Former Baylor President Comments on Criticism of Art Briles

Former Baylor president Kenneth Starr, who resigned as a law professor at the university in August, spoke out to defend the school's former head football coach, Art Briles.  

In an interview during the Texas Tribune Festival on Saturday (via ESPN.com's Mark Schlabach), Starr said he believes Briles has been getting unfair criticism from the media.

"Briles has devoted his life to molding the lives of young men," Starr said. "A grave injustice was done to Art Briles. Coach Briles has been calumnied...it's completely unfair. I have great confidence to this day in Coach Briles. I believe he's an honorable person."   

Starr went on to say that he disagrees "with the sense that there was a fundamental failure. I love Title IX. It has been an instrument of great, great reform...[but] the pendulum has swung much too far in one direction."

In May, the school announced it had suspended Briles with the intent to terminate after an independent investigation into numerous sexual assault allegations against Baylor football players. It found that, among other things, football coaches did not report complaints of misconduct.

The following month, Briles and Baylor agreed to terms on a contract settlement that officially ended his eight-year stint as head coach of the football team. 

In an interview with ESPN's Tom Rinaldi earlier this month, Briles said there were "some bad things that went on under my watch. I was the captain of this ship. The captain of the ship goes down with it."

Starr served as president at Baylor from 2010 to 2016 before transitioning into his role as a law professor following the independent investigation. The school hired Jim Grobe as interim football coach in May.