More details have emerged in the Baylor sexual assault scandal that led to the firing of football coach Art Briles and others. Members of Baylor's board of regents spoke to the Wall Street Journal, detailing the football program's involvement in the scandal as well as the decision-making process that led to Briles' firing.
Here are four things to know about the details released by the Baylor regents on Friday:
1. There were 17 women that alleged sexual or domestic assault by 19 football players since 2011. According to the regents, 17 women brought forward sexual assault allegations against football players since 2011, including four allegations of gang rape. Until now, we had not known exactly how widespread the problem was within the Baylor football program, but allegations by 17 women against 19 players shows why the program was deemed to have a severe cultural problem.
"There was a cultural issue there that was putting winning football games above everything else, including our values," said J. Cary Gray, a member of the Baylor board of regents, to the Wall Street Journal. "We did not have a caring community when it came to these women who reported that they were assaulted. And that is not OK."
2. Briles told the regents his system of delegation made him the last to know about allegations. After the release of the Pepper Hamilton report and two days before his eventual firing, Briles spoke to to the board of regents about the scandal, as detailed by Gray.
"He couldn't speak he was so upset, and all of us were," Gray said. "Art said, 'I delegated down, and I know I shouldn't have. And I had a system where I was the last to know, and I should have been the first to know.'"
Briles' lawyer said he quoted scripture and expressed remorse, but did not admit wrongdoing in the scandal.
3. Briles was fired for failing to meet Title IX requirements and a failure to act on allegations. Briles allegedly was made aware of particular allegation of gang rape in which one of the victims was a Baylor athlete in another sport. According to the Wall Street Journal, Briles was "supportive of her claim" and wanted her to take the matter to the police, but failed to notify the school's Title IX office or the judicial affairs office.
"As he heard information, what did he do with it? From a moral standpoint, what is the right thing to do?" said Ron Murff, chairman of the board of regents.
4. Baylor football players were responsible for 10.4 percent of Title IX reported incidents from 2011-2015. In response to claims that Baylor singled out the football program in something that was a broader school-wide issue, Gray responded, "football is just a fraction, but it is a bad fraction." According to the Wall Street Journal, football players accounted for 10.4 percent of Title IX reported incidents over the four year period that ended in 2014-15.
