Michigan State Says No NCAA Rules Were Violated When Larry Nassar Sexually Abused Student Athletes

Michigan State told the NCAA in a Wednesday letter that there were “no NCAA rules violations” in the case of Larry Nassar, the MSU and USA Gymnastics team doctor accused of sexually abusing at least 25 MSU student athletes and scores of other young women over decades.

In January, during Nassar’s sentencing hearing in January (he is currently serving a 60-year sentence on federal pornography charges and was also sentenced to 40 to 175 additional years by a state court for criminal sexual conduct), the NCAA sent a letter to Michigan State announcing an “investigation” into the Nassar case. The letter said “Article 2.2 of the NCAA constitution establishes the principle of protecting student athletes’ well-being including health and safety” and warned the university that it also had an obligation to “self-report possible violations of NCAA rules.” The NCAA demanded, that “as a first measure,” MSU send any information regarding “potential violations of NCAA legislation” to the governing body for review.

On Wednesday, Michigan State attorney Mike Glazier sent the requested information to the NCAA, which amounted to yet another abdication of responsibility from the university. Posted online by the the Journal Sentinel, the letter said:

I trust that you will see that the University is in no way attempting to sidestep the issues facing it, and that if the University had any reason to believe the criminal conduct of Nassar also implicated NCAA rules violations, the University would accept responsibility in that area as well.

However, after a thorough and analytic examination of NCAA legislation, and an application of the known facts associated with the Nassar matter to NCAA legislation, the University finds no NCAA rules violations.

Deadpsin has asked the NCAA if it will continue investigating MSU’s handling of Nassar and what its next steps would look like. We will update when we hear back.