Mel Tucker Suspended Without Pay, Hearing Pending

Would appear there's a Colorado element to this too.

I’m sure there’s more to come.

Let's revisit the Tucker hire.

An administration freshly reeling after the Nassar incident has an interim director whom Brian aptly labeled as a "Sonic Manager" was caught off guard by Dantonio stepping down unexpectedly, at an unusual time in the year. They desperately wanted a splash hire and were publicly rejected by all of their top choices, INCLUDING Tucker. Suddenly out of nowhere Tucker reverses his decision, after he had assured his players at Colorado that he wasn't going anywhere. And at this point MSU fans started celebrating like they just got the next Nick Saban. It comes out that he was given an earth shattering salary and the administration mumbled something about it being covered by a couple of donors.

We were all incredulous, unlike MSU fans. We know that this sort of hire only happens on message boards and not in real life. And plus we were all confused as to why Tucker was seen as such a home run hire to begin with (I'm still not clear on why MSU fans were so excited about him.) Either way, this hire seemed impulsive and highly suspicious given the state of the athletic department.

Then MSU spent years trying to fight the sources of Tucker's salary from coming out. Lo and behold, we were right all along. An athletic department diverted funds it owed to sexual assault victims in order to hire a coach as it was desperately trying to save face with its fans and alumni supporters. 

After all this incompetence and unethical decision making we shouldn't be the least bit surprised it ended like this.

I don't think there are many charitable ways to look at MSU's response this situation. They've known what happened with Mel's own partial admission for months. And they kept quiet and let him coach on until the news leaked to the public today. The only thing that changed was public awareness of the situation. It's the ultimate "only wrong if you get caught" attitude.

So, with the public clamoring for a response, they call an emergency press conference to suspend the coach they hired despite vague rumors of sexual misconduct at his prior institution. Then, they announce that his interim replacement will have support from the new associate head coach, Mark Dantonio, whose sudden retirement a few years ago seemed driven in part by fall-out after he brought in an athlete with a multitude of prior sexual assault allegations (who then proceeded to assault another student).

This is the most MSU thing ever.

This brings Dantonio back to the program.  It will be a very interesting Saturday in EL.

The Washington at MSU game will be on Peacock.  That’s the streaming service which is probably most desirable at this moment - low viewership and exposure.

I think most covered this situation all around. Very sad (meaning for the victim here). It's just...crazy. 

What else is crazy is the rcmb talk. Gosh...haven't been there in years and they are frothing at the mouth for "THE RETURN OF DANTONI!". I mean they are jacked up over there. Unfortunately for them, a lot of the players are not returning. 

Putting aside what occurred, I will be interested to see how this team responds. Do they fall apart or come together?

I didnt read all the comments so maybe someone already wrote this, but if I told you in September of 2022 that Fitzgerald, Christ, and Tucker would all be gone before the end of the 2023 season, would anyone believe that was even possible?  Crazy and abhorrent stuff on 2 of those.

Tuck Cumming

According to their own policies MSU could have suspended Tucker with pay when they first learned about the allegation. They didn’t.
 

https://civilrights.msu.edu/policies/relationship-violence-and-sexual-misconduct-and-title-ix-policy.html#privavyofinformation

The madness of what happened, WHEN it happened, WHEN it got reported to MSU, and how long it took for this to finally come to light reminds me of one time-held tradition - stupidity by otherwise intelligent people in positions of power transcends both time and organizations. This insanity happens in government, public institutions, and the private sector. 

I remember hearing stories of crazy shenanigans even in my company (I'm retired now), typically people who rose to positions of power quickly. The names and roles may have changed, but the incredible ignorance ("no one will find out") and what acts were committed no longer shock me. The difference is that no one threw away $85 million of their own money. 

What little I know of Title IX is that the person bringing the charges DOES have some say about publicity, even after the findings are settled. To be fair to Sparty, the woman may have been trying to get a private settlement, either from MSU or directly from Tuck. MSU suspending Mel in July may have derailed these talks. MSU can't say anything about such talks, if they did indeed happen. There is just too much still left under wraps to really conclude anything but that Mel is toast. 

I remember how mid-80s Minnesota basketball got rocked after few players got accused of raping a Wisconsin woman after a game at Madison (they were later acquitted by a Madison jury). The coach (Jim Dutcher) refused to forfeit the next game and resigned. The hoops team (briefly) rallied around each other and upset a few teams. But then the roof fell in and they started getting crushed. I'm not expecting Sparty to beat Wash this weekend but wouldn't be shocked if the game is a nailbiter. They may even upset Maryland. Hopefully, any Dantonio buzz has worn off by the time we come to town. 

In what can only be described as the most MSU way of a coach getting fired...I mean how hard is it for an idiot like this????????

Definitely an overpaid coach, but he could literally just be incompetent and make another ~$80M by sitting in his office and coaching from the booth his remaining years - and he not only harasses someone, but he harasses somewhere there to teach the team how NOT to harass people!!

I would say fire everyone associated with his hiring, but it is going to get hard to continue to find people to hire at MSU given they just did that - or kinda tried to before he was hired.

The question at this point is who should be put in place to hire those responsible for hiring the coaches?  Other than a huge cost savings, what a massive tire fire that place is.