Imagine that you are sitting at a sporting event and you hear a couple arguing a few rows away from your seat. The man gets up from his seat and violently punches at his partner. Your reaction would be shock; you would hopefully either help the victim or at the least help to get the man out of the stadium. So why is the situation any different when a player on the field does the same thing to his partner one night the next week?

Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault are both issues that don't get the attention they deserve, but Athletics Offices in Universities around the country like to sweep these tragedies under the rug. A case of a student who is involved with a Domestic Violence or Sexual Assault altercation is very bad publicity for a University. That event causes parents to worry about sending their children to the school, alumni to withhold donations, legal troubles for the University, and most importantly the event affects the victim. So to improve the face of the University, these assaults are mostly kept out of the public eye. Especially regarding athletes. 

A college athlete is one of the greatest ambassadors for a University to many people, simply because of their athletic abilities. If the University were to punish or cut ties with a popular star athlete it may lose popularity because of the treatment it gave a likeable character. The most popular student-athlete to be accused of Sexual Assault recently is "former Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston, who was accused of rape before accepting the 2013 Heisman Trophy" (Ryan). Jameis Winston was suspended for one game in college for the sexual assault, but he still "won a Heisman Trophy, quarterbacked Florida State to a national championship, became the first overall pick in the draft, and got to the Pro Bowl as a rookie with the Buccaneers" (Smith). This fame came after Jameis Winston was accused of sexual assault while his "accuser had never heard of him" (Smith). This superstar athlete now calls himself "the face of a community" (Smith) as an NFL player with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. This status as a community leader is unwarranted from a man who has a history of doing such unspeakable things to other people while in college.

College athletes, at times, seem to be bigger than life. Their status doesn't grant them an excuse from their horrendous crimes. While Winston's case is more publicized because of his award-winning play, there are many other less written about cases of athletes being excused from their crime. "Sam Ukwuachu ... transferred to Baylor in spring 2013 despite a troubling history that reportedly included a domestic violence incident for which he was dismissed from the team" (Span 14). The same player Sam Ukwuachu then preceded to be "accused of sexual assault by a player on Baylor's women's soccer team" (Span 14). This athlete was given a second chance at another institution and assaulted another person. Ukwuachu is currently in prison and appealing the sexual assault charges. Joe Mixon, a running back at Oklahoma University was charged with punching a woman. "Oklahoma had Mixon sit out a year, but he returned this season and was shielded from having to publicly acknowledge a heinous act" (Ryan). These two athletes, Sam Ukwuachu and Joe Mixon, are given the opportunity to play major college football, have their tuition, housing and food paid for and are not punished except being kept from competition and the media for a year and allowed back at the university or another institution the next year. The privilege they have is taken for granted and it is not fair to the victim that there is no justice, just because the assailant is an athlete.

In the first place Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault aren't treated the way they deserve to be by colleges across the country. There needs to be some repercussion or result from all cases involving these atrocities, but the NCAA is the governing body over athletes and athletic programs. It is questionable, but understandable for a university to give its own athlete a pass on doing something wrong, because they still have the opportunity to make money off of the individual or have athletic success because of the athlete. The NCAA however will still make money from all of the institutions, and still will have the ability to name one of its Universities as the National Champion even if it disciplines the offending athlete. "The NCAA takes a laissez-faire approach and lets the universities decide the appropriate punishment" (Ryan). This is not an appropriate action from the people who are supposed to rule college athletics. Jameis Winston went "from stealing crab legs from a supermarket, to shouting expletives in the student union, to more serious allegations of sexual assault" (Grossman) and Florida State University only suspended their star quarterback for one game in his career. After the Florida State coach suspended Winston for a game he "garnered headlines during pregame warm-ups when he ran out of the locker room in a helmet and full pads" (Shanker) as if he were prepared to play. If the NCAA took any responsibility in punishing Jameis Winston, then he wouldn't have taken the liberty to dress out for the game despite his punishment, and he may have not taken the liberty to act as he did throughout his career. Athletes become all too comfortable on their own campus. The problem comes with giving this untouchable status to 18-year-old kids, it gives them a sense of entitlement and it leads them to act as Winston, Ukwuachu, and Mixon have.

Baylor University, a Christian-based Institution in Waco, Texas accepted Sam Ukwuachu on transfer from Boise State, after an alleged domestic violence incident there. Baylor, two years before accepting Ukwuachu on transfer had Tevin Elliott on the football team. Tevin Elliott is a former player who "was convicted of sexually assaulting a Baylor freshman twice at a party" (Witherspoon) and "two other former Baylor students testified that he sexually assaulted them" (Witherspoon). In addition to Ukwuachu and Elliott, Shawn Oakman a player that is currently awaiting the NFL Draft has been accused "as part of a sexual assault investigation" (Perez). "Oakman was suspended for the 2015 season opener" (Perez) and was dismissed from the team" (Perez) at Penn State earlier in his career when "he attempted to steal a sandwich and ... grabbed the wrist of the clerk after he was confronted" (Perez). The University in Waco undoubtedly has a problem that has not been addressed. They have accepted two troubled student-athletes and have done little to reprimand the men who are responsible for the assaults on campus.

