Opinion: Ex-Baylor AD McCaw Impressive in New Role

Ian McCaw came to Liberty University with a ton of accolades and some heavy baggage after serving as Baylor's athletic director for 13 years.

The Bears won five national titles and more than 50 Big 12 championships under McCaw, and Baylor football emerged as one of the nation's elite programs. But Baylor also racked up a terrible record of responding to sexual assaults, including many by male athletes.

Liberty took some heat in November when it named McCaw athletic director. "Liberty University's hiring of ex-Baylor AD sends a chilling message about sexual assault," read a headline on a column in the Washington Post.

It was an understandable response. Yet, as with so many subjects where power, sports, crime and politics converge, things are often more complicated than they appear.

It seems pretty certain that former Baylor President Ken Starr and football coach Art Briles, plus other university officials, were culpable in a systematic failure to respond to student reports about assaults and rapes.

Baylor's board of regents said Briles' program was "a black hole into which reports of misconduct such as drug use, physical assault, domestic violence, brandishing of guns, indecent exposure and academic fraud disappeared."

Briles broke down in tears when interviewed by the board, acknowledging he made mistakes. He, Starr and other officials were fired.

As athletic director, McCaw clearly bears some responsibility. It happened on his watch.

But it's not clear, as some have charged, that he failed to report sexual assaults to proper authorities. Liberty officials investigated and said they determined that a 2012 rape McCaw was accused of not reporting was passed on to Baylor authorities, but at the request of the victim, not reported to the police.

It is significant that following an investigation by a law firm, the regents censured McCaw but did not fire him. He resigned in May, saying he left "to promote the unity, healing and restoration that must occur in order to move forward."

When I spoke to McCaw this week, he sounded eager to comment on what happened at Baylor, but said he can't because of the pending lawsuit. He spoke about his admiration for ODU athletic director Wood Selig and football coach Bobby Wilder and hopes for a long-standing series with the Monarchs.

When asked about Baylor, he replied: "I'm 100 percent focused on Liberty."

Regardless, here's the bottom line on McCaw's first six months at Liberty: The man has been very impressive.

Liberty has been seeking to move up to the Football Bowl Subdivision for five years. In February, McCaw and Liberty President Jerry Falwell Jr. led a group to Nashville, Tenn., to make a presentation on their request to an NCAA committee.

It was a Hail Mary. The NCAA adopted new rules a few years ago to restrict schools from moving up. Rule No. 1: you must have an invitation from an FBS conference.

Liberty had none. The Sun Belt Conference said no, instead inviting Coastal Carolina, a school with lackluster facilities and without the financial resources of Liberty.

It's perhaps a little too strong to say religious bigotry played a big role in the Sun Belt's decision, but certainly Liberty's reputation as a conservative Christian university with a controversial president were factors.

Liberty made a compelling case to the NCAA. It's athletic facilities are very nice, including the 19,200-seat Williams Stadium for football and a Triple-A quality baseball stadium. The school has a $1 billion endowment, and with 100,000 online students and 14,000 attending classes in Lynchburg, plenty of financial strength. With 80 million households receiving Liberty games on the school's sport network, Liberty has a media profile unlike most mid-majors.

In February, the NCAA broke precedent to let Liberty compete as an FBS independent.

That put McCaw in a bind: He had to persuade at least three FBS opponents to come to Lynchburg in 2018 and five in 2019 to meet NCAA guidelines. Most football schedules through 2019 were already done.

Using the contacts he made in stops at Baylor, Northeastern, Massachusetts, Maine and Tulane, he began working the phones. On Saturday, when President Trump announced the Flames' future schedules at Liberty's graduation, the results were stunning.

McCaw had persuaded BYU, a Power 5 school in reality if not in name, to do a home-and-home series. He also signed 2-for-1 deals with Virginia and Wake Forest that take the Flames on the road twice against the ACC schools in exchange for a home game.

Liberty will also play Army, New Mexico State, New Mexico, Buffalo and North Texas home-and- home. He signed guarantee games at Auburn, Ole Miss and Rutgers, and persuaded Old Dominion, Troy and Massachusetts to accept guarantees to play at Liberty.

Liberty will pay ODU $1.32 million to play in Lynchburg in 2018, although a guarantee from a game at Auburn will pay most of ODU's fee.

In spite of all of that good work, a cloud will hang over McCaw for years to come. Sexual assault has been a hot topic on college campuses in recent years, and that's an encouraging sign.

Dozens of schools have failed to adequately protect women. If you need convincing, watch "The Hunting Ground," a 2015 documentary that captures horrific tales of women assaulted or raped and whose pleas for help were largely ignored.

Some of the statistics cited in the movie were exaggerated, critics have said, but the testimony about sexual assaults at major universities was compelling and painful to watch.

Since Liberty hired McCaw, I've spoken to half a dozen athletic officials at other schools who say they know him well. They say he's a decent man with a powerful intellect and a good heart. They can't imagine him condoning or trying to cover up a sexual assault.

Thomas Brandt, his attorney, recently told the Waco Tribune-Herald that McCaw will be exonerated.

"When the full truth is revealed, it will show that Ian McCaw was not negligent," he said. "Many people will be surprised when they learn the full truth about the situation."

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