When news emerges out of a football program and athletic department of the kind coming from Utah State this week, when a head football coach and an assistant athletic director are told they’ll be fired for reasons tied to Title IX policies, it gives pause for two things: 1) To mourn that ignorant attitudes and stupid decisions are still being held and made by prominent university sports leaders, and 2) to celebrate that when those misguided attitudes and decisions are held and made, there are consequences for them from the powers that be beyond the traditional wag of the finger and slap on the wrist.
What happened to football coach Blake Anderson and Deputy AD Jerry Bovee — their dismissal for violating the aforementioned — stirs the realization that these issues and matters still exist — at Utah State and likely on other athletic teams and in other athletic departments at schools wherever they might be.
But for the moment, let’s focus on USU.
The wording of the statement from the university included what has been previously published: “This decision comes after a thorough external review of alleged noncompliance with university policies that implement Title IX, which require full and timely reporting of disclosures of sexual misconduct — including domestic violence — and prohibit employees from investigating disclosures of sexual misconduct themselves.”
Utah State said Anderson violated policies involving something that happened in spring, 2023. He has 14 days to respond to the university’s intent to terminate. And he’s already responding with lawyers leading the way.
Full disclosure: I don’t know the specifics of what Anderson and Bovee, as well as Austin Albrecht, the director of the football program’s player development and community, did or did not do in this particular case to cause school leadership to throw the hammer down on them in this manner, other than, as the school stated, the alleged existence of “violations of university policies related to the reporting of sexual and domestic violence” and “failures of professional responsibilities.” I do know that Anderson has had problems in the past with improperly attending to and/or commenting to his players on sexual assault victims.
How many chances is he supposed to get?
Anderson hasn’t seemed to give the benefit of the doubt to victims so adversely affected by actions of individuals inside his program. And as he fights back on the findings of this investigation, it’s easy to withhold that same benefit from him now.
An infamous recording of his comments in 2021, in which Anderson was heard saying to his players that it “has never been more glamorized to be a victim” of sexual assault, and that his football team was a “target,” and urging his players not to “create a victim.”
Anderson later apologized for those comments, and kept on coaching at USU.
Without the details on what led university president Elizabeth Cantwell and current athletic director Diana Sabau to take the action they did, let’s say it all plain here: It’s likely that it was warranted.
They should be praised for digging into their own program, rather than getting defensive and throwing up protective walls around it, and forthrightly taking strong measures to eradicate tragic nonsense that has gone on at USU for too long. The reputation of the school is at stake, not to mention the harm done to individuals who never should have been harmed in the first place.
The track record in Logan hasn’t been stellar. There have been too many well publicized crimes committed there over a number of years, before and after Anderson arrived. And since we’re talking in a kind of generalized comprehensive sense, there have been similar problems inside other athletic departments at other schools.
Research done by the USA Today Network a few years ago found that over the previous five years, universities “disciplined NCAA athletes for sexual misconduct at more than three times the rate of the general student population. Football players were disciplined the most.” That investigation, the network said, may have been understated “because many rapes and sexual assaults on campus go unreported and many universities refuse to inform the public” about such problems.
If one were to follow Anderson’s apologized-for comments, one might believe football players are being unfairly targeted. Closer to the truth is that there really is a trend going on among college football teams where athletes are committing crimes that must be dealt with appropriately.
And by appropriately, I mean with proper vigilance, proper reporting through channels that if they go through coaches, assistant athletic directors or directors of football programs or otherwise must be accelerated straight through to the correct administrators or authorities to get such urgent matters rightfully handled.
That appears to be the correction Cantwell and Sabau are making, addressing that lapse, sending a message that no longer will improper reporting of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence, be tolerated.
Good on them.
To reiterate, I do not know in detail what Anderson, Bovee and Albrecht did or did not do, but it’s clear from the statements from the university, if they are in fact accurate, that correct reporting was somehow ruptured, and those facing termination were somehow negligent.
It might be the tendency of a misguided head coach or administrator to purposely and/or carelessly want to protect a player or an assistant or a staff member or himself from the outside consequences of sexual or domestic misconduct. That might be seen through dark lenses as self-interest or a twisted bit of loyalty. But that mindset must be rearranged, changed so that everyone in a position of leadership over a football team or any other team follows suitable procedures.
They are there for good reason.
Cantwell and Sabau know this.
Glamour’s got nothing to do with it.
Enough of the good-old-boy, duck-and-cover, cover-your-butt way of thinking. It’s not particularly complicated: If there is misconduct inside the program, report it, promptly, immediately, fully, the wellbeing of more than an athlete or coach is at stake.
And, as Utah State is demonstrating, your job is at stake, too.
