MSU Trustee calls for investigation into name leak

Isn't Ace persona non grata around here? Why would we care what he tweets?

I unfollowed him long ago, but his stuff still pops up in my feed sometimes. I understand he has serious health and other issues, but it's really disappointing to see. He seems like one of those people who won't tolerate you being on his side for 90% of issues. If you don't 100% embrace his worldview on certain issues, you might as well be dead. Seems like a total lack of self awareness given, you know, how he benefitted from his role on this blog and Brian personally. 

For those of us not on Twitter, what did he say?

Ace scammed a lot of us out of $$ in his Go Fund Me Operation.  Still disgusted knowing all that money went to him using it to buy new equipment.  It takes a real loser to do something like that.

Meanwhile, I continue to live life without a phone and drive my rusty 2002 Cavalier around with 275,000 miles on it.  

I was waiting for this one!

That's why they call it MOO U!

That's not what the fan base is thinking.  Listening to talk radio, they feel like the floor for the new coach's contract is 9.5M per year.  

At the end of the season - MSU’s contract with Tucker would have $77M remaining.   Mel is currently in year two.. 2.. of the ten year deal.  

Except, after all the talk about Ishbia and St. Andre paying the bulk of Mel's contract, it was ultimately revealed that they were ponying up "only" $14 and $10 million respectively, roughly 25% of the salary, and those amounts over 10 and 6 years respectively. Ishbia is committed on the whole $14 million, but St. Andre can cancel the balance of his pledge any time after the first installment. And Ishbia's donation is to be applied toward salary.  Seems to me that if there is a settlement after Mel is fired, the entire amount is on MSU.

Disagree strongly with your conclusion in #4: I think Tucker's attorney has known his ass was cooked at least since the report was issued and probably before. Her main defense was that the university had no jurisdiction over their employees' private affairs, then it turned out Tucker was lying about where he was at the time. Was there retaliation against her when her visit was canceled? Oops, he lied about the circumstances there too. His credibility's shot, he's burnt through his main defenses and he's already admitted to the basic facts of the matter. If they had any good evidence to bring, they never would have relied on procedural stuff that required him to perjure himself to even get them off the ground. (To be fair, I'm guessing his attorney was blindsided by the lies too. I doubt that was advice of counsel.)

Since then their strategy seems to be to set things up for the wrongful-termination aftermath. The process is a sham, the investigator is biased (race and gender both tossed out there), she didn't ask Tracy about Izzo or Engler etc., the opposing attorney is blackmailing me....

And now Mel can't get a fair hearing because it's all gone public. Damn convenient, that.

Yes, they would. People are being fired all the time for what they do off the clock. I have to be careful what I say because I do represent UM even when I am off the clock.

So you are wrong there.

Calling Tucker a victim is the same as saying Russia is a victim of Ukrainian aggression. A gross inversion of reality.

You are a morally warped person.

"The biggest argument for his dismissal is bringing public humiliation to the university, but the only reason it brought public humiliation was the leak."

This is incorrect. One of the causal reasons for MSU's public humiliation in this instance is the leak, and even that assumes this matter could have been kept confidential indefinitely. 

The other reason is the alleged underlying conduct itself. If the allegations are believed, Tucker engaged in a potentially non-consensual sexual act with a vendor, whose services happened to be educating his players on sexual misconduct. Even if we completely credit Tucker's claim the matter was consensual, he still engaged in an emotional affair with a vendor, which blew up in his and the university's face. This is an easily foreseeable risk Tucker intentionally took, and it played out in the way Human Resources departments everywhere fear. For instance, Tucker claimed he cancelled or postponed Tracy's scheduled session with his players for legitimate reasons, but the fact that he had entered into (by his version of events) a romantic relationship with Tracy, which apparently then ended, automatically makes the matter fraught and exposes the university to embarrassment and possible legal liability. 

Then there's Tucker's alleged behavior during the course of the investigation. If reports are to be believed, Tucker lied to investigators on at least two instances. First, he allegedly misrepresented where he was when the phone call took place in an apparent effort to distance the phone call from his official duties. Second, he (allegedly) told investigators ESPN was investigating Tracy's claims that she was gang raped. This turned out to be false, and it's retaliatory on its face. 

I'm not privy to Michigan State's standard practices, or whether the university has ever faced a fact pattern like this. But an ordinary employer, even if the employer had signed a just-cause contract, would have a good case that there was good cause for discharge.

It's far too generous to Tucker to argue that the only reason for his predicament was the leak. For the most part, he brought this on himself.