The policy was the answer to a series of scandals in which coaches recruited athletes with histories of violence against women, some of whom were later accused of reoffending. Starting the 2022-23 school year, the rule was intended to keep campuses safer.
At many of the nation’s top sports colleges, vetting athletes for past sexual misconduct and violent acts under a new NCAA policy boils down to one step: asking them.
Adopted three years ago by the NCAA’s highest governing body, the policy requires all 1,100 member schools to take “reasonable steps” to confirm whether new and continuing athletes have records of serious misconduct, including sexual assault, dating violence and assault causing serious bodily harm. Athletes must annually disclose any criminal convictions and school disciplinary actions, and schools must have written procedures for obtaining information from athletes’ previous schools.
“The Ohio State University Department of Athletics is confident in its protocols to learn if incoming, transferring student-athletes have had prior or pending disciplinary actions or criminal proceedings,” Johnson said. The woman said the players, Jayden de Laura and Kamo’i Latu, raped her in a Hawaii parking garage in October 2018 after leading their high school team to victory in the state championship. The woman was a minor at the time. The lawsuit said both athletes had pleaded guilty to sexual assault in the second degree; de Laura’s attorneys said later that the case was adjudicated in family court.
Yet the athletes apparently did not disclose the matter to their new coaches. In public statements issued after the news broke, both schools said they learned of the lawsuit – and the rape allegations – after football season started the following fall. Arizona’s and Wisconsin’s self-disclosure forms, which USA TODAY reviewed, ask about criminal convictions and school discipline but not lawsuits or juvenile delinquency proceedings.
The University of Arizona's conduct disclosure form asks athletes about criminal convictions and school discipline, but not juvenile delinquency proceedings or civil lawsuits. At the end of Kansas’ investigation of the case, Tackett received a letter from the school saying it had “effectively expelled” the player, who transferred soon after to Indiana State University. When a local newspaper brought her case to Indiana State officials’ attention, they dismissed the player – and claimed to have been unaware of it.
The NCAA’s rulebook outlines no specific penalties for athletes who engage in serious misconduct. Players regularly exploit its one meaningful penalty for those who transfer while suspended or after being expelled – a year of bench time – by enrolling at a junior college for a semester or transferring before the discipline takes effect.
Former University of Alabama football player Jonathan Taylor appeared in court Monday April 6, for the first time on third-degree domestic violence charges. Taylor was accused last Saturday of harming his girlfriend and punching a hole in a door at her apartment. She has since recanted those allegations and is facing a charge of making a false report to law enforcement.Taylor did not enter a plea at the arraignment scheduled in Tuscaloosa Municipal Court Monday afternoon.
The Board of Governors announced the new association-wide vetting requirements four months later, in April 2020. They were supposed to take effect for the 2021-22 school year, but the board delayed them a year because of the coronavirus pandemic. The board directed each school to adopt its own vetting procedures and create its own disclosure forms. It also declined to review any school’s policy to ensure it was up to par. As a result, the thoroughness with which athletes are backgrounded today depends heavily on which school is recruiting them.
The University of Michigan, the University of Missouri and Iowa State audit a sample of self-disclosure forms in which athletes answered “no” to every question, verifying the information with their former schools. Missouri spokesperson Ryan Koslen said the school also conducts background checks on all transfer athletes but did not say what that entails.
“We’re able to get a pretty good picture of our student-athletes that we’re recruiting,” Brown said. “Is there a possibility that something could slip through the cracks? Yeah.” That athletic departments put the onus on athletes to self-disclose misconduct instead of verifying it themselves, McDavis said, shows they are more interested in “checking a box” than learning the truth about whom they are inviting to their campuses.
Wisconsin has a written policy, but it says nothing about steps officials will take to vet incoming recruits. The policy, enacted in 2019 – a year before the new requirements were adopted – outlines only how the school will respond if a current athlete is charged with a crime, arrested or disciplined for a student conduct violation.
“For an issue of such great importance and magnitude,” she said, “I think it would be helpful to have a standardized approach throughout the country.”Tracy and other advocates have been pushing NCAA leaders to adopt a uniform serious misconduct policy for years. The vetting procedures Power 5 schools adopted instead “feel like a direct reflection of how each institution truly feels about these issues,” Tracy said.
If a review panel consisting of the Title IX coordinator and other campus officials determines the athlete should receive a waiver, the panel details its rationale in a report to the president and athletic director, who can approve or deny it. If the panel decides a waiver is unwarranted, its decision is final.
“We hope that we’re recruiting student athletes that we can trust,” Campos said, “but for them to also know that we are going to verify from another school your background, I think that shows the seriousness of what we are trying to do.”For Virginia’s College at Wise, the 2022-23 school year – its first year with the rule in effect – went fairly seamlessly, athletic director Kendall Rainey said.
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