On June 8, 2016, every member of Indiana University's athletic department received the same memo.
Subject line: Your duty to report allegations of sexual misconduct
Thirteen days earlier, Baylor had announced the firing of football coach Art Briles and the reassignment of president Ken Starr, after releasing explosive details from the Pepper Hamilton investigation into how the university handled sexual assault claims against football players. Five days after the Briles news, Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw resigned. Two days after McCaw's resignation, Starr announced his own resignation.
The most successful stretch in Baylor football history -- the Bears went 50-15 from 2011 to 2015 -- couldn't save Briles, McCaw or Starr. It sent a signal to athletic departments around the country.
"We tried to take the Baylor thing head on," Indiana athletic director Fred Glass said.
Glass began his all-staff memo by referring to the "recent infamous situation at Baylor."
He then issued a warning: "Please know that any failure to properly report potential sexual misconduct and/or any attempt to 'investigate' or otherwise deal with a potential sexual misconduct allegation outside of the [university sexual misconduct] policy will be a basis for the termination of your employment, regardless of your position within the department. Ignorance of your obligations under the University Sexual Misconduct Policy will not be an excuse."
Indiana is one of many schools taking a more aggressive approach to education and awareness about sexual assault. In more than 20 interviews with coaches, athletic directors, administrators, Title IX officers and experts in the sexual assault awareness field, several important themes became apparent.
Exactly one year after Baylor fired Art Briles, it's clear that his dismissal sent shockwaves through college football.
"It made it real," Stanford coach David Shaw said of Baylor, "because it's not just this theoretical thing that you hear about and it's miles away. It's like, 'Hey, this is happening with people your age and people that are looking at this relationship with women the wrong way.'
"So let's make sure we're actively part of the solution."
'A lot of what she said hit home'
University of Washington football players hear from so many guest speakers that some naturally react with skepticism. "A lot of times guys are like, 'Another speaker? What's this going to be about?'" wide receiver Dante Pettis said.
But as soon as Alexis Jones started talking, the players realized her presentation would be different.
During each of her talks, Jones, a sexual assault awareness and prevention advocate, points out statistics that show about one in five female students will be sexually assaulted on college campuses. Her next slides show pictures of players' mothers, girlfriends and sisters -- pulled from their social media accounts.
At Washington, the room went silent. Pettis felt anger rising.
"Once she starts getting into the topic and our family members' pictures come on the screen, it's like, 'Damn, this is serious,'" Pettis said. "She did a very good job getting a different emotion out of us instead of getting up there and just giving the stats. It was very personal. A lot of what she said hit home."
"The reaction was very visceral, but I wasn't treating them like they were in trouble," Jones said. "The whole country is talking about these young men like they are the problem, and I simultaneously believe that they are also the cure. We can educate them better. We can invite them to participate in the conversation. We can equip them with the right tools and even phrases, the right words to say in the moment."
Jones has given her ProtectHer presentation to 22 college programs or groups over the past year alone. Brenda Tracy has spoken to nearly 30 programs, and shares her story with every coach and every team she visits: the gang rape she suffered in 1998 by four men, including two Oregon State football players.
There is a reason why they are in demand.
Education is evolving rapidly
Education efforts at many schools intensified in 2011, after the federal government outlined university responsibilities to address campus sexual violence under Title IX. But the Baylor situation changed how athletic departments educate, how often they educate and whom coaches choose to speak to their players.
Lectures from lawyers are one thing, but getting speakers to talk openly about sexual assault has an impact, too.
"What we switched our scenario to was: not just telling them but showing them," Florida State coach Jimbo Fisher said. "[Pointing out,] 'This is a warning sign. This is what you do if this happens.' We try to educate them as much as we possibly can on everything."
Florida State began revising its education procedures even before Briles was fired, following several high-profile cases involving Seminoles football players accused of sexual assault and domestic violence, including Jameis Winston and Dalvin Cook between 2013 and 2015. University president John Thrasher got involved, and there are now mandatory programs in place that address character-building and interpersonal violence.
