How Michigan State 'fumbled' its handling of the Mel Tucker allegations

Michigan State left people with more questions than answers after a press conference Sunday regarding the allegations against football coach Mel Tucker. The school announced that it had suspended Tucker without pay after he was accused of sexual harassment by Brenda Tracy, a high-profile anti-sexual violence advocate and rape survivor.

Outside of that, however, MSU allowed only three questions for athletic director Alan Haller. It didn’t help that USA Today published an article earlier that day revealing that the school was made aware of Tracy’s complaint in December of 2022.

Graham Couch of the Lansing State Journal joined On3’s Andy Staples on Monday to how the Spartans missed an opportunity with the way they handled things.

“They really fumbled yesterday,” Couch said. “I thought it was a missed opportunity to have people really believe that you’ve handled this competently and appropriately. The interim president even tried to sell that. This concept that it’s a new MSU and all this and then you take three questions. It was only to their detriment, too. Even if you can’t say a ton, you can say ‘I can’t answer that.’ There were nuts and bolts basics that would’ve got answered including the idea that they didn’t know anything.”

Tucker developed a working relationship with Tracy over the course of a few months last year, as she visited the football team in 2021 and 2022 about preventing sexual misconduct. But after a visit in April of 2022, Tracy reportedly received several phone calls from the coach asking to meet.

She alleges on one of those calls that occurred on April 28, 2022, Tucker made several sexual comments and masturbated while on the phone.

Although Michigan State was aware of the allegations against Tucker in December, it apparently did not know the details of what happened. That is common protocol in cases of sexual harassment, according to Dan Murphy of ESPN.

Still, the Spartans made no attempt to clarify that on Sunday. That led to a lot of confusion about why Tucker hadn’t been suspended earlier, and again no answers were found.

“They should’ve been screaming that from the mountaintops,” Couch said. “The idea that they were aware in December but didn’t really know the context of anything until Sunday. That’s really important and that was not explained in that opportunity. So you wind up with a day of coverage where people are doubting you. I had to reach out to their folks last night and get clarity on a number of things that I wondered about. As late as they were getting back to people last night, I think they understood that.”

Michigan State eventually did release a statement Monday night confirming that it was not aware of the full details of Tucker’s case. It added that the investigation into the coach is still ongoing.

That offers an explanation as to why action against Tucker wasn’t taken sooner, but it’s still something that should have been made clear in that press conference Sunday.

“They didn’t have all the information,” Couch said. “What did change, too, is the USA Today report came out. A couple of things with that. No. 1, they now have all the information. No. 2, Brenda Tracy has sort of given her blessing at that point to have her identity known. You’re no longer protecting her name.

“So there are a couple things that change in that moment, but they did a very poor job of explaining why. Because initially people were like, ‘If they knew in December, why wasn’t he suspended in December? If the findings were submitted at the end of July, why does he continue on?’ They didn’t explain it well.”