The most famous case of sexual assault in college athletics is not the case of a student-athlete, but rather a coach at Penn State University, Jerry Sandusky. The coach "was found guilty in June of 45 counts of child sexual abuse, convicted of molesting 10 young buys over a 15-year period" (Jerry Sandusky receives 30-to 60-year sentence). This story took the media by storm when multiple victims came forth with the information that Sandusky had raped them as children. The aftermath of this has placed the Coach in jail, the University on probation, and the NCAA under a lawsuit. The Coach being in jail is the correct outcome for his crimes, but Penn State University has sued the NCAA "over the legality of penalties imposed ... over the school's handling of the Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal" (NCAA loses bid to avoid trial over Penn State's Sandusky sanctions). The state Supreme Court has effectively given the NCAA no power over future cases involving sexual assault. The NCAA has been forced to take penalties away and pay back money to the University. The issue that the NCAA took with Penn State is that there were no measures in place to keep check on the actions of the staff. 

The NCAA, in the act of punishing Penn State University was showing that the Universities have a responsibility to make sure there is a safe environment in place, and that includes holding Coaches, Athletes, and anyone else responsible for their actions. With taking the punishment away the state Supreme Court is disallowing the NCAA's ruling to impact Universities, because the Supreme Court has ruled that what the NCAA says doesn't affect them. The Universities don't have to be accountable to the NCAA and the NCAA has no power over the schools and no power over the Student-Athletes when they are off of the playing field.

The NCAA in cases involving Jameis Winston, Sam Ukwuachu, and Joe Mixon left the punishment and the supervision over the athletes to the schools that the students attend, and in the one case where the NCAA took action, they were later sued and punished for making someone finally take responsibility of an issue at an institution. The schools have clearly not done their part in keeping this issue from becoming too large. Specifically, at Baylor, there are three different cases in the last 10 years of different athletes assaulting fellow student-athletes and other students multiple times. The NCAA needed to take action and stop the free-roaming of athletes around campuses, doing whatever they want, to whoever they want and having Universities back them and take care of their legal fees. If the state Supreme Courts take the power from the NCAA's hands, then there is no governing body left to take action and make consequences for the athletes and in the Sandusky case, the staff. The responsibility is left with no one to hold it and allows an even less secure environment to exist on campuses.

The sense of entitlement comes from the respect and admiration they get from the media, coaches, fans, and fellow classmates. But one of the unexpected admirers of these athletes are the police. While it is not shocking that a police officer would be a fan of college athletics, it is appalling that an officer would give a student-athlete a pass on criminal charges. In the accusation of Jameis Winston for sexual assault, police officer Scott Angulo was quoted as telling the victim "Tallahassee was a big football town and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable" (Axon). The report also claims that Officer Angulo didn't due his duty in checking the available leads that victim, Erica Kinsman, gave him including the name of a friend that lived with Winston, videos of the two together at a bar, or the cab driver who took the two to Winston's dorm. This one incident isolated would be bad enough, but there is a much less published story of Michigan kicker who was accused of rape and his roommate All-American Taylor Lewan who "committed an additional crime by threatening to rape the woman himself if she pressed charges" (Williams). The two went and reported Lewan's threats to the police themselves and nothing was done, Lewan going on to be selected 11th overall in the 2014 NFL Draft.

The conversation seems to shift between the NCAA needing to take responsibility and the colleges needing to take the responsibility, the forgotten party is the police and the government. The Tallahassee police didn't take care of the victim, they told her of the perils if she took her case public. The police at Michigan University didn't punish Taylor Lewan for threatening to rape a woman if she told the police she was raped already. This absence of justice from the people who should be held accountable is shocking. The student-athlete's worry about being punished by coaches and the NCAA but the people who should be handing out punishment are judges after police investigate the incident. In a case with the Notre Dame football team "10 days after reporting the attack to campus police ... investigators still had not interviewed the accused" (Henneberger). The answer to this issue isn't for the NCAA to make new rules to govern the Student-Athletes, and the answer isn't for colleges to put aside the financial gains they might make from the Student-Athlete and punish them either, the answer is for the government and the police to do their job. Student-Athletes are just as human as the rest of the campus population, and the police and the courts giving them untouchable status is not what the United States Government should stand for. The Government is supposed to give justice to all and has not held the promise in regards to holding Student-Athletes accountable, regardless of their larger than life status in athletics. The discretion that is kept within the campus boundaries is astounding. There is no control over what happens on campuses throughout the country, from Tallahassee, Florida to Waco, Texas, to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania. The NCAA was formed to govern the colleges under its control, their span of control is over rules of the game and competition. The allegations of rape and of domestic violence are much more serious topics that should be investigated by the police. The punishments should be handed down by judges not by college football coaches. If a regular student were to rape or hit a woman the college football coach wouldn't be called, the crime would be under the scope of the government. The people who are supposed to be called on to create justice in the United States aren't doing so because the college football players are given immunity from their crimes. Any superstar doesn't have to face punishment, the schools pay the top lawyers they can and investigate into the crime to find any space to get their golden athletes off the hook and on to the field where they can make money off of them. The NCAA isn't given the opportunity to punish schools who don't obey the rules because they can be sued and lose money and respect. The Sandusky case is clear that Penn State is in the wrong and didn't do enough to help the victims to speak out or be safe from the hazard and the NCAA was punished for their ruling on the University. This was the state Supreme Court of Pennsylvania taking the power to discipline the schools away from the governing body. If the State is going to take the power from the NCAA then the State and the Federal Government need to take the place of the governing body over college Athletes and make sure that they follow the law or they should be punished and not protected from the law.

