Michigan State’s Mel Tucker Suspended Without Pay After Rape Victim Alleged Sexual Harassment

Lansing, Mich. (FOX 2) – Michigan State fired football coach Mel Tucker without pay on Sunday, less than 24 hours after the allegations surfaced. USA Today Reports say he sexually assaulted activist and rape survivor Brenda Tracy during a phone call last year.

Michigan State President Teresa K. Woodruff and athletic director Alan Haller announced the suspension pending the outcome of an investigation into the allegations.

The school hired an outside Title IX attorney to investigate Tracy’s allegations, and the investigation concluded in July, according to a USA Today report. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 5-6 to determine whether Tucker violated the school’s sexual harassment and exploitation policy, the newspaper reported.

Secondary coach Harlon Barnett will serve as the team’s interim coach and former coach Mark Dantonio Tucker was named associate head coach while awaiting his fate with the program.

Tucker is in the third year of a $95 million, 10-year contract, and if he is fired for cause, the school will not have to pay what remains on his contract.

Michigan State may dismiss him for money if he “engages in any conduct that constitutes moral turpitude or that, in the sole judgment of the University, tends to bring the University into public disrepute, contempt, or ridicule.” The school was also able to suspend him without pay, if he “materially breached” his contract.

The Associated Press left messages for comment Sunday with Tucker, Tracy and Tucker’s attorney, Jennifer Bellville.

Tucker is the second Big Ten football coach to find himself at the center of a scandal in three months.

Northwestern fired longtime coach Pat Fitzgerald in July after the school’s investigation revealed hazing in the football program. Fitzgerald was initially suspended by the school for two weeks during the preseason, but Northwestern’s president later decided to fire him after details of the hazing allegations became public through media reports.

Tracy befriends Tucker for her advocacy work, but that relationship took a turn in April 2022 when Tucker masturbated during a phone call with her, according to USA Today.

“Someone can know me and say they understand my trauma but then to have that trauma re-inflicted on me is so abhorrent to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it,” Tracy told the newspaper. “It looks like he was looking for me to betray me.”

Tucker admitted to investigators last spring that he masturbated during a phone call with Tracy, but said they had consensual “phone sex.”

Tucker, 51, is married and has two children.

“I am truly moved by the distortion of our mutually consensual and close relationship by Ms. Tracy’s allegations of sexual exploitation,” Tucker wrote in a March 22 letter to IX investigators. “I am not proud of my judgment and have difficulty forgiving myself for being in this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”

Spartans beat Richmond Saturday to improve to 2-0 in Tucker’s fourth season with the school. of money One of the highest paid coaches in college football. He is 20-14 in three-plus seasons at Michigan State, which He hired him after going 5-7 A year in Colorado.

Shortly after Mark Dantonio retired in February 2020, then-athletic director Bill Beekman hired Tucker, who was a graduate assistant at Michigan State for Nick Saban.

The Spartans were 2-5 in Tucker’s first season, which was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic, and won 11 games in 2021, with Wake Forest transfer Kenneth Walker becoming the breakout star in a bounceback season.

Michigan State was 5-7 in 2022, A season marred by charges and suspensions For several players for their roles in a postgame fracas in the Michigan Stadium tunnel.

Tracy is known for his work With college teams, educate athletes about sexual violence. He has spoken to Michigan State’s football team multiple times