Mississippi State had a chance to take a stand Thursday, to prove that the sordid mess at Baylor could bring a teachable moment to football programs beholden to winning at all costs.
Instead, we got more of the same. A school president bowing at the feet of the football program? Future victories over doing the right thing? Botched explanations for decisions? Yes, please!
Rather than send a strong message, Mississippi State cowered and opted to give a second chance to incoming ESPN 300 recruit Jeffery Simmons because he is really good at football -- less than a week after Baylor coach Art Briles lost his job for giving out too many second chances to players who were really good at football.
Simmons still has misdemeanor assault charges pending, after he was shown on video beating a woman repeatedly. (His next scheduled court date is June 14.) But he will be allowed to enroll at Mississippi State with conditions, and serve a one-game suspension.
One game. Against mighty South Alabama. Slow clap. Way to make a statement, gentlemen.
Mississippi State athletic director Scott Stricklin tried to explain away the circumstances surrounding the fight both in a statement and to reporters covering the SEC spring meetings in Sandestin, Florida. But Stricklin tried so hard to justify the decision, he ended up sounding tone deaf. Especially with the Baylor fiasco so fresh.
In rationalizing the fight, Stricklin said Simmons was just trying to break up an altercation between his sister and another woman. Keep in mind Simmons is 6-foot-4 and weighs 262 pounds. The woman he is seen battering is on the ground, defenseless.
"This is not a sexual violence issue as defined by law," Stricklin said.
That matters why? The video shows Simmons using two fists to land at least five separate blows, then walking away and gloating.
Stricklin also said these "type of actions and poor decisions are not acceptable." Unless you play football? Because if they truly were unacceptable, Simmons would be looking for another school.
Instead, Stricklin, coach Dan Mullen and the entire Mississippi State administration have taken on a known risk and sent a dangerous message to the student body and the other players on the team. We know it. They know it. They are OK with that.
It should not be this hard for people with the authority to do the right thing, to actually do the right thing.
"Five seconds of a really poor choice shouldn't preclude an individual from going to school," Stricklin said.
That is head-in-the-sand thinking. And it's the kind of overly forgiving attitude that got Briles fired, Baylor president Ken Starr demoted and Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw placed on probation after a review found a complete mismanagement of sexual assault allegations made against students -- including several football players. Starr and McCaw later resigned.
In one of the most galling remarks Starr made during a 45-minute interview with ESPN on Wednesday, he said, "I can't disagree with the policy judgment to give second chances to young men with a very tough past. ... Yes, in retrospect it would have been a lot safer to say to these young men, no, we're not going to give a second chance."
It would have been a lot safer to keep Simmons off the Mississippi State campus, too. But protecting football's best interest means taking a risk, and putting other students at risk as a result, callously disregarding an entire student body for a few potential victories.
Starr proclaimed a "veil of ignorance" over the ugly situation he presided over. What excuse will Mississippi State president Mark E. Keenum use if Simmons gets in trouble over the next four or five years with the Bulldogs?
Keenum was directly involved in the discussions about whether to allow Simmons to enroll in school, Stricklin said. So was the dean of students and the Title IX administrator. The school says the amount of background work it did vetting Simmons was "extensive" and it left no stone unturned, interviewing various people in his past from principals to clergy.
Stricklin says they found no prior incidents of violent behavior. That videotape should have been enough to make the decision for them. It should have been enough for Keenum to step in, be the adult in the room, and say, "Not on my watch, fellas."
"Ultimately, if our president wasn't comfortable with it, he wouldn't have signed off on it," Stricklin told reporters.
This falls on Keenum, more than it falls on Mullen and Stricklin. He is as responsible for the decision to allow Simmons to play football and enroll in school. Yet he passed the buck to Stricklin, telling CBSsports.com, "I have complete trust and confidence in our athletic director and the decision he made on this matter, and I think he made a very good statement and I think it speaks for itself," Keenum said.
School presidents need to think beyond the glory of football victories and ask themselves, "Am I doing what is right for every single student at my university?"
Starr never stopped to ask himself that question, reveling in the newfound fortune Baylor football brought to town. If his spectacular failure does not change attitudes or behavior, hope for an entire sea change is lost.
And it has taken Mississippi State less than a week to prove as much.