Feb 1, 2018 3 min read

In some ways, it seems like ancient history, but it’s only been a little over six years since the sickening news broke about former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky’s long-term sexual abuse of children, and Penn State’s failure to prevent him from continuing to prey on those youngsters.

Sandusky, who is now serving 30 to 60 years in prison for his crimes, faced dozens of child molestation counts. He might have faced a lot fewer had the powers that be at Penn State, including legendary head football coach Joe Paterno, not failed to take appropriate action to stop him when they became aware he was sexually abusing children.

Instead, Paterno and the others chose to protect the reputation of the football program and the vast amounts of cash flowing from it – at least until their wall of indifference came tumbling down.

Paterno was fired and died shortly thereafter. PSU President Graham Spanier, athletic director Tim Curley and PSU Vice President Gary Schultz faced charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and failure to report suspected child abuse. Curley and Schultz went to jail. Spanier is appealing his conviction on one count of child endangerment.

Former FBI director Louis Freeh, who was hired by the Penn State Board of Trustees to conduct an independent investigation, concluded there was a “total and consistent disregard by most senior leaders at Penn State for the safety and welfare of Sandusky’s child victims,” and their inaction allowed Sandusky to continue to sexually abuse children.

One would think Penn State’s utter disgrace would have prompted other major sports empires – also known as universities – to make sure their houses were in good order, but clearly that has not been the case.

Two years ago came news that Baylor, a Baptist university in Waco, Texas, had failed repeatedly to take action against football players involved in sexual assaults.

By the time the dust cleared, head football coach Art Briles was fired, and both Baylor President Ken Starr and athletic director Ian McCaw had resigned.

Baylor’s failure to protect women from its athletes was unforgivable, but it might pale in comparison to what has been happening at Michigan State University.

It was Michigan State that was the “home base” for Larry Nasser, the former USA Gymnastics team doctor who was sentenced last week to 40 to 175 years in prison for molesting young gymnasts he was treating over many years. That same day, MSU President Lou Anna Simon announced her resignation, and two days later, athletic director Mark Hollis retired.

Simon and Hollis no doubt knew reporters were digging into what MSU officials might have known about Nasser’s activities before his scandal erupted, and ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” soon reported as far back as 1997, “athletes began telling multiple MSU officials, including the university’s longtime gymnastics coach, that Nasser was assaulting them under the guise of medical treatment.”

“OTL” also shed light on the way Michigan State’s football and basketball programs have dealt with players accused of sexual and other assaults against women. Let’s just say it’s not a good light.

We’re not sure what it will take to clean up the mess that is big-money college athletics. We’re not even sure the people who lead some of this country’s major universities have any real commitment to putting the safety of people ahead of the interests of their sports programs and the many millions of dollars they generate. The evidence that they don’t continues to mount.