Baylor Regents Voting To Bring Back Art Briles After A 1 Year Suspension

Scout – Multiple sources told HornsDigest.com the Baylor board of regents on Monday will consider a one-year suspension for football coach Art Briles.

It’s unclear if there are enough votes to bring back Briles as football coach at Baylor in 2017. But the push to have the regents vote on a one-year suspension for Briles on Monday is being driven by some of the biggest big-money donors at the school – many of whom helped fund BU’s $300 million football stadium that opened in 2014, sources told HD.

Sources said Briles met with some key figures associated with the school last Thursday about the possibility of a one-year suspension as the Bears‘ football coach. It’s unclear how Briles would feel about the move, sources said.

There are those among the Baylor leadership who feel the major failings of the BU rape scandal fall on former president Ken Starr for the school not having a Title IX coordinator from 2011-2014, sources said. If BU had a Title IX coordinator, the football coaching staff would have had training on how to handle any complaints of rape made against football players, sources said.

Those members of the BU leadership who say Briles should have been spared while Starr should have been the fall guy for the scandal are getting a lot of pressure from big-money donors who say they’ll stop giving to the university if Briles isn’t brought back as coach in 2017, sources said.

If the votes aren’t there to bring back Briles after a one-year suspension, the school would likely settle with Briles for between $15 million and $25 million, sources said. Briles had eight years and just under $40 million guaranteed left on his contract at Baylor, sources told HD.

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I guess in a weird way you kind of have to respect just how little Baylor gives a fuck about public relations? I mean even the consideration of bringing Art Briles back, right now, in this climate, is incredible. Sexual assault on college campuses is THE “hottest” topic right now, and when you add either A) a fraternity or B) a college football program to the mix, it’s the biggest needle mover out there. Any school that even remotely has any rumors about a rape, misconduct or possible cover-ups knows the smart thing to do is just immediately distance yourself from the accused, whether they’re guilty or not. Fire people, get them out of there, be proactive and show everyone how seriously you take the accusations. Yet here we have Baylor doing what could possibly be the complete opposite, bringing the guy in the middle of it all back after a little slap-on-the-wrist suspension because of his contract/the fact he’s a good coach. Welcome to football in Texas – fuck your PR.

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And obviously everything is alleged against Briles, I’m not interested in playing judge and jury and hopping on the Internet Shame Train while I’m 1,700 miles away from the situation just because I read some blogs. But here is a quick recap of just a handful of those allegations involving the Baylor program:

…In January, Outside the Lines reported several examples in which school officials either failed to investigate, or failed to adequately investigate, allegations of sexual violence. In many cases, officials did not provide support to those who reported assaults, in apparent violation of Title IX federal law. The story reported that former defensive end Tevin Elliott was suspected of four sexual assaults and one attempted assault from 2009 through 2012 and was found guilty of one sexual assault. Former defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was accused of sexually assaulting a Baylor soccer player in 2013 and found guilty.

…In April, Outside the Lines reported that Baylor did not investigate a sexual assault report made against football players Tre’Von Armstead and Shamycheal Chatman for more than two years, despite the school’s obligation to do so under federal law. They never faced charges.

…Last month, former defensive end Shawn Oakman was charged with sexually assaulting a Baylor graduate student. He had been investigated in 2013 for assaulting an ex-girlfriend, who at the time declined to press charges.

…In one of the recently discovered cases, an alleged victim who was a Baylor student told Outside the Lines that she notified football team chaplain Wes Yeary about what she had reported to Waco police in April 2014: that her boyfriend, a Bears football player, had physically assaulted her on two occasions. The woman said Baylor football coach Art Briles and university president Ken Starr were also told of her allegations. The woman told Outside the Lines that neither Briles nor the university disciplined her ex-boyfriend.

…In the April 2014 case, a woman told Waco police that Bears running back Devin Chafin grabbed her arm and slammed it against a car, in front of teammates and another witness. She provided photos of bruises on her arm to police. She told police that, weeks earlier, Chafin had grabbed her by the throat and slammed her against a wall, then threw her to the floor and kicked her, according to a police report.

…In April 2012, a woman told Waco police that when she tried to break up with her boyfriend, Baylor cornerback Tyler Stephenson, he twice lured her to his apartment and then, according to the report, violently restrained her, refusing to let her leave or let her use her phone. “He then pushed me on the couch and wrestled me for my phone so that I couldn’t call for help,” she told police. Once outside, she said she tried again to call 911, but “he charged me and picked me up and threw me against the [exterior] apartment wall. I hit my head and immediately felt dizzy,” and she screamed for help.

After pulling the woman’s hair and trying to take her phone in the parking lot, Stephenson fled after three men started to approach him, according to the police report. Police spoke to a witness who saw the two fighting outside and confirmed the woman’s account. An officer prepared an arrest warrant for Stephenson but closed the case when the woman did not return several phone messages.

Like I said before, there’s that saying where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and while that’s not the way the legal system works, it’s definitely the way public opinion and common sense works. And when you have double-digit allegations made by separate women with very detailed stories, combined with obvious confirmed shady activity by the police, common sense says hey, maybe Baylor has a big problem here.

Maybe the regents just really, really care about keeping those academic numbers up?