Yahoo Sports 
Report: Ex-Baylor president once reinstated Tevin Elliott from academic suspension
Former Baylor president Ken Starr once used his power to reinstate a former football player, now currently imprisoned, from an academic suspension in 2011.
According to the Wall Street Journal, former Baylor player Tevin Elliott was suspended for academic misconduct reasons. After Elliott was suspended, Starr jumped in and allowed Elliott to rejoin the team.
Elliott is serving a prison sentence after he was found guilty of raping multiple Baylor students in 2014. Per the WSJ, Starr’s move to get Elliott back on the team was met with praise by former coach Art Briles who emailed Starr “Keep riding that white horse.” Others weren’t so happy.
Starr’s ruling was made over the objections of other administrators. The disagreement is indicative of deeper tensions that simmered between him and other Baylor officials long before the sexual-assault scandal that roiled the country’s largest Baptist university and sent one of the nation’s top college-football programs into free fall.
Both Starr and Briles lost their jobs at the school following an independent investigation into the school’s handling of sexual assaults. A previous Journal report said 19 players had been accused of assaults vs. women in the past five years and some of those accusations included gang rapes.
In addition to Elliott, former player Sam Ukwuachu is was found guilty of raping a former student at Baylor and former defensive end Shawn Oakman was indicted on sexual assault charges earlier this year.
[Follow Dr. Saturday on social media: Twitter | Facebook | Tumblr]
Briles has made a general apology for his role in the scandal at the school. In the same interview with ESPN where he said he was sorry (without saying what he was sorry for), he said that “head coaches are sometimes protected, in certain instances, from minor issues. Now, major issues I was always made aware of.”
Clearly, based on the email he reportedly sent to Starr, the academic suspension of Elliott must have been a major issue.
The former president made himself look silly defending his actions as the school’s president as the depth of the sexual assault scandal became known. And he continues to do just that. He told the Journal he personally has “doubts that there were gang rapes.”
Remember, this is the same man who led an investigation into then-President Bill Clinton’s alleged relationship with Monica Lewinsky. The WSJ report goes into more detail regarding Starr’s tumultuous-at-times relationship with members of Baylor’s board of regents.
Briles was replaced by interim coach Jim Grobe for the 2016 season. Grobe will coach is final game in the Dec. 28 Cactus Bowl before former Temple coach Matt Rhule takes over as Baylor’s new head coach.
– – – – – – –
Nick Bromberg is the assistant editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
