2023 NCAA Football Thread

[MichiganCardinal]

7 minutes ago, buddha said:

if/when tucker files a lawsuit against her and michigan state, that's when you'll find out what really happened.  the fact that she gets paid $10k a pop to speak about sexual abuse doesnt mean she cant get involved in a consensual relationship with someone on a football team.  she's a human being like everyone else.  which is not to say she DID here, but we dont know.  certainly looks bad for mel and was certainly unprofessional of him.  its likely to cost him his job and maybe his marriage.

i dont know if this is even subject to title ix, which is a point raised by mel's lawyers.

i want mel to win this because i dont want state to fire him.  i want them to be stuck with this bad football coach for the next decade or for matt ishbia to have to pay $80 million to buy him out.  make it hurt.

 

The USA Today article looks like it condenses 1200 pages of investigation into it. It’s pretty comprehensive. The point isn’t that she couldn’t have possibly entered into a consensual relationship though, the point is that he, as the $95MM face of the Michigan State football team, has to have better judgment than to do so, even consensually.

The same goes for Title IX. I seem to agree with the finding that it is subject, as they met due to the partnership, MSU paid her, and the conduct took place on a trip MSU paid for.

Not that this is about football, but this will set MSU football back another 2-3 years. No talent will come or stay after this. Their only hope is to poach a Prime Time away from Colorado, and I can’t imagine that will happen. Otherwise, they’re going to be a 2-10 to 5-7 football team for a while.

[MIguy]

This dropping right as the team needs to start preparing for Washington is just perfect timing.   

[buddha]

9 minutes ago, MichiganCardinal said:

The USA Today article looks like it condenses 1200 pages of investigation into it. It’s pretty comprehensive. The point isn’t that she couldn’t have possibly entered into a consensual relationship though, the point is that he, as the $95MM face of the Michigan State football team, has to have better judgment than to do so, even consensually.

The same goes for Title IX. I seem to agree with the finding that it is subject, as they met due to the partnership, MSU paid her, and the conduct took place on a trip MSU paid for.

Not that this is about football, but this will set MSU football back another 2-3 years. No talent will come or stay after this. Their only hope is to poach a Prime Time away from Colorado, and I can’t imagine that will happen. Otherwise, they’re going to be a 2-10 to 5-7 football team for a while.

first of all, counselor, its a usa today article meant to expose tucker.  and youre condensing 1200 pages of a one sided investigation into 3 pages for a general audience who only wants the salacious details.  as you know, if tucker files a lawsuit she will be deposed by someone asking questions designed to bring tucker's side to the forefront.  investigators will be hired to talk to any person she's dated for a long time.  once youre talking about $80 million it will become a dirty business indeed (and tucker's past history will also be fair game).

for people who are involved in the litigation game, we should know better than to jump to conclusions about what actually happened or to take what is published in the papers (usually leaked by plaintiff's attorneys but not likely here) as "truth" or "the whole truth."

in other words, i dont know what happened with mel.  sounds to me like he fell in lust with some lady and took it to places she didnt want it to go.  that's the most favorable reading for mel.  it could also be he is just another dude who interprets friendliness as "lets have sex" and then he stalked her and harassed her.

regardless, she says it was unwelcome and made a complaint.  he admitted to the behavior.  given msu's recent history, the next likely step is that he's fired for cause and he files a lawsuit against the university and they settle.

[Hongbit]

If he wants to keep being a football coach then he doesn’t have many good options.   The best thing he can probably do is deny everything and let MSU fire him.  Work with the university to have them use some of the remaining contract to pay her off to keep quiet and  avoid any future lawsuits from her.   MSU could easily be sued since she was a vendor alleging misconduct against a high ranking school leader.  They have some motivation to make this whole thing go away and not just Mel. 

Tucker is still a Saban guy and while he’ll still be too hot to hire right now in the Bama coaching reclamation project, St. Nick can get him a pro job next year and then he can hire Tuck on the Bama staff in 2025.  He can start his slow rise back up and if he’s lucky get another hc job in 5 or 6 years.  This only works if everything stays quiet and he never has to explain himself and this situation further.  

[buddha]

5 minutes ago, Hongbit said:

If he wants to keep being a football coach then he doesn’t have many good options.   The best thing he can probably do is deny everything and let MSU fire him.  Work with the university to have them use some of the remaining contract to pay her off to keep quiet and  avoid any future lawsuits from her.   MSU could easily be sued since she was a vendor alleging misconduct against a high ranking school leader.  They have some motivation to make this whole thing go away and not just Mel. 

Tucker is still a Saban guy and while he’ll still be too hot to hire right now in the Bama coaching reclamation project, St. Nick can get him a pro job next year and then he can hire Tuck on the Bama staff in 2025.  He can start his slow rise back up and if he’s lucky get another hc job in 5 or 6 years.  This only works if everything stays quiet and he never has to explain himself and this situation further.  

he cant deny everything because he already admitted it.

this was a title ix complaint (i think).  not sure if she gets money for that.  however, if she does file a lawsuit that will say something about her motivation$$$$.

