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Rozner: Baylor stops short of accountability

Institutional cover-up is as certain in college football as it is in government.

What is surprising sometimes is the reaction to it - or lack thereof.

When it was Penn State and the crime was child sexual assault, the outrage went international and lasted months, if not years.

Jerry Sandusky became the poster boy for the worst college sports scandal in our lifetime, perhaps even the worst in any sport at any level at any time.

But that is a crime that everyone understands clearly. There is nothing ambiguous about it. The man who perpetrated the assaults will be known forever as a predator, and those at Penn State who enabled his crimes have been vilified.

But if it's Florida State, Tennessee or Baylor, and it's merely college women who have been assaulted, it receives a cursory glance and a turn of the page.

After all, if a woman so much as has a conversation with an athlete, she deserves whatever she gets.

"Sexual assault on a college campus is expected and an acceptable part of college life in the minds of some," says University of Maryland law professor Leigh Goodmark. "There's the he-said, she-said aspect. Women love hooking up with athletes. They're gold diggers. She was drunk. She wanted it. She invited it in some way."

Goodmark teaches at the University of Maryland, directs the Gender Violence Clinic and is the 2013 author of "A Troubled Marriage: Domestic Violence and the Legal System."

"Kids are pure victims," Goodmark said, "the way a college-age woman is never going to be."

The long-running scandal at Baylor reached something of a conclusion Thursday when football coach Art Briles was fired years into a culture that not only tolerated sexual assault, but promoted it by covering it up, protecting players and impeding investigations while shaming victims.

It's disgusting, naturally, but hardly surprising, not in big-time college football where a winning program produces huge revenue.

And though firing the head coach is a step in the right direction, it is nothing short of naive to believe this will cause a massive sea change.

"It's surely better than Florida State, which made sure Jameis Winston got his Heisman Trophy, a pat on the back and a big NFL contract," Goodmark said. "It's a big deal to fire a coach with a big contract, but it's not the be-all, end-all.

"Coaches have to take a look at it and know that it could cost them a job, but nobody seems to be doing anything about sexual assault by athletes on campus out of the goodness of their heart.

"How often over the years have we talked about this? You have to change the culture. They have to know this is wrong and you will be held accountable. You have to hold people accountable when you know it's happening in your program. It's not about protecting your job."

But what message is sent when Baylor president Ken Starr is only demoted? He will become chancellor and a professor at the Baylor law school.

What, precisely, will he teach? How to ignore sexual assault and the blaming of victims?

"We were horrified by the extent of these acts of sexual violence on our campus," said Richard Willis, chairman of the Baylor Board of Regents, in a statement. "This investigation revealed the University's mishandling of reports in what should have been a supportive, responsive and caring environment for students."

Instead, Baylor says an investigation revealed a pattern of behavior by university administrators to discourage accusers in a fashion that "constituted retaliation against a complainant for reporting sexual assault," not to mention the violation of federal gender-equity laws.

And, yet, Ken Starr still has a job and will teach law.

"If you're accountable, it has to be more than losing some of your job if, in fact, you are responsible for not properly addressing a serious problem," Goodmark said. "The football coach lost his whole job. The president is responsible for Title IX and he's only demoted.

"Baylor could have made a strong statement that this is intolerable and we take this seriously. It's a half measure. Makes me wonder why. Maybe it's because of his usefulness as a fundraiser, but the buck does not stop with him, apparently."

The board hammered leadership for creating "a cultural perception that football was above the rules," but sadly it's really not unusual at that level of college football.

And like any fan base with an accused player, the fanatics are blinded by worship and believe that their heroes could never be involved in something so sickening.

So while it's certainly worth hoping that college football has done more than simply turn another page, it would be foolish - and dangerous - to believe it.

brozner@dailyherald.com

• Listen to Barry Rozner from 9 a.m. to noon Sundays on the Score's "Hit and Run" show at WSCR 670-AM.

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