re: Details of each player/case in the USA Today article

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I am willing to bet if you break down most football programs “suspended indefinitely for violation of team rule” it would be very similar to all that.

Doesn’t make any of it right at all but I don’t think LSU is any different than other schools.

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This is an epidemic in college football, not just LSU. No excuse for how LSU handled it, but it is not limited to just their campus.

To the extent that the allegations of domestic abuse and sexual abuse are true, it is clear that athletic programs nationwide have a problem that is easy enough to fix. Where there are witnesses or physical evidence supporting the allegations, LSU should act swiftly & suspend the player from the team and get the perp in an anti-domestic violence program (most courts have them); where there have been allegations that appear to be valid, get the athlete into a program so you can show others that you are being pro-active. It just ain't that hard. Follow-up and making sure lessons are learned is more difficult but doable. We get our male athletes all pumped up. super strong, hormones a raging & we treat them like the rules don't apply to them and issues like domestic violence/sexual assault is sometimes the result. LSU and every university should have programs for all their athletes that address these continuing problems.

I have represented victims of domestic violence/sexual violence and I have sat as a Hearing Officer trying such cases. This problem is a societal problem, but an athletic department has a "captive" audience and should do more to ensure that their athletes know and adhere to acceptable boundaries.

What about a timeline for Guice?

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What about a timeline for Guice?

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I think I would have exceeded the character limit for that one..

It’s also been pretty widely discussed, as there have been previous articles focused specifically on the allegations against Guice. I do think Guice is the most clear cut example of the school being incompetent (at best) or willfully ignorant (at worst). But I don’t think it’s fair to extrapolate that to the rest of these cases.

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So legally we should be perfectly fine and USA Today is a laughing stock

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Legally, it seems the only exposure LSU may have is regarding the Guice stuff. I don't think Orgeron has any exposure, or he shouldn't.

Girl #1
It seems the first incident occurred when Miles was coach. The alleged victim told her friend (a team mate on the tennis team). The friend told the tennis coach, and the coach reported the incident to the athletic department. The alleged victim didn't want to participate and didn't want to talk to anyone. The school's health center then contacted the alleged victim and asked if she wished to pursue a complaint and she declined. This girl was also supposedly dating an LSU recruit, who knew about the incident at the time yet still, for whatever reason, committed to LSU, then said he left the team because of this incident. (That makes no sense, btw). Then she became a drug addict, left school, checked into rehab, and that's where the story ends.

There may some exposure with this because the tennis coach may have had an obligation to file a complaint. However, because the report was made by a third-party and the actual victim refused to speak to anyone, I'm not sure if a Title IX Complaint could even be filed without any way to corroborate second-hand information.

Girl #2
The second girl was on the tennis team. She admitted to having been on drugs and was drunk during the alleged sexual assault, which brings into question her credility, the reliability of her story, and whether an assault actually occurred. She told her friends she gave him a blowjob and said Guice took advantage of the situation but never described it as a "rape."

That girl was an addict and was eventually kicked off the tennis team for showing up to practices intoxicated and after having failed numerous drug tests. She then checked into rehab. It was there she told a counselor at the rehab program that Guice had raped her. She never reported anything to anyone at the school or to law enforcement, so I'm not sure how the school, coaches, the athletic department, or the Title IX office would have any notice to even be aware of the incident to do anything about it.

Her own father said he didn't believe his daughter was raped when talking about this alleged incident with the tennis coach the following year. This was the first time any disclosure whatsoever was made to anyone at the University. This was in April of 2017. The incident allegedly occurred in June of 2016 when Miles was coach.

No Title IX Complaint was ever filed or investigated by the school. This is also kind of muddy as to whether to school had a liability to investigate. The incident happened when the girl was a student, but the girl was no longer a student when anyone employed by the university found out about it. It wasn't until two years later that the girl ever contacted anyone at the University herself to see if any reports were ever made. She was told a report was made but Guice's name wasn't mentioned.

Flash forward to this past June, the girl joined 7 other former and current student athletes as part of a class-action Title IX lawsuit. However, here's the kicker....they are suing the NCAA. She has not filed any lawsuit against LSU.


What makes both of these stories highly suspicious is that 1) the only member of the LSU athletic department that was ever made aware of any incidents having occurred was the tennis coach. What kind of coach who coaches women would not care about a player of theirs having been sexually assaulted/rape? 2) both girls admittedly had substance abuse issues, both entered rehab shortly thereafter, and one of them was kicked off the team for habitual substance abuse issues; 3) Girl #2's own father didn't believe her; 4) neither girl was willing to cooperate at all with the University so they could actually investigate the matter. How are the supposed to investigate someone when the only person that can help the university it them?; and 5) NONE of this came to light until AFTER Guice was arrested for agg assault in a completely unrelated incident while in the NFL.


