After a five-year investigation, the NCAA determined that it can’t charge the Baylor football program with any rules violations regarding how head coach Art Briles and the team handled allegations of sexual assault.
Although the NCAA acknowledged the Bears violated recruiting rules and provided “impermissible benefits” to their players, Baylor was absolved of any wrongdoing in its off-field scandal.
In the news release from the NCAA, the main disciplinary actions are restrictions on recruitment visits, a $5,000 fine and four years’ probation. Otherwise, not much else of note.
The Athletic‘s Nicole Auerbach provided the Committee on Infractions’ key statement about Briles’ conduct and how the sexual violence at Baylor was outside the NCAA’s jurisdiction.
Max Olson of The Athletic logged the choice words the COI had for Briles and his part in everything prior to his leaving the football team.
Obviously, the NCAA slammed Briles and Baylor for their collective failure to act when information was presented that Bears players may have committed violent crimes, but didn’t want to set a precedent for similar cases in the future.
In a stunningly tone-deaf statement released on behalf of Briles following the Public Infractions Report’s release, via KWTX’s Darby Brown, the assertion was made that the NCAA’s findings “clears the way for Mr. Briles to return to coaching college football.”
While it was expected that no NCAA rules violations would be unearthed due to the nature of the scandal at Baylor, there’s still a sense that more should’ve been done in this case to better protect student-athletes going forward.
Other programs have been slammed and set back by NCAA violations for far less egregious offenses. Baylor did get set back in 2017 when the Bears went 1-11, but the team promptly turned around the next year under current Carolina Panthers head coach Matt Rhule.
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