Fisher has invited a wide variety of female and male speakers, including former NFL running back Ray Rice, who was caught on video punching his fiancé in 2014.
In the nearly two years since Florida State revamped its education procedures, it has had one player arrested for domestic violence. Running back Mario Pender was immediately dismissed from the team after his arrest in May 2016.
"We're seeing a lot of discussion about how to stay out of trouble. We're telling these guys what not to do, how to avoid a Title IX case. You have lawyers come in. It doesn't work. And it shouldn't work," Tracy said. "We need to start talking to our men about what they need to do. We need to inspire them. We need to talk about character and behavior and masculinity and consent. We need to talk to them about respecting women and themselves. ... Their behavior matters. They're on the biggest stage in the country."
What's also clear is education cannot end with a guest speaker or a 20-minute talk about Title IX. Nor must it exist in big group settings. Programs are getting more creative with the way they deliver the information.
Virginia Tech athletic director Whit Babcock notes, "I don't believe that the message works as well when it's just done at the beginning of the year with compliance and one person up there like a professor teaching. We try to [address it] six or seven times a year in different ways."
Everybody inside the department should be included. From a university standpoint, that means more involvement, from the president to the Title IX office to athletics, to ensure one unified message.
Other schools have a Title IX deputy within the athletics department, like at Texas, where women's athletics director Chris Plonsky has added that role. LaToya Smith, associate vice president and Title IX coordinator at Texas, meets with Plonsky monthly and is also involved in education and training for coaches and student-athletes.
"The athletic staff is trained every year as new employees," Smith said. "It's not an online training but a live training. I conduct it and we go through actual case scenarios. The coaches and the staff have to work through what to do in that situation, but also how to support the students during those situations."
Coaches must follow reporting guidelines
College football coaches are paid to win games and championships. That isn't changing.
But Baylor's decision to fire the most successful coach in its history because of how he handled off-field misconduct put every coach on alert. It also showed how significant the issue of campus sexual assault has become.
"It matters that Art Briles got fired," said Jessica Luther, a reporter and author whose investigation into the Sam Ukwuachu sexual assault case placed Baylor and Briles in the national spotlight. "It matters that [Tracy] Claeys got fired at Minnesota. Those are two very different cases, but both of them center around how these guys handled or didn't handle or mishandled sexual assault allegations. Accountability on the highest level is one thing that will make a change."
Briles didn't lose his job because of the awful things his players did or are accused of doing. He lost it because of what he did -- or didn't do -- after receiving information about possible sexual assaults.
As university employees, every college coach is a mandatory Title IX reporter and must alert the university of any information or suspicion of sexual assault and harassment. The coach must immediately remove himself or herself from the equation.
"The thing we repeatedly stress is: It doesn't matter how the information gets to you, you have the obligation," Notre Dame athletic director Jack Swarbrick said. "You may hear the conversation between two players in the locker room. You have to act on it.
"People understand it's an absolute."
It isn't always so easy. Coaches are often among the first to know when any off-field incidents occur, and they usually remain involved until there's a conclusion.
"Given how they grew up and how they were coached, sometimes through the absolute best of intentions, they try to conduct their own investigation," Glass said. "'Let's try to find out what happened with Jim. Let's maybe talk to Jane.'"
The Baylor scandal reassured coaches who immediately report everything they hear. It also reminded coaches who do not just how much risk they are absorbing.
Since Baylor, Smith has seen coaches and others in Texas' athletic department rapidly alerting the Title IX office of any potential issues. "Anything that smells like it could be like sexual harassment or sexual assault," she said, is forwarded immediately.
"If something happens, then there's a protocol that's in place, and you make sure you hand it off," Swinney said. "You get the heck out of the way. I'm a football coach. You let the proper people handle that. ... That's all you can do."
Football programs are prioritizing prevention
As coaches remove themselves from the investigatory process, they are ramping up their efforts about sexual assault prevention and awareness after Baylor.
Shaw, the only FBS coach to serve on the NCAA's commission to combat campus sexual violence, has urged his colleagues to set strong examples for their players. An integral part is how they treat the women who work in and around their football programs.
