NCAA response to Michigan State scandal 'lip service' lacking substance, expert says
In a scathing reply to NCAA president Mark Emmert's characterization of their 2010 meeting, activist Kathy Redmond questioned the association's ability to stop sexual violence on campus in a conversation with CBS Sports.
"Honest to goodness, the things they are doing [are] lip service. It is window dressing. It is not substance," Redmond said of the NCAA in the wake of the Michigan State scandal.
Redmond was reacting to how Emmert shaped their 2010 meeting in an email last week to NCAA presidents. Emmert told the presidents that the 37 cases of sexual assault Redmond mentioned were "widely reported" and being addressed by law enforcement.
Also included in the Emmert email was a list of NCAA initiatives and best practices addressing sexual violence. Emmert was responding to the original story broken by The Athletic which detailed his meeting eight years ago with Redmond.
"He's saying they were widely reported and he was aware of 37 reports of sexual assault by Michigan State athletes [yet] not a single disciplinary sanction was imposed [by the NCAA]," Redmond said of Emmert. "The real question is, why didn't they do anything? …
"Thirty-seven sexual assaults and you're not batting an eyelash?"
Redmond has been a leading voice in sexual assault awareness. According to reports, she received settlements from Nebraska and Chris Peter, a former Husker and NFL player, who she says raped her in the 1990s in Lincoln, Nebraska.
Since then, she founded the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes.
"You're either in or you're out," Redmond said of the NCAA. "You either do these [investigations] and do them effectively or hire somebody. For Pete's sake, you make this [as complicated as] the gross domestic product of Russia. Hire somebody and have them investigate."
Redmond told CBS Sports she is upset at the way Emmert portrayed that meeting in 2010, which occurred shortly after he took office.
"If the NCAA is going to specifically just exist for amateurism, they need to say that," she said. "Let other people take on these athletic departments because, frankly, the conferences have done more than the NCAA has done."
The NCAA responded in a statement to CBS Sports: "The NCAA completely shares Kathy Redmond's concerns about sexual violence. We communicated to her in 2010 the difference between the role of law enforcement, civil litigation and federal Office of Civil Rights investigations, and the limited jurisdiction of the NCAA to receive complaints, investigate or discipline violations of criminal law."
Prosecuting schools outside traditional rulebook violations has become a complicated discussion. The NCAA has begun a formal investigation at Michigan State regarding the Larry Nassar scandal. Further allegations have surfaced in Michigan State football and basketball under the watch of Mark Dantonio and Tom Izzo, respectively. The NCAA has not said -- as it announced with the Nassar investigation -- whether it will look into those allegations.
The NCAA, in 2012, penalized Penn State in what many consider an overreach outside the association's traditional enforcement procedures. In June, the NCAA confirmed an "ongoing, pending investigation" at Baylor. Multiple lawsuits have been filed by women against the school regarding several reported sexual assaults involving former Baylor players.
Redmond shared with CBS Sports documents and emails sent to the NCAA, Emmert and Michigan State asking for more help in sexual violence awareness. In a January 2014 email to Emmert, she states, "This email is a plea for help. The NCAA has not done anything substantive to save the lives of young women who are beaten and raped by male athletes."
The next day, Redmond received a list of NCAA initiatives in an email from Mary Wilfert, associate director of NCAA Sports Science Institute.
In 2011, Redmond received a letter from former Michigan State president Lou Anna Simon denying some information Redmond had sought in a Freedom of Information Act request. Along with that was an invoice for $831 for labor to produce the documents Redmond had requested.
ESPN detailed how it experienced similar problems in its reporting of the Michigan State story.
Redmond says she was "incensed" regarding sexual assault allegations that became public regarding former Michigan State basketball players Keith Appling and Adreian Payne.
"That was the [Michigan State] culture I was referring to in talking to Mark Emmert," Redmond said. "That culture smacked me right in the face."