NCAA Coach Protection Racket: One Shining Moment Covers Up Many Dark Days

Maybe you get emotional when the NCAA basketball tournament ends with “One Shining Moment.” It’s meant to be a feel good moment about March Madness.

The reality is sometimes different. 

Consider two lawsuits won by the NCAA and member schools, UNC and University of Arkansas-Little Rock (UALR).

The UNC case took nine years to litigate and was settled for about $400,000, with no admission of UNC’s liability nor action taken against Coach Anson Dorrance, a legendary women’s coach (photo above). 

Melissa Jennings sued under Title IX, claiming that the coach created a sexually-charged environment laced with vulgarity. She alleged sex discrimination after she (a) complained about this environment, and (b) was cut from the team shortly later for creating bad team chemistry.

Quoting from the court opinion:

“As part of the conversation about her grades, Dorrance then asked Jennings about whether her social life was adversely affecting her grades. As part of that inquiry, Jennings testified that Dorrance specifically asked Jennings, “Who are you f* * *ing?” and whether it was adversely affecting her grades. 

Although Jennings testified that Dorrance used the word “f* * * ” a lot during practice, the question took her aback. Jennings immediately told Dorrance that her personal life was “none of his g* * d* * * business.”

According to Jennings, Dorrance would frequently participate in conversations at practice about players’ personal lives, including their dating and sex lives….  In addition, according to Jennings, Dorrance would sometimes make comments about team members' bodies, including comments about team members’ weight, legs, or chests.

Jennings also testified that while coaching the team in 1996 and 1997, Dorrance used profanity, including using the words “f* * * ” and “unf* * * ing believable” and the phrases “what the f* * *,” “f* * *ing brilliant,” and “f* * *ing stupid.”

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On to UALR baseball. Cole Gordon was an assistant baseball coach. He blew the whistle on his head coach because of his concerns that Scott Norwood harassed players, sexually harassed their girlfriends, and purchased alcoholic beverages for some players. He took his concerns to Gary Hogan—Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Relations—and Richard Turner—Senior Associate Athletic Director for Compliance and Student Support.

Neither Hogan nor Turner took any action to address these issues. Human resources merely asked Norwood if the allegations about his behavior were true, but he denied them. Human resources did not attempt to seek additional information from Gordon about his complaints until he no longer worked at UALR.

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I am tentatively scheduled to make a presentation at a labor law conference in March at Cal-Berkeley, where the topic is whether NCAA student athletes should be employees. I’ll be contrasting the poor outcomes for NCAA players when they allege, report, or oppose sexual and racial harassment under Title IX (an education law) with similar case under Title VII (an employment law). The two laws prohibit discrimination—the employment law is more potent than the education law.