They are known for their elusiveness, but a report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines shows that the Univesity of Florida and FSU are among the schools where athletes are prosecuted among the least.
Outside the Lines examined several schools – Florida, FSU, Auburn, Michigan State, Missouri, Notre Dame, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Texas A&M and Wisconsin. There was no explanation as to why these schools and not, say, Clemson or Mississippi State or Oklahoma or Southern California.
The raw numbers concerning the state schools were not good, however. Taking basketball and football players over the five-year period from 2009-2014, Florida had the most athletes who had charges dropped or were not prosecuted. The Gators had 80 athletes in more than 100 crimes.
The report led with former Gator running back Chris Rainey, who it said was named as a suspect five times but was charged only once.
FSU was second with 66 athletes who were suspects but had charges dropped or not pusued.
The reasons? According to the report, athletic departments inserted themselves into the investigation too often and the high profile of the schools prodded the dropping of charges.
Hey, no one holds the ability to get a legal defense against anyone. But isn’t it time that athletes started being treated the same as, say, math students?
Both Notre Dame and Michigan State are fighting the investigation requests.
