Former athletic director Ian McCaw of Baylor University accused the school of racism during their rape scandal in 2016, the Waco Tribune-Herald reports.
McCaw said that he did not want to be a part of a huge cover-up that was “an elaborate plan that essentially scapegoated black football players and the football program for being responsible for what was a decades-long, university-wide sexual assault scandal,” according to Waco-Tribune Herald. McCaw resigned back in May of 2016 after the campus-wide scandal broke out. He thinks the entire findings report was phony and just was a “misleading finding of fact skewed to make the football program look bad and cover up the campus-wide failings.”
These quotes were from a deposition by McCaw during the Title IX lawsuit filed against Baylor by 10 women who said they were sexual assaulted during their time at the university. Baylor responded to the deposition with a statement of their own.
“The plaintiffs’ counsel have grossly mischaracterized facts to promote a misleading narrative in an effort to deflect attention away from the actual facts of the case pending before the court. Baylor has compiled and will continue to simply with all court rules in this case. We will maintain our diligent efforts to keep discovery focused on this specific case while steadfastly protecting the privacy of our students and their records that are uninvolved in this matter. As permitted by the court’s rules, Baylor will be filing a written response to the Plaintiffs’ motion. Much of the testimony of Mr. McCaw that is selectively quoted in the motion is based on speculation, hearsay and even media reports.”
It was found later on that people within the university and athletic department discouraged women from reporting the sexual assault cases and that the football team showed “a pattern of sexual violence.” The law firm states that “In certain instances, including reports of a sexual assault by multiple football players, athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics.”
The cover-up, according to the former athletic director, was all to avoid negative PR. Stories like a Baylor police officer ignored a call about rape to order himself a meal. McCaw said that Baylor is reliant on a big endowment and the PR is important to the university, saying “It’s bad for business… It’s bad for Baylor’s brand, bad for admission, bad for tuition revenue.”
McCaw is not entirely out of the woods himself, as he said he found out about the scandal through the news and media. But, the report says otherwise. There are texts between McCaw and then Baylor head coach Art Briles, saying McCaw texted Briles saying “That would be great if they kept it quiet.”
He was referencing a Baylor football player assaulting and threatening someone outside of the athletic program. As this case develops, it appears that the University is becoming more and more guilty of this massive cover-up.