In the wake of Michigan State’s win over Richmond, USA Today dropped a bombshell report early Sunday morning detailing sexual harassment allegations against Spartan head coach Mel Tucker. According to the report, Tucker is accused of making sexually suggestive comments and masturbating during an April 2022 phone call with rape survivor and activist Brenda Tracy.
Tracy, who survived being raped in 1998 by a group of football players has since become a nationally known and prominent activist against sexual violence and advocate for rape survivors. Since 2021, Tracy also made several visits to Michigan State University developing a professional relationship with Tucker undertaking the task of speaking with the Spartan football team about sexual violence and ways they can combat it.
It was that 2022 call though that prompted Tracy to file a complaint with Michigan State’s Title IX office back in December, and according to USA Today currently remains under investigation.
According to her complaint, Tracy sat frozen for several minutes while Tucker made sexual comments about her and masturbated. His violation, she said, reopened 25-year-old wounds from her rape by four men – two Oregon State University football players, a junior college player and a high school recruit.
“The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” she told USA TODAY. “It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”
USA Today
Tucker on the other hand in a statement to the Title IX investigator admitted to masturbating during the call but mentioned that Tracy “grossly mischaracterized the episode” referring to the call as “consensual phone sex”.
“Ms. Tracy’s distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me,” Tucker wrote in a March 22 letter to the investigator. “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”
USA Today
Despite having its own Title IX office, Michigan State hired outside Title IX attorney Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger out of Ann Arbor who according to the Detroit News finished her own investigation with a report on the findings already in the hands of Tucker and Tracy. Additionally, a Title IX hearing is currently scheduled for October 5-6, during Michigan State’s bye week. During that hearing, witnesses and called and essentially cross-examined by sides eventually leading to a decision as to whether Tucker violated Title IX policy. If it is found that Tucker violated policy, a hearing officer would recommend a punishment which could include Tucker’s firing by the University.
If Tucker is fired, it could come with cause meaning Michigan State wouldn’t be on the hook for the remainder of his fully guaranteed 10-year, $95M contract he signed back in November of 2021.
Tucker’s contract is fully guaranteed but a clause allows Michigan State to terminate it without payment if he “engages in any conduct which constitutes moral turpitude or which, in the university’s reasonable judgment, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule” to the school.
Detroit News
Another high-profile black eye for the Michigan State Athletic Department
It’s incredible to think that after the Larry Nassar situation at Michigan State the University and Athletic Department itself have put itself in yet another situation when it comes to transparency and action. Two Michigan State officials ended up serving jail time while the University forked over $500M in settlement payments in the wake of Nassar preying on young women unfettered for decades.
Back in October, President Samuel Stanley resigned from his post after the Board of Trustees asked him to step down specifically for the way the University has handled sexual misconduct allegations.
And yet, here we are today learning essentially for the first time of detailed sexual harassment allegations against the Michigan State head football coach and an investigation that’s been ongoing since DECEMBER.
So from a football standpoint, where does Michigan State go from here? It’s unconscionable to think Tucker returns to the Michigan State sidelines between now and October 5 when the hearing gets underway. Lansing State Journal columnist Graham Couch wrote that Tucker is “likely done” at MSU given what has already come out and what Tucker has already admitted to.
No need to wait. Tucker won’t be coaching the next three Saturdays.
Because even if you take him at his word over Tracy’s — which seems like an odd choice given the reported inconsistencies in his story, notably denying the incident took place on a work trip when receipts show otherwise — what Tucker admits is probably enough to nullify the remainder of his 10-year, $95 million contract, regardless of the decision at the October hearing.
This nugget in Tucker’s contract is the university’s way out: Tucker can be fired without being owed the remainder of the deal if he engages in “conduct which, in the university’s reasonable judgment, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule on the university.”
This, I think, would qualify.
“I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition,” Tucker wrote to the Title IX investigator in March, according to USA Today.
Even if that were true, the details of this Title IX investigation call into question Tucker’s character and common sense. That’s a problem. He is the face of MSU’s largest athletic program and a leader of 100 young men on campus. A campus that’s tired of this stuff.
Lansing State Journal
What a mess and what another infuriating situation of a major college program just simply not learning from huge past mistakes.
