Oct 6, 2016 4 min read

It seems that hardly a day goes by, and certainly not more than a week, without a story about an athlete at one of our major universities getting arrested for something. Some of these cases are relatively minor, such as players carrying on after a few too many adult beverages, or getting caught with a marijuana joint – things for which many young people on and off college campuses are liable to get pinched.

But there’s still an epidemic level of very serious crimes being committed by college athletes, and at the top of that list are sexual assaults. We’d like to think that there would be zero tolerance for something like that, but far too often, schools seem to be more interested in protecting the sanctity of their football or basketball programs than in getting to the bottom of rape allegations (Does the name Sandusky come to mind?).

Case in point: Baylor University, which in one lawsuit filed by a woman alleging sexual assault, was referred to as “a hunting ground for sexual predators.”

Earlier this year, a law firm hired by the Baptist university submitted a report on its findings regarding the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations. It was not favorable. Baylor was accused of having a “wholly inadequate” approach to such cases, and the investigation determined that only very rarely did a case lead to a hearing. The firm said the football program operated “above the rules,” and it said there were “institutional failures at every level.”

As a result, school president Kenneth Starr was demoted and later resigned. Football coach Art Briles, who took his team to national prominence, was fired. Those who remained promised to follow every recommendation in the report, but one of the people charged with carrying that out is now saying she failed to get cooperation from the top.

Officially, Baylor said in a statement that Title IX coordinator Patty Crawford was “disappointed in her role in implementing the recommendations” of the investigators.

Crawford said she was disappointed that she was running into brick walls.

“I continued to work hard, and the harder I worked, the more resistance I received from senior leadership,” Crawford told “CBS This Morning” earlier this week. “That became clear that that was not something the university wanted, and in July I made it clear … that I had concerns and that the university was violating Title IX, and my environment got worse.”

Crawford also alleged that she was the victim of retaliation, according to the CBS report.

“I never had the authority, the resources or the independence to do the job appropriately,” she said.

Crawford added that senior Baylor administrators “made sure they were protecting the brand … instead of our students.”

Her attorney, Rogge Dunn, told ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” that Crawford handled hundreds of cases, yet in 2014, in Baylor’s required crime report to federal authorities, the school said it had a total of four rapes involving students.

It would be bad enough if this were an isolated case, particular to Baylor. It’s not. Schools all across the country, for years now, have protected players involved in violence against women. We shouldn’t be surprised. Big-time sports programs rule the roost at many universities, and far too many college presidents have abdicated their responsibilities to the student body as a whole, in favor of these football and basketball programs that funnel millions to the schools.

This rape crisis will not be solved until there comes a time when the average student is valued and protected to the same degree as the star running back or power forward. We’ll not be holding our breath.