And, of course, now we have some activist "journalist" writing puff pieces about players who were either acquitted, kicked off the team and expelled from school, has pending criminal charges, and/or convicted of a crime for incidents that occurred. There is not one person other than Guice where it appears any corners were cut or anything even possibly swept under the rug. Yet, here we are, calling for Orgeron's head for some things that occurred before he was even the head coach, for things he wasn't made aware of, for situations where he took swift actions to discipline players in the most severe way possible, or being unable to do anything further due to pending criminal investigations.

The lack of journalistic integrity in the media today is disgusting, and if anyone's heads should roll, it should be these activist journalists' who don't care about finding the truth if it makes for a juicy story with the full story. They don't care about ruining the lives of innocent people by sullying their names in the media. They only care about their 15 minutes of fame for publishing an intellectually dishonest and misleading article.


(Most of this information is pulled directly from the original USA Today article from this past August)

Phillips was cleared. FWIW

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Delpit - No action

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We literally know nothing about this or even if it happened

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Phillips - No action

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Charges not even filed, it was a crazy ex who was not credible LINK

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Guice - no action

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And no mention of the higher ups like Miles, Alleva or Alexander who supposedly knew at the time

It's a transparent hit picece

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why do we need to answer for Phillips and Delpit if they were cleared of wrong doing?

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HOW you got to the “cleared of wrong doing” is every bit as important.

if the right people weren’t involved, then it’s an issue.

Note: not saying we did or didn’t do it right. Just that the end result does not necessarily clear anyone if anything.

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The way I see it, LSU needs to answer how they handled the Delpit, Phillips, Davis, and Guice situations. All others received obvious discipline. Davis received discipline, but it appears people new about it for almost a year before action was taken. They need to answer for that.

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Phillips story was his ex-girlfriend made an allegation and then it was discovered she was lying. There's nothing the school needed to do. The Delpit thing doesn't sound like any report was ever made at all. Also doesn't sound like a sexual assault occurred, just that he made a sex tape and showed other people. Still a crime, but not sure that falls under Title IX. It's also unclear if the school was ever made aware of that incident. My guess is no because there's no more information provided in the article. Probably also a reason why there's no details regarding Phillips incident. The article wouldn't sound as good if they provided the follow up that the girl admitted to lying about the whole thing.

The timing of the Davis stuff makes the tennis coach look bad (again) because it sounds like he may have dropped the ball with Guice too. As an aside, isn't it odd LSU women tennis players seem to be in the middle of so many of these situations? Nonetheless, a Title IX report eventually filed by an athletic trainer about 11 months later. The Title IX investigator interviewed the girl. 3 weeks later, Davis allegedly strangled the girl after coming into her apartment drunk. Police are called, no arrests were made. After meeting with judicial affairs, Davis said nothing physical happened, and the girl corroborated that story. Davis is suspended from team activities the summer before the 2018 season. In mid August, after Davis has attended one fall practice, another report is made to the associate AD, the girl shows pictures of bruises and texts Davis sent to her. Davis is arrested on felony assault charges and immediately suspended indefinitely. A month later, he violates the conditions of his bond and restraining order in place after the first arrest, assaults her again, is arrested again, and immediately expelled from school. He later plead guilty to criminal charges.

The only thing suspicious, IMO, is the tennis coach (again) had a report made to him and failed to do anything. However, when a report was made to someone else at the university (an athletic trainer), a Title IX report was made immediately and was investigated. The student judicial affairs committee investigated. The girl recanted her story. The 11 month gap in time is the issue, and I believe that falls directly on the tennis coach, as he was the only LSU employee made aware of the situation when it occurred. No one else found out until the following year and swift action was taken.

The subsequent incidents were dealt with swiftly by Orgeron and the university. He was suspended indefinitely while the charges were pending and then kicked out of school before they were ultimately adjudicated. At that point, the school has no obligation or additional relief they can provide to the victim with a Title IX complaint. The most extreme thing a university can do is expel someone. They are not a court of law. Given Davis was already expelled (and convicted in court), there was no need for the school to continue to pursue the case. If she is seeking monetary damages for the assault, she'd have to go through the Court system to get that relief, not the university.