OT: New - MSU BoT under Fire for Close Connections to Teams
MSU Board of Trustees are under fire for being too close to the sports teams. Trustees frequently flew on the team plane with the coaches and players - a practice that other BigTen schools say is very rare or prohibited. MSU blacked out many of the names and won't release details, but it seems as if this was common practice. Some of the trustees guest names were also blacked out - MSU said it blacks out all student names including players - were trustees often traveling with a student as a personal guest to these high profile games?
It raises questions if they want to see sports teams win so bad so they can ride with the team to great locations to see big games and then won't do their job properly - to oversee that the school runs appropriately.
When news came out about the 3 MSU players "seducing an unmarried woman," they had a closed door hearing with Dantonio - who they knew well from buddying it up on the team plane and then emerged saying everything was handled perfectly.
A Nassar victim said of the trustees members traveling with the basketball team to Knight Invitational:
"I will never forget the day that I sat in court to watch Larry Nassar sentenced in federal court, while photos were swirling online of the MSU Board of Trustees partying in Portland to celebrate Phil Knight's birthday," Nassar survivor Morgan McCaul said in an interview with the Free Press.
"It was an incomprehensible slap in the face, and I believe it speaks volumes as to the priorities of the board: money, reputation, and athletic success. And it was those twisted priorities, placed above the safety and well being of students and athletes on campus, that allowed Larry Nassar to prey upon young women for literally decades.
"They couldn't have shown their character more clearly."
UMBig11 said the media had some sort of an MSU football scandal...if this was it, I don't think it moves the needle much, but it does show the Spartan Nation mentality of sports first.
I think this is more of a BoT issue.
Speaking of the coaches, if Dantonio didn't get put on the hot seat for Auston Robertson, nothing will.
I’m all for keeping them at the helm, it gives us some entertaining off season topics.
Nobody thought Tressel would go down either. He was a bigger sports figure than they are, he had the whole state of Ohio by the balls.
Can't wait to see how Shawn Windsor spins this one.
If reputation is #2 on the board's priority list they are doing a pretty bad job of meeting their priorities.
Eh.
Of all the incredibly inept stuff the MSU BoT has done, I don't think this really rates. At all. The Sparties I know will collectively shrug their shoulders and say 'what's the big deal about the trustees going to a game?'
MSU had a scandal so bad that John Engler is president of the school. John freaking engler a 80 year old ex conservative governor , lol , you cant make this shit up.
he is still conservative /s
Under fire =
-the very few people that still care about ethics and accountability will point out the indiscretions
-a few may query board members about it
-board members will ignore questions, continue to do as they please
-the hoi palloi willl also ignore the indiscretions, with the very few that even acknowledge them labeling it a witch hunt w/o having any understanding of why this represents a breach of ethical standards
-nothing changes and it is BAU at MSU and probably a majority of other schools around the country
-someone may offer hopes and prayers for the victims at some point
So, let's change "under fire" to, "possibly mildly annoyed about, possibly batting an eyelid about" instead?
The really sad part? If we beat MSU in football, that's going to cause more consternation amongst the BoTrustees than the whole entire Nassar scandal.
*when
"priorities of the board: money, reputation, and athletic success"
Seems about right... however reputation doesn't seem to be as important anymore
MSU football scandal ... Chris Balas also was confirming a few weeks ago that a big scandal is coming out right around late August .