DotComp: Michigan State’s Mel Tucker accused of sexual harassment, and Spartan football braces itself
East Lansing, Mich. – Forget the upcoming games against four Top 10 teams in the next eleven weeks. Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker wakes up Sunday morning facing the biggest challenges of his coaching career stemming from allegations of off-the-field conduct that put his job status in severe jeopardy.
USA Today reported at 12:45 a.m. on Sunday morning that Brenda Tracy, a spokesperson and advocate for prevention of sexual assault who had been hired to speak to the Michigan State football team at Tucker’s request in 2021, filed a complaint in December of 2022 to the Title IX office at Michigan State University alleging that Tucker had sexually harassed her during a phone conversation in April of 2022.
Michigan State hired an outside Title IX attorney to investigate Tracy’s complaint. The investigation concluded in July. According to USA Today, a hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5-6.
A second outside Title IX attorney will hear both sides and decide whether Tucker violated school policy against sexual harassment and exploitation of any kind. If so, Tucker will be at risk of losing the remainder of the 10-year contract he signed with Michigan State in December of 2021 for approximately $95 million.
Tracy is a gang rape survivor, and agreed to be identified by USA Today as the claimant in this case. She turned over more than 1,200 pages of case documents to USA Today, many of which are extremely problematic for Tucker.
In short, Tucker, who is married, conceded to Title IX investigators that he had phone sex with Tracy. He claims it was consensual. She says it was not.
“I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation,” Tucker wrote in a letter to the investigator obtained by USA Today, “but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”
In the letter, Tucker wrote that Tracy’s claims were “distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship.”
A key point could be whether the phone conversation in question took place while Tucker was on company time. USA Today reports that the outside Title IX investigator contends that Tucker made the call while in Florida for a fund raising event. His trip and his hotel was paid for by the Spartan Fund, Michigan State’s official athletic booster foundation.
This is ugly stuff on so many levels, especially for a university that is just five years removed from the cloud of tragedy, pain and shame cast by the Larry Nassar crimes. The university and athletic department have pledged to grow from those lessons and vowed to become safer and more transparent as a result. And now Michigan State finds that its head football coach has done this.
We didn’t learn about these allegations until this report from USA Today, early Sunday morning. Now that news of this investigation has gone public, there will be pressure for Tucker to be suspended, at the least. And he knows it.
Why did Michigan State continue to let Tucker coach while these investigations were ongoing? Innocent until proven guilty is the law of the land, but it’s not necessarily applicable when it comes to working for and representing a university. But when it comes to wrongful dismissal, things might not move as swiftly as some critics would want.
As usual, some decisions come down to money, and others are tied up in chain of command. Michigan State still owes Tucker roughly $80 million on his contract. But the terms could be voided, the contract says, if he is found to have engaged in “conduct which, in the University’s reasonable judgment, would tend to bring public disrespect, contempt or ridicule on the University.”
As for athletic director Alan Haller, it’s possible that he and athletic administrators were not fully aware of the nature of the allegations, due to Michigan State’s Title IX compliance protocol.
It’s also possible that the university did not want to move quickly on this matter until a potential case against Tucker, in regard to “public disrespect, contempt or ridicule on the University,” was strong.
Either way, the allegations are now public, and Michigan State will act.
Tucker left Spartan Stadium on Saturday evening somewhat satisfied with a 45-14 victory over Richmond. He told his team to waive the usual 24 hour rule of neutral thought following a football game and instead instructed them to begin focusing on Washington the minute they left the locker room door.
“Washington is on the clock,” he told them.
But now that these allegations and the investigation are public, we have to wonder about Sunday’s team meetings. Will Tucker be the person who speaks to the team this morning? Will the university allow it? I can’t see how it could.
I don’t mean to be insensitive to any pain brought upon to Ms. Tracy through all of this, but as a sports reporter who writes for a sports-minded audience, I have to turn some of my attention to the short-term future of the Spartan football program with these allegations hanging in the balance.
If this scandal costs Tucker his job, Michigan State will find a strong successor. But what happens to the roster? It’s not hard to let one’s mind race to damaging conclusions. In this age of the transfer portal and instant eligibility for transfers, coaching staffs, or their informal representatives, from all over the country will reach out to Michigan State players, nudging them to transfer.
The firing of a coaching, especially when it happens early in a season, can nuke a roster. When Tennessee fired coach Jeremy Pruitt due to NCAA violations in 2021, 28 players left the program.
Last September, Nebraska and Arizona State parted ways with their head coaches. Nebraska lost 42 players to the transfer portal in 2023 and Arizona State lost 22.
This is where the real college football world rubber is hitting Michigan State’s road this morning. Tucker wanted his players putting all focus on Washington, 24 hours early last night. Instead, the players are met with the biggest distraction of their college football careers.
For now, it’s a distraction. In the coming days and weeks it has the potential to become far more than that. And Michigan State once braces itself, with a hope for better days ahead.
The post DotComp: Michigan State’s Mel Tucker accused of sexual harassment, and Spartan football braces itself appeared first on On3.
