train.
Finally I think every responsible party has failed the women of Baylor. The justice system failed by not adequately investigating the team and punishing all involved. The school is pretty obvious too. The conference and the NCAA failed by not caring enough about the "amateur sportsmanship" which is supposed to be the bedrock of their organization. After Penn State they should have included direct language about various types of abuse and made it black letter that your institution must help control these types of situations as well. But they should have stepped in and stretched sportsmanship to include not raping the crap out of your fans. If the school can't control a player then they shouldn't have that player. If the school can't control a football team, they shouldn't have a football team. With the issues at play, and the info that had to be out there, I have no qualms about players who didn't report these abuses losing a year to transfer out of the program. Players directly involved with the attacks and cover ups should be done playing forfeiting their remaining eligibility. Players who cooperate with an investigation can earn their status back by assisting in any investigations and completing any courses the title ix office deems necessary. With Baylor covering this up at an institutional level it's clear they are not responsible enough an athletics department. All of the administrators or coaches involved in the cover up should lose their jobs and be hit with a show cause. I'm not sure if that even goes far enough and if a school like Baylor shouldn't just lose it's entire athletics program. Of course the outside players and coaches should be allowed to transfer without penalty of wait times.