Shaw specifically cautions colleagues about their use of recruiting hostess programs, saying coaches cannot talk about gender equality and promote groups that are "less than equal and not respected." In January, a former Baylor recruiting hostess filed a Title IX lawsuit alleging that Baylor football coaches encouraged women in the Baylor Bruins hostess program to have sex with recruits and players.
"If we want our young people to learn something, we can't just teach it to them, we have to live it for them," Shaw said. "They have to know it's important to me. They have to know this is a priority. A phrase I've started saying to them is: Real men have difficult conversations. They don't avoid them.
"And this is a difficult conversation."
Big Sky commissioner Andrea Williams, who serves on the NCAA commission with Shaw and Tracy, said it's vital that the head coach, assistants and football administrators model the same behavior for players to follow.
"It goes back to accountability," Williams said. "If [players] know their assistant coach is going to put sunshine on it, if their team captain is going to put sunshine on it, if that second compliance director is going to put sunshine on it, they're going to behave in a different way."
Sexual assault was part of the conversation in January at the American Football Coaches Association convention in Nashville. The AFCA invited Tracy to address the general session, attended by several thousand coaches from all levels of the sport.
"It's a societal problem, it isn't just a football program, but I do think football can take a huge lead," AFCA president Todd Berry said. "Any time something has more attention, you're going to spend a little bit more time on it.
"Certainly this has national attention."
What's next?
Those interviewed agree incremental progress has been made, but there is much more work ahead. Last year, the NCAA published the Sexual Violence Prevention Toolkit. The commission to combat sexual violence is working on recommendations.
Baseline requirements could be coming, which commission members Tracy and Shaw think are necessary.
"Every university should be held accountable and have something where they can say, 'Hey, this is what we've done to help our people,'" Shaw said. "That should be something that's there anyway, but at some point, we will need some kind of legislation to say, 'We're not going to tell you specifically what to do, but you have to be able to show all of us you care about this, you're making it a priority, you're teaching your young people.'"
Luther wants universities to be even more open about the education they provide their students, coaches, athletes and staff.
"One of the things I think is still a problem is the struggle for transparency around education and what is actually changing within athletic departments," Luther said. "It's really hard to get at that from the outside. There's encouraging signs that they understand that this is an issue and they need to figure out how to deal with it, but it's not always clear what they're doing to deal with it."
Though some schools have zero-tolerance policies when it comes to sexual assault and domestic violence, there also are schools more willing to give out second chances to players who have been accused of crimes.
Mississippi State was heavily criticized last year for allowing recruit Jeffery Simmons to enroll despite video showing him hitting a woman during a brawl. Simmons was suspended one game and ended up playing as a true freshman.
Florida Atlantic accepted junior college transfer De'Andre Johnson even though he was caught on video punching a woman while he was a student at Florida State. Johnson is currently competing for the starting quarterback job.
Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops and athletic director Joe Castiglione were widely criticized for the way they handled running back Joe Mixon, who was suspended for the 2015 season after punching a woman in the face. Mixon returned in 2016 to rush for 1,274 yards and 10 touchdowns and was recently selected in the NFL draft.
In December, Stoops admitted if the incident had happened today, "Dismissal is really the only thing that is possible."
"I do see him looking at this issue differently," said Tracy, who has spoken at Oklahoma and considers Stoops a friend but criticized him when the video of Mixon punching the woman went public in December. "I believe that he is rethinking things, and that's important. We need to start valuing these coaches who are saying, 'This is the way we did it for years and years and years. It's time to change and I'm changing, too.' We should support them.
"If you got rid of every coach who made a bad decision on a player, how many coaches would be left?"
Coaches and administrators throughout college athletics say they are committed to change. But it is easy to talk about the issues when major problems aren't on their campuses.
"We've made changes, but we have to do better," Williams said. "It's a process. From an NCAA and college athletics standpoint, we probably move slower than the rest of the world would like us to, but this is such an important topic, that we have to get at it the right way. What we were doing five, 10, 20 years ago, that's not OK protocol.
"I believe we're all committed to making a change. Now it's all about how do we do that?"