The Baylor athletics scandal continues to take new twists and turns, with a former player who was accused of sexual assault stating that he was pushed out of the university without being given the opportunity to defend himself, even after coaches had told him he was in the clear.
Jeremy Faulk, a transfer from Florida Atlantic, recently left the team, apparently as part of Baylor’s new investigation of all incoming transfers. Faulk was questioned about two incidents, one at Florida Atlantic and one at Baylor, and was released from his scholarship. He says the school has not given him a reason.
“No one’s given me a reason why I’ve been released,” Faulk said, via Paula Lavigne and Max Olson of ESPN’s Outside the Lines. “If I just leave, it will look like I’m guilty, and I didn’t do anything.
“[Interim coach Jim Grobe] was, like, due to all the stuff that’s been going on, and Title IX and all that, the school is releasing me,” Faulk added. “He didn’t say the football team. He said the school is releasing me. I asked him why, and he just told me it’s out of their hands.”
Faulk’s emails show that he received a message from Baylor’s athletic department compliance office on the same day his withdrawl from the school was made final, and he was told there was no Title IX report involving him. Two hours later, after Faulk expressed a desire to try to clear his name, the school’s Title IX office notified him that he had been the subject of a complaint, but did not provide any details as to the nature of the complaint.
When the Baylor incident, which involved another football player, was originally investigated, the regime in place under Art Briles told Faulk that he would be in the clear of any charges.
“The coaches told me they know I didn’t do anything,” Faulk said. “They told me I have nothing to worry about.”
Faulk maintains that he has not committed any wrongdoing and has never been questioned by police, and his account of the incident at Baylor depicted a consensual encounter. Faulk’s accuser disputed his account of events.
Faulk’s community college head coach and assistant at Florida Atlantic, Jeff Sims, believes that the school is handling things poorly and their actions indicate that they still have no concept of what it is they’ve done wrong, instead being more focused on making the problem go away as soon as possible.
“Grobe says to me, ‘Listen, if he just leaves, he can go on, and we won’t stop him from playing anywhere, and this investigation will stop,'” Sims told Outside the Lines, saying he pressed Grobe on the notion that making the players in question go away could just make the investigation go away. Sims said that Grobe was not specific and implied that Faulk was released due to the actions of Baylor administrators.
“To me, that’s the whole reason they got in trouble — either Jeremy’s innocent, and they should go through the process, and he should get his scholarship back and play,” Sims said. “Or he’s guilty, and this girl should get some justice.”
A Baylor spokesperson disputed Sims’s account, telling Outside the Lines that “Coach Grobe has a different recollection of the conversation.”
Baylor does not seem to know what to do, and Sims makes some very good points. If their strategy is simply to try to make everything go away as quickly as possible, nothing good will come of it, no lessons will be learned, and it benefits no one, including the victims of the assaults. No wonder recruits are bolting left and right. The school simply doesn’t seem interested in learning its lesson.