[MIguy]

Mel just made his Twitter private.   

 

[Shinzaki]

Go away for a year or two...come back as a HC in the MAC or AAC

[Hongbit]

23 minutes ago, MIguy said:

Mel just made his Twitter private.   

 

Probably a newly hired crisis management firm already at work.  

[Edman85]

If it comes out that she is persuing relationships with people she is lining up speaking gigs with, Tracy wouldn't be the first social media influencer to go astray and jump the shark and rely on their following to help their martyr case. Big if, but that thought crossed my mind.

[MIguy]

So not to defend Tuck here, but I just have to ask a question.....

 

Couldn't she have just hung up?

[romad1]

2 hours ago, Hongbit said:

It’s always about Michigan @buddha

Where is Freeppitchbot twitter feed? 

[romad1]

I asked my son if the campus was buzzing about this (@1pm on a Sunday where they serve breakfast in the cafeterias until 3:30pm) and he was like, "what?" 

But, the people who worry about such things are likely in the know and ready to light fire to the AD's office.

[MIguy]

 

Edited September 10, 2023 by MIguy

[MichiganCardinal]

[CMRivdogs]

 

 

 

[gehringer_2]

22 minutes ago, CMRivdogs said:

 

 

 

Makes you wonder if MSU was hoping to negotiate some kind of settlement to make this go away. If so probably a pointless exercise but the kind of decision I can imagine would not have been unlikely.

[MichiganCardinal]

The interim president keeps saying "this is not the MSU of old", as if everything about this does not scream "this is the MSU of old". A "new" MSU would not have waited until this got public to take action. They were reactive, not proactive.

Curious to see if there are any hard hitting questions.

[MIguy]

The Athletic Director just confirmed that the university has known about the allegations since they were first filed and received a report detailing the incident back in July.   

[MIguy]

Wow, the AD just said that Tucker had already had restrictions placed upon him as a result of the report they had received.  It's blatantly obvious now that they only chose to suspend him without pay because the media blew the lid off the story. 

[Motor City Sonics]

11 minutes ago, MIguy said:

Wow, the AD just said that Tucker had already had restrictions placed upon him as a result of the report they had received.  It's blatantly obvious now that they only chose to suspend him without pay because the media blew the lid off the story. 

"Never turn a 1-day story into a 2-day story" - Don Canham............who took the Robert Anderson fiasco and turned it into a 40-year story. 

These programs are all dirty.   Even precious Notre Dame (Brian Kelly killed a kid).  

Why do I still watch and cheer for this dreck? 

[buddha]

21 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

Makes you wonder if MSU was hoping to negotiate some kind of settlement to make this go away. If so probably a pointless exercise but the kind of decision I can imagine would not have been unlikely.

you usually dont get money damages for a title ix complaint.  however, i dont know if they negotiate settlements to make people drop them.

the point was raised earlier - correctly - that she was a vendor for msu and that makes his argument that it was a personal matter pretty weak.  by the same token, if he is giving her gifts and ahe has a contract with michigan state, she has an ethical obligation not to take them or to return them.  he sent her money and gave her gifts, she should have given them back or not taken them.  but she didnt.  for some unknown reason...

[Edman85]

The generous benefit-of-the-doubt attitude way to look at this is they were keeping it under wraps to protect Tracy as much as Tucker, and did act today because it went public, but did so because they know longer had to keep her protected. I could see what she would want to press the red button, given that her main witness died in the car crash earlier this year and she maybe saw the tide shifting.

[Deleterious]

I was not aware of this rule.

 

[MichiganCardinal]

2 hours ago, Edman85 said:

The generous benefit-of-the-doubt attitude way to look at this is they were keeping it under wraps to protect Tracy as much as Tucker, and did act today because it went public, but did so because they know longer had to keep her protected. I could see what she would want to press the red button, given that her main witness died in the car crash earlier this year and she maybe saw the tide shifting.

Except they didn't have to say anything about why he was suspended. When Mark Schlissel got canned, I don't think the identity of his affair was ever released, despite the emails being released, or if the identity was released it was done after a lengthy FOIA suit and without media fanfare. Even today, it's not like they ever mentioned Tracy's name. She chose to come forward with her name.

Because on the flip side, what if, now that Tracy did go to the media, multiple staffers or other vendors come forward and say "Mel made me feel uncomfortable over the phone too over the last eight months"... MSU stood by, with knowledge that their coach did this ("this" being either side of the story), and they left him in a position of extremely high authority and influence with the university and athletic department. Clearly they know the behavior is not okay, because they suspended him today! They claim that they monitored the program more closely, but what does that really mean when he admitted to what he admitted to? You're not in his hotel room with him and you're not listening to every phone call.

[Edman85]

Maybe the investigation wasn't exactly shining her in the best light? It is possible, and it the reports are basically her side of the story.