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Baylor AD Ian McCaw Resigns Hours After Announcing Hiring Of Interim Football Coach

Baylor AD Ian McCaw yesterday resigned effective immediately "amid a sexual assault scandal that has rocked the university and led to sweeping changes in the school's administration and athletics department," according to a front-page piece by Phillip Ericksen of the WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD. He steps down days after football coach Art Briles was fired, "pending contractual details being worked out, and hours after he announced" former Wake Forest coach Jim Grobe as Baylor's interim football coach. McCaw came into a "tenuous situation" as Baylor AD in September '03 "following a scandal that brought the basketball program and athletics department to their knees." With key coaching hires and the addition of state-of-the-art facilities, McCaw "rebuilt Baylor's athletics program into a national powerhouse." The Baylor men's tennis team won the '04 national title and the women's basketball team won national titles in '05 and '12. In '11-12, all 19 Baylor sports "advanced to postseason competition for the first time in school history" (WACO TRIBUNE-HERALD, 5/31). In Houston, David Barron notes McCaw "announced his departure about an hour after Baylor said it had hired Grobe, describing the veteran coach's 'well-earned reputation for disciplined play' as a possible antidote for the controversy that has roiled Baylor in recent weeks." McCaw's tenure at Baylor "included the most successful athletic period in its history, with the football team reaching five consecutive bowls for the first time and producing its first Heisman Trophy winner" in QB Robert Griffin III and the "construction of the university's on-campus McLane Stadium." His departure "completes a sweeping week of change at Baylor" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 5/31).

PUTTING FOOTBALL ON A PLATFORM: ESPN's Jemele Hill said the mission of universities is "supposed to be to partially protect your student body," and Baylor "clearly failed on that." Hill: "They chose the livelihood of their football program over protecting women against unspeakable acts. I'm just wondering how is Kenneth Starr even still there? ... I don't know how you're sending the message about how seriously you took this if you still have him there and still have him representing the university.” ESPN’s Israel Gutierrez said, “This isn't an Art Briles issue. He just happened to take the fall for this. Yes, he might have been complicit in some things. Who knows exactly, but this was a Baylor problem. This is a culture problem. This is what happens when you create your identity based on a football team, you compromise your morals for the success of that team because it means to you the success of your entire university and frankly your entire city in some cases.” Gutierrez: “This is all such a bigger issue than the football coach and what he allows. This is about the culture that a university creates because it's putting so much emphasis on the success of its football team” (“The Sports Reporters,” ESPN, 5/29).

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