The Big 12 board announced Wednesday that it will withhold 25 percent of future revenue distribution payments to Baylor, pending an outcome of a third-party verification review of required changes to the school’s “athletics procedures and to institutional governance of its intercollegiate athletics programs.”
“The Board is unified in establishing a process to verify that proper institutional controls are in place and sustainable,” Oklahoma president and Big 12 board chair David Boren said in a statement. “By taking these actions, the board desires to ensure that the changes that were promised are actually made and that systems are in place to avoid future problems. The proportional withholding of revenue distribution payments will be in effect until the board has determined that Baylor is in compliance with conference bylaws and regulations as well as all components of Title IX.”
According to the Big 12, Baylor was not included in the vote.
Last year, the Big 12 distributed $30.4 million to each of its members. A 25 percent withholding of that would’ve cost Baylor $7.6 million.
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As the Big 12 is still making payments to its members from last year’s distribution haul, the conference will withhold 25 percent of those payments to Baylor. Big 12 spokesman Bob Burda told ESPN that Baylor would have the opportunity to recoup any withheld revenue if it satisfied the board members at the conclusion of the review.
Burda didn’t give a timetable for the completion of the review but hopes to complete it “as expeditiously as possible.”
Baylor interim president David Garland released a statement shortly after the Big 12’s announcement.
“Upon learning the scope and scale of the troubling incidents that occurred within our campus community through an independent investigation, Baylor University took unprecedented corrective actions that led to leadership changes within the University administration and athletic department and 105 recommendations to strengthen the safety and security of our students,” Garland said. “No other university in the country has responded as aggressively and decisively as Baylor regarding incidents of sexual assaults on its campus.
“Under the university’s new leadership, Baylor has demonstrated a firm commitment to athletics compliance and integrity, increased awareness and prevention of sexual assault, implementation of Title IX best practices and providing comprehensive support services for any student in need of them. Baylor already had planned to hire an outside auditor to audit the implementation of our enhanced practices, and we welcome the Big 12 Conference’s request of an independent review. While the withholding of conference distributions is an unexpected financial event, we do not deem these actions to materially impact the overall financial position of the University. We pledge our full cooperation, and we will work with the Big 12 Conference to conduct the audit as expeditiously as possible.
“This third-party review at the request of the Big 12 Conference will provide an opportunity for us to demonstrate our progress to date and our ongoing commitment in establishing Baylor as a leading institution in athletics compliance and governance and for preventing and addressing sexual assaults on college campuses.”
The Big 12 announcement comes after sources told ESPN’s Outside the Lines last week that the NCAA is casting a wide net to determine what NCAA rules might have been violated during Baylor’s sexual assault scandal. The NCAA is also asking whether Baylor players might have been provided improper recruiting inducements and other illegal benefits while playing for the Bears, according to the sources.
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby told ESPN just last week that while the Baylor scandal “just continues to ooze,” the Big 12 was not poised to take any action against Baylor.
“We have some tools at our disposal, but I think there’s a right time to use those and a right situation to use them, and it’s an ongoing process,” he said.
Bowlsby, however, noted that there was a desire and a “shared frustration” among the Big 12 members to get to the bottom of what happened and figure out all the parties involved.
“I think everybody’s pretty much in the barrel,” Bowlsby said, “but I don’t know if anybody knows where the bottom of the barrel is.”
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