“Does Football Know I’m Here?”

A succession of high-profile incidents involving college football players sexually attacking women are the tip of the iceberg, and part of a larger cultural problem, or so one might conclude from reading “The ‘Black Hole’ of College Sports,” a recent article in the DC publication Inside Higher Ed. It suggest that the multimillion dollar college football industry is tolerating, if not nurturing, a culture of sexual predation among athletes, and that a lack of disciplinary response if not total coverup for those with “special talents” is endemic. The article looks at recent and not so recent incidents at several campuses. At Baylor, a student has sued, alleging that at least 31 football players committed 52 rapes during the tenure of the coach who was fired last year. The law firm Pepper Hamilton was retained by the university to investigate how it handled claims of sexual assault. Brenda Tracy, a victims’ advocate and member of an NCAA commission on combating sexual violence, says it’s an issue nationwide and has been for a long time. Football coaches and athletic directors, she says, “have always preferred taking care of these sorts of things in-house.”