One thing Michigan State established through the extensive investigative process that has engulfed football coach Mel Tucker is the university will not fire such a high-profile employee for surpassing stupidity.
But one can be suspended without pay.
The university has not yet established whether Tucker, in charge of the Spartans since 2020, is guilty of the sexual misconduct being alleged by anti-abuse lecturer Brenda Tracy. She reported her concerns to MSU’s office of civil rights last December, and since January there has been an investigation by independent attorney Rebecca Leitman Veidlinger, who is based in Ann Arbor and specializes in Title IX work.
The final step in that process is a hearing, which will allow each side to state its case and has been scheduled for Oct. 5. That apparently was the point at which Michigan State preferred to make any sort of determination about Tucker’s status.
“The university’s objective has been -- and remains – focused on conducting a fair, thorough and unbiased investigation and allowing the processes to play out,” athletic director Alan Haller said at a news conference Sunday evening. “This includes protecting confidentiality of the claimant and putting in place interim measures.
“The university’s formal conclusion of the investigation will occur once the hearing and final decision processes are complete.”
MSU is saying they waited – as it turned out, until after the Spartans had played two games – before making a move on Tucker to protect Tracy’s privacy. Once she decided to take her story public through an extensive report in USA Today, that no longer was an issue, and so he was sent on unpaid leave.
MORE: Tucker suspended without pay after investigation revealed
It is likely a determination against Tucker will be required for the university to dismiss him without being liable to honor the remaining 7.3 years of his astonishing $9.5 million-per-year contract. It’s tough to argue, though, even without that finding, that he is fit to lead the 117 young men listed on the Spartans football roster.
No one can expect leaders on a college campus to universally lead lives of quiet perfection. It is reasonable, though, to demand they not behave so recklessly as Tucker has here, even if one were willing to believe only his arguments and to set aside those of his accuser.
Tucker signed that extravagant 10-year, $95 million contract in November 2021, after he’d led the Spartans to a 10-2 regular season that soon would finish with a victory over depleted ACC champion Pitt in the Peach Bowl. That was Tucker’s only winning season to that point in his young head coaching career. And it still is.
Instead of appreciating his amazing good fortune and timing and comporting himself as someone who would not wish to wander within a few thousand miles of the words “for cause”, Tucker began – according to his admission to the MSU investigation, and Tracy’s – to express romantic interest in an acknowledged rape survivor the program had hired just months before to present a seminar to Spartans football players on the necessity of establishing mutual consent.
And he did this while working for a university still attempting to heal the scars from the revelations last decade about Larry Nassar, now a convicted sex criminal. Nassar worked at MSU for nearly 20 years, which led to the university agreeing in 2018 to a $425 million settlement for 332 identified survivors of his abuse, as well as $75 million for others that might come forward subsequently.
Tucker, 51, had been married for more than 20 years when he engaged in a post-midnight telephone call in the spring of 2022 with Tracy. It is not disputed that he pleasured himself while the two spoke, only that he said it was consensual and she insists it was unwanted.
It is beyond debate that behavior this imprudent represented a literal gamble with generational wealth. Tucker certainly had the right to be unhappy in his marriage, something Tracy said he told her, but someone in his position bore the responsibility to deal with such issues as an adult, not a teenager torn over whether to stick with a steady girlfriend or ask a new crush to the prom.
Nothing in his side of the story demonstrates an understanding and appreciation of the position he held or the circumstances he entered upon replacing Mark Dantonio at the start of this decade.
“It is not lost on me, the significance of this moment or its impact on those involved in the case, our university community and the extended Spartan family,” interim president Teresa K Woodruff said at the news conference. “The MSU of today is creating a culture that is welcoming, supportive and caring. The bravery and work of our collective community defines our institution and its people – not the action of any single individual.”
It’s not difficult to discern the message searing through that statement.
A university should be a place for responsible adults, even if their primary job requirement is to win games.
