Michigan State University has notified head football coach Mel Tucker that it intends to fire him for cause, capping a stunning and swift fall for one of the highest-paid coaches in college athletics.
“I, with the support of administration and board, have provided Mel Tucker with written notice of intent to terminate his contract for cause,” the athletic director, Alan Haller, said in a statement on Monday. Tucker has seven days to respond to the letter and tell Haller why he should not be fired.
The move comes eight days after a blockbuster report from USA Today detailing sexual-harrassment allegations against Tucker from sexual-assault survivor and victim-rights activist Brenda Tracy. The university had contracted with her to provide training to the football team.
Tracy accused Tucker of masturbating during a phone call. Tucker did not deny that accusation but says his interactions with Tracy were consensual between adults.
A hearing in the case, scheduled for early October, will go forward whether Tucker participates or not, according to the university.
In the letter sent to Tucker, Michigan State said it was firing him for, among other items, violating the morals code in his contract and bringing “public disrespect, contempt, or ridicule upon the university.”
“Your comments about the vendor’s ‘ass,’ admitted flirtation, and act of masturbating on the phone with the vendor, while married, amount to moral turpitude,” the letter said.
The university also argued that Tucker’s conduct had already harmed its stature. “Headlines from various and prominent other news outlets also have brought public disrespect, contempt, and ridicule onto the university and prominently and negatively placed the university’s culture and reputation into the forefront of the news cycle,” the letter said.
Tucker is in the midst of a 10-year, $95-million contract. The contract was largely bankrolled by two of Michigan State’s most prominent donors.
University officials have said they learned of the allegations against Tucker when it was filed in December. An independent investigator was hired to look into the allegations, and completed a report in July.
Michigan State’s interim president and board have said they were unaware of the allegations against Tucker until the USA Today article was published. That statement has drawn fire from critics who said the university is once again mishandling sexual-misconduct allegations, much like it did in the scandal involving Larry Nassar, a former university doctor who was convicted of sexually abusing hundreds of girls and young women. The university had received an allegation of Nassar’s sexual abuse in 2014 but cleared him, and he continued to work there until he was criminally charged.
Tracy said she didn’t take her allegations public until she learned someone had been leaking her name to the media. Also on Monday, university officials announced they hired an outside law firm to conduct an investigation into the leak.
