Head coach Art Briles' name appears in another Baylor allegation

1. Recently, a former Baylor student filed a lawsuit against the school, head football coach Art Briles and athletic director Ian McCaw, regarding the university's handling of former player Tevin Elliott. The defensive end was convicted in 2014 of sexual assaults that happened in 2012.

That lawsuit cites an ESPN Outside The Lines report in which another woman says she was told in 2012 that Briles already knew of other allegations against Elliott.

Both women said [Baylor's chief judicial officer [Bethany] McCraw's response noted that Kim, also a Baylor athlete, was the sixth woman to report such an incident involving Elliott.

"I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, six?'" Kim said. "We essentially asked, 'Well, why are there six?' and, 'Well, does the football team know about this? Does Art Briles know about this?' And she said, 'Yes, they know about it, but it turns into a he said-she said, so there's got to be, actually a court decision in order to act on it in any sort of way.'"

[...]

When contacted by Outside the Lines, McCraw said Kim's account was inaccurate, but she declined to comment further.

2. Now, OTL reports a woman says Briles was told about an April 2014 incident involving another player:

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 also were told of her allegations. The woman told Outside the Lines that neither Briles nor the university disciplined her ex-boyfriend.

The woman told Outside the Lines she didn't press criminal charges against him because she was about to graduate and didn't think the school would punish him.

Suspending or even dismissing players who are charged with crimes is a standard practice in college football. If a player is accused and not charged, punishment tends to be much less common. Still, the "six" incident alone would demand firing Briles, if it were to be proved, and the woman who said she "didn't think the school would punish" an attacker speaks to the entire university's problem.

Those allegations are made even more concerning by two high-profile arrests over the last year.

3. In 2015, suspended defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was found guilty of sexually assaulting a Bears soccer player in 2013. Much of the debate focused on exactly what Briles might have known about Ukwuachu's past before welcoming him as a transfer, though there's no public evidence the coach was made aware of violent incidents at Boise State.

4. In April 2016, star defensive end Shawn Oakman was charged with sexual assault for an incident that took place after he'd left the football program to enter the NFL Draft. Oakman had transferred from Penn State, where he was booted after an incident that included him grabbing a woman's wrist during a dispute.

In 2013, Waco police investigated Oakman over an allegation of aggravated assault against a woman, pressing no charges. That story's reporter, a Texas Longhorns analyst, claims someone at the university knew about the investigation.

Source who tipped me off to the new Oakman incident says BU knew and did nothing. Review of emails will show proof per source #BaylorScandal
— Alex Dunlap (@AlexDunlapNFL) April 25, 2016

FOX Sports calculated before the latest OTL report that nine women had told police they'd been assaulted by Baylor players since 2009, Briles' second year.

This is a school problem, a football problem and every other kind of problem. I don't know what Briles knew about any of these incidents before they were reported by media, whether a lack of knowledge would necessarily be a redeeming thing, how his coaching staff spoke to players about women before the scandal broke ("real men respect women" signs went up for spring practices), or what share of the university's blame he deserves. (It could be that everyone from Briles on up deserves an equal share of all of it.) Briles denied prior knowledge of Ukwuachu and hasn't said much otherwise.

The school commissioned a third-party law firm to review its handling of sexual assault cases. The review is not yet complete. Briles has called that investigation "good" when asked.

From here, there are many potential scenarios that would leave no doubt it's time for Baylor football to start over with a new coaching staff. Even other college coaches are wondering whether it's already time. I sure don't feel like arguing it's not.

Sometimes leaders get fired for presiding over bad situations, whether it's found to be their direct faults or not. Such a thing could end up appearing anywhere between drastic and essential, but even drastic moves can be reasonable.

Elsewhere

Here's the pitch Colorado State is making to the Big 12. It's pretty well-argued.

Bill C team of the day: Kansas State in Bill Snyder's last-ish year, maybe, roughly?

Hey, Deshaun Watson is gonna have even more to work with this year. That's scary!

That time BYU won the national title, and everyone complained for decades? That was fine.

If SEC fans are good and mad about bye weeks, we must be only a few months from the season.

Pitt's new jerseys and logo and so forth are throwbacks to the Pitt Script tradition.

Oklahoma's taking advantage on the recruiting trail of Texas and A&M turmoil.

A Colorado coach demonstrated how to react when a recruit chooses a different team.

Commit of the day: a four-star running back to Mississippi State over some rivals.

Shutdown Fullcast continues its idiotic season preview series, adding Kansas, Minnesota, Oregon, Utah and some other team that paid Charlie Weis millions and millions of dollars.

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