Baylor Provides Details from Alleged Sexual Assaults Involving Football Players

Members of the Baylor University Board of Regents provided further details about the independent investigation into the school's sexual assault scandal, which found 19 football players were involved in alleged sexual or domestic assaults since 2011. 

Brad Reagan of the Wall Street Journal passed along newly released information Friday about the probe handled by the law firm Pepper Hamilton. One regent stated the findings included a "horrifying and painful" series of assaults, including four alleged gang rapes.

The report stated former head football coach Art Briles was aware of at least one alleged gang rape involving football players and a female student-athlete, but he told the woman's coach she should go to police and took no further action to contact local authorities, the judicial affairs office or the Title IX office.

Board member J. Cary Gray told the Wall Street Journal that Briles was remorseful when meeting with the group while it decided what actions to take. He cried and said he should have taken a more aggressive approach to monitoring the program.

"He couldn't speak he was so upset, and all of us were," Gray said. "Art said, 'I delegated down, and I know I shouldn't have. And I had a system where I was the last to know, and I should have been the first to know.'"

Gray also believed the desire to have success on the field led to larger problems: "There was a cultural issue there that was putting winning football games above everything else, including our values."

Board chairman Ron Murff said wealthy donors even threatened to stop supporting the school if it didn't bring back Briles as the football coach, according to the Wall Street Journal.

"It was all about football," Murff said. "My response was that we felt like our fiduciary duty was to uphold the mission of the university. That was the primary objective. It was not just to win football games."

Meanwhile, Briles' lawyer, Ernest Cannon, expressed concerns the school was violating a non-disparagement clause by making further public comments about the matter. He told the outlet the school is trying to pin all the blame on his client for a system-wide failure.

"They are pulling their own house down to justify the mistakes they made," Cannon said. "He's the football coach. That's not his job [to enforce Title IX]. That's their job."

Baylor originally opted against providing further information about the Pepper Hamilton investigation. The members didn't provide additional reasoning about why they decided to come forward now with exact figures and details about the alleged gang rape that Briles was reportedly made aware of.

In May, the Board of Regents announced several leadership changes as a result of the scandal. The moves included removing Ken Starr as president, suspending Briles indefinitely with intent to terminate and sanctioning and placing athletic director Ian McCaw on probation.    

McCaw resigned from his position later in May "in order to promote the unity, healing and restoration that must occur in order to move forward," per Daniel Uthman of USA Today. 

Jim Vertuno of the Associated Press reported in July the Pepper Hamilton probe found the school's prior approach "created barriers" for victims, including fear their family would be given details about the incident, that made it more difficult to report assaults.

The Board of Regents put forward a seven-point plan "to address deficiencies and process failures" as part of the sweeping changes announced in May.