Just a couple of weeks ago, Baylor's president, Linda Livingstone, told media at the Big 12 meetings that Pepper Hamilton's 105 recommendations for improvement provide "a great road map" for any institution in the same sorry fix.
Let me make that 106 recommendations: Next time a law firm investigates your athletic department, make sure they put it in writing. All of it.
Because of Baylor's decision to gloss over the actual facts — whether out of misguided intentions to shield the innocent or in an attempt to cover up guilty parties — the university needs to start all over and get it right this time.
The latest reason to find fault with the investigation of the Baylor scandal comes in the wake of a blistering deposition from the former athletic director, Ian McCaw.
In the deposition, McCaw says Baylor officials and the university's operatives "scapegoated black football players and the football program;" asked him to lie; and concocted a "false" and "misleading" narrative that shifted blame from university officials to the football program.
McCaw also said Pepper Hamilton lawyers told him there were three possible outcomes of their investigation: "a detailed document," a "summary report" or a "whitewash."
We know the report was not "A." Whether it's simply "B" or "B and C," we may never know. But someone needs to ask.
McCaw's accusations were rendered in a lawsuit against the university by 10 women who allege that Baylor denied them their rights to an education under Title IX after they were assaulted.
A statement from the university alleges that much of what McCaw says in the deposition is based on speculation, hearsay and media reports. It's also ugly.
For instance, I don't know where McCaw got this, but he says a Baylor police dispatcher put a woman reporting a sexual assault on hold while ordering himself a meal.
Defenders of Art Briles have mounted a case from the earliest stages of the scandal, alleging that Baylor regents were to blame, not the football coach. McCaw's deposition certainly supports that position.
But let's not forget the text messages that put both Briles and McCaw in a compromising position. And even if McCaw is correct when he asserts that the former university police chief, Jim Doak, discouraged or ignored sexual assault reports, two Baylor football players were convicted of rape.
From what little we know, it appears there may have been a much larger problem on the Baylor campus than with just the football program. How much the university knew, and tolerated, is still to be determined.
The irony of these latest allegations is that the NCAA is expected to rule any day now on its own findings. No one expects Baylor to receive much of a reprimand. The NCAA parses the small-time stuff. Basically, anything affording a program a competitive advantage.
The stuff that really matters — such as providing a safe environment for women on campus — it leaves to a higher authority.
If McCaw's accusations are true, the higher authority at Baylor skipped out on its responsibilities. Maybe for decades. If so, the guilty need to be held accountable, too.
The only way to determine their culpability is to start all over. And when a new investigation is done, we need to see it. All of it. Because we not only can handle the truth, it's how justice is served.
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