College Football’s 5th Quarter: Pre-National Signing Day transfers and scandals

1. Michigan State Scandal

The Michigan State Spartans have a massive scandal on their hands as not only an athletic department but also a university as a whole. The East Lansing, Michigan community is reeling from the conviction and sentencing of Larry Nassar. Nassar received a sentence of 60 years for child pornography and 40 to 175 years for sexual abuse. Nassar has at least a hundred victims.

Accusations have also been made about the roles that Mark Dantonio and Larry Izzo have played in sexual assault cases on the MSU campus regarding men’s basketball and football athletes. Per an Outside The Lines investigation into MSU, their report found “…At least 16 MSU football players have been accused of sexual assault or violence against women,” during head football coach Mark Dantonio’s eleven years in East Lansing, MI.

“Every incident reported in that article was documented by either police or the Michigan State Title IX office,” said Mark Dantonio. In 2017, Dantonio was found to have taken proper actions after three players were accused, charged, and removed from MSU for like allegations.

NCAA president Mark Emmert is also under fire for the Michigan State atrocity. Emmert has released a letter that denies the accusations that he took no action. Emmert is quoted as saying, “…Nothing could be further from the truth.” Emmert also added, “…The assertion that I and the NCAA are not reporting crimes, however, is blatantly false. We cannot let stories of this kind deter us from our important work.”

Next: Way-too-early college football top 25 rankings for 2018

I really hope that programs start not only recruiting people of a higher caliber but when student-athletes do violate policies they are immediately removed from the university upon conviction, regardless of how talented that player is.