Vanderbilt investigated by US Government

Vanderbilt is to be investigated by the US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for its handling of possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints.

This should be no surprise to the SEC university’s administration, who is facing new allegations that then-football coach James Franklin tried to persuade a rape victim to be one of a more than 10 girls to become ‘hostesses’ for the university’s recruiting purposes.

The school is one of a number of schools currently under US Government investigation for violating Title IX.

Title IX states: “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.”

Vanderbilt fans will be pleased to hear that they aren’t the only school under investigation. Sadly, there are a large number of them.

Notable colleges include Ohio State, UNC (Chapel Hill), Cal, Southern Cal, Florida State, Colorado (Boulder), Michigan State, Oklahoma State, Penn State, Washington State, Indiana as well as Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth.

The full list can be seen here.

BOTTOM LINE: While we have no clue what powers the authorities can yield in these investigations (and nor have they said anything), it’ll be interesting to see how many SEC schools end up on the lists in the future, especially their fevered recruiting practices. What also will interest us is how a transparent list like this may affect recruiting for female athletes at schools, including cheerleading.