Art Briles' lawyer releases statement in response to NCAA report
Former Baylor head coach Art Briles’ lawyer Scott Tompsett released a statement on Wednesday afternoon after the Division I Committee on Infractions hearing panel announced it could not conclude that Baylor violated NCAA rules when it failed to report allegations of and address sexual and interpersonal violence committed on its campus.
“My client Art Briles has been completely exonerated and cleared of all NCAA violations alleged against him,” Tompsett said in a public statement released to WKTX in Waco. “As the NCAA Committee on Infractions explained, the conduct at issue was pervasive and widespread throughout the Baylor campus, and it was condoned or ignored by the highest levels of Baylor’s leadership. The NCAA’s decision today clears the way for Mr. Briles to return to coaching college football”
Statement not withstanding, the announcement by the Committee on Infractions gave a harsh critique of Briles’ actions during his time in Waco:
“The head coach failed to meet even the most basic expectations of how a person should react to the kind of conduct at issue in this case,” the NCAA wrote. “Furthermore as a campus leader, the head coach is held to an even higher sanded. He completely failed to meet this standard.”
Due to current NCAA rules that do not call for the Committee on Infractions to adjudicate how schools respond to such issues as sexual violence on campus, the committee could not punish Baylor and Briles for their lack of action.
However, the committee did find other violations: impermissible benefits were provided to a football student-athlete who was not reported for failing to meet an academic performance plan following an academic violation and the university operated a predominantly female student-host program that did not align with NCAA recruiting rules. Additionally, a former assistant director of football operations did not meet his obligation to cooperate and violated ethical conduct rules when he did not participate in the investigation.
During Briles’ tenure at Baylor, he led the Bears to a 65-37 record. Baylor won the Big 12 in 2013 and 2014 under Briles and made the College Football Playoff in the 2014-2015 season.
After his firing, Briles threatened a lawsuit for wrongful termination. In response, Baylor provided an out-of-court settlement.
Briles has yet to return to college football since his firing in 2016.
Briles had an extremely short tenure with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League in 2017. The organization reversed course just hours later when the hire was met with criticism and pressure from league officials.
Most recently, Art Briles led Mount Vernon High School in Texas to a 20-6 record in the 2019 and 2020 seasons. He resigned his position shortly after a playoff loss in 2020 after speculation that he would be considered for college jobs in the offseason.
Sexual assault allegations
Pepper Hamilton, an outside law firm hired by Baylor, found that the school “failed to take appropriate action to respond to reports of sexual assault and dating violence reportedly committed by football players. The choices made by football staff and athletics leadership, in some instances, posed a risk to campus safety and the integrity of the University.”
The report stated that Baylor administrators actively discouraged some complainants from reporting or participating in student conduct processes and in one case constituted retaliation against a complainant for reporting sexual assault.
At the time of Art Briles’ firing, he had come under fire after two players, Tevin Elliot and Sam Ukwuachu, were convicted for sexual assaults. Allegations swirled against other players as well. Notably, former player Shawn Oakman was arrested on sexual assault charges (In 2019, Oakman was found not guilty.)
In 2017, a new lawsuit alleged that in four years, at least 31 Baylor players committed at least 52 acts of rape.