Just once in college athletics wouldn’t you like to see fellow conference members become publicly outraged and embarrassed at despicable, disgusting transgressions that happen in their own league?
For instance, wouldn’t it do your heart good if the 13 other schools in the Southeastern Conference all got together and voted passionately and unanimously to suspend LSU from the league at least temporarily for being morally bankrupt?
It’s absolutely shameful that what transpired at LSU just came to light eight years — eight freaking years! — after the Tigers successfully and intentionally buried the disturbing allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct, sexual advances and sexual harassment of female students by former football coach Les Miles.
And isn’t it pathetic that it was Kansas that actually had to clean up LSU’s mess a few days ago by firing Miles and the athletics director (Jeff Long) who hired him? LSU, like so many cutthroat, win-at-all-cost institutions of higher earning, was willing to ignore the creepy, repugnant allegations against Miles just to protect the brand and keep its national championship-winning football coach out of trouble and recruiting five-star talent.
Sadly, the only reason the Miles allegations came to light is because USA Today reporters aggressively began to investigate the systematic failures of how LSU handled, er, mishandled cases of physical and sexual violence against women on its campus. Because of USA Today’s investigative reporting, LSU was pretty much forced to hire the outside law firm of Husch Blackwell in November to conduct an investigation, which detailed “serious institutional failure” on how LSU handled allegations of rape and dating violence. Husch Blackwell also found that the reason LSU intentionally hired another independent law firm eight years ago to investigate sexual harassment charges against Miles is so the report wouldn’t be made public.
That’s right, LSU intentionally swept the abhorrent behavior of Miles under the rug. The school even went against the recommendation of its own athletics director at the time, Joe Alleva, who strongly urged the school to part ways with Miles after the coach was accused of contacting female students via Facebook and text, meeting them off campus alone and kissing at least one of them.
In the recent Husch Blackwell Report, LSU staffers accused Miles of suggesting that female student employees who helped chaperone top high school prospects during their official recruiting visits “needed to have a certain look.” That look, according to the employees, included the women being “blondes with big boobs.” If the female students didn’t fit a certain physical profile, Miles suggested that perhaps they should be fired.
One of the most disturbing parts of the Husch Blackwell Report focused on longtime athletic department employee Sharon Lewis, who told investigators of an incident in 2013 she described as her “worst nightmare.”
It seems a female student came to Lewis, according to the report, “very upset about something that happened when she was alone with Coach Miles.” The student then asked Lewis to help her in confronting Miles with the allegations. Another athletic department employee sat in on the meeting with Lewis, Miles and the female student and said the student was “completely traumatized” by the alleged incident, saying, “This child had a dead stare ... she just kept saying, over and over, ‘You know what you did to me.’”
Alleva, the AD, penned a letter to then-school president F. King Alexander back in 2013 in which he wrote of Miles, “I believe he is guilty of insubordination, inappropriate behavior, putting the university, athletic department and football program at great risk. I think we have cause (to terminate him). I specifically told him not to text, call or be alone with any student workers and he obviously didn’t listen. I know there are many possible outcomes and much risk either way, but I believe it is in the best interest in the long run to make a break. … One more time I want us to think about which scenario is worse for LSU: Explaining why we let him go or explaining why we let him stay.”
Now, eight years later, LSU is having to explain why they let Les Miles stay.
Yes, the Tigers would end up firing Miles a few years later; not because of his repulsive behavior but because he went five seasons without winning the SEC West. Miles ended up at Kansas, where he was fired last week when the allegations against him at LSU became public. Long, the AD who hired Miles at KU, was also fired. The board of trustees at Oregon State, where Alexander is now the school president, will meet Wednesday to discuss whether he should be suspended or even fired.
But at LSU, nobody’s been fired for what happened within the football program eight years ago
Meanwhile, LSU basketball coach Will Wade is getting ready to lead his team into this week’s NCAA Tournament despite his program being under NCAA investigation and Wade being caught on tape admitting to cheating and bribing players to sign with the Tigers.
LSU isn’t just morally bankrupt.
The program is ethically destitute.
The university and the SEC should be ashamed.
