Controversy has come up recently in the college sports world because of Brenda Tracy and her son presenting a petition to ban sexually violent athletes at the NCAA’s Board of Governors last week.
Darius, Tracy’s son, began the petition to ban the athletes after hearing about accusations of sexual violence that took place at Baylor with their football team. Tracy states that she was raped by four men in 1998, two of which were football players at Oregon State.
It is often seen that the Associated Press does not identify those who claim to have been sexually assaulted; however, Tracy has come out and spoken publicly in order to draw attention to her case.
Tracy recently met with Nebraska, Baylor and several other university’s football players to discuss this issue. Mike Riley, Nebraska Football Head Coach, was the coach at Oregon State in 1998, where he suspended the players accused by Tracy. In Baylor’s case, there are federal lawsuits being brought by several women who say that the university did not act on their sexual assault claims. Not only this, but the women are saying that they also did not enforce any gender discrimination protection under Title IX.
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While no one knows if the NCAA will move along with Tracy’s request, the impact of her story is spreading across the country. Like I mentioned above, universities all over are inviting Tracy to come speak for them, sharing her emotional story. Her message is very important, and she has said how she will talk to anyone who will listen. Players, teams and coaches see how vital what she shares with them is.
These organizations are incredibly grateful to hear from Tracy and understand her story, opening their eyes to what is really going on. Along with this, some teams are starting to think of what they can do on their own to prevent sexual violence from happening on their campuses.
Personally, I think what Tracy is doing is incredibly brave and motivational. More often than not, we as humans do not want to think that awful things, such as sexual violence, are happening around us. College students and organizations want to believe that their campus and their peers are great, and that no one would do anything to harm another. However, it is crucial that we realize that these horrible things are happening. We also must understand that in order to stop them, we must educate ourselves and do everything in our own power to prevent it around us.
And we are already beginning to see actions taking place in college sports to aid in the prevention and punishment of crimes of sexual violence. The NCAA Board of Governors have asked all three divisions to develop legislation for sexual violence. This is the first step toward making progress in fighting against sexual violence around the country on our college campuses.
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While we may not see the direct impact of this here at the University of Nebraska, that does not mean that we are allowed to do nothing about sexual violence. It is important that we all continue to do everything in our power as a fan base and university to keep UNL a safe community and one that everyone wants to be a part of.