Tucker response to MSU: ‘Miscarriage of justice’
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Pete Thamel, ESPN
Suspended Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker responded Tuesday to the school’s notice that it intends to fire him for cause, saying in a statement that “other motives are at play” and there’s been a “bias” against him throughout the process.
After getting notified Monday of the school’s intention to fire him, Tucker was given seven days, per his contract, to respond to the notification in the wake of a pending sexual misconduct case brought by Brenda Tracy, a sexual awareness speaker.
In Tucker’s statement to ESPN on Tuesday morning, he claimed his firing is a “miscarriage of justice” and came because of “Ms. Tracy’s improper public disclosure of the entire 1,200-page investigation file regarding her baseless complaint against me.
“Let’s be clear. I don’t believe MSU plans to fire me because I admitted to an entirely consensual, private relationship with another adult who gave one presentation at MSU, at my behest, over two years ago.”
By firing him for cause, Michigan State is aiming to avoid paying Tucker the more than $79 million remaining on his contract. The statement by Tucker portends litigation to claim that money, as it says he looks forward to “one day obtaining discovery against MSU, including the Trustees and the Athletic Department.”
In his statement, Tucker points out what he perceives as multiple flaws in how MSU handled his case, including the recent decision to fire him for cause after initially suspending him as an “interim measure” last week.
One of Tucker’s biggest issues is the timeline of when MSU officials knew about the allegations. The complaint was filed in December 2022.
“MSU knew about the information on which it supposedly relies to end my contract since at least March 2023,” Tucker stated in the letter. “Yet only after Ms. Tracy and potentially others leaked the confidential investigation report to the press, did MSU suddenly decide this same information warrants termination.”
Tucker said that he wasn’t given fair process, as he was scheduled to have a hearing in early October. In an earlier statement, he referred to that hearing as “a sham.” Instead, he got the notice that he was to be fired nearly one week after being suspended without pay.
“About one week later, with no new information, MSU moved to terminate me — sanctimoniously and illogically claiming this action has no impact on the ongoing investigation,” Tucker said in the statement. “The investigation is designed to determine if I violated policy. I did not. But regardless, basic fairness requires that process play out before any sanction(s) are determined.”
Tucker said MSU ignored his request for a medical leave, with the notification of his firing coming soon after that request.
“MSU sent its notice of intent to terminate just days after I emailed [Michigan State athletic director] Alan Haller requesting a medical leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act for a serious health condition,” Tucker said in the statement. “I can only conclude that MSU does not care about my rights, the truth, or its future liability for policing its employees’ private lives.”
On Monday, Haller sent a five-page letter to Tucker and his agent declaring the “intent to terminate” his contract for cause, citing “a body of undisputed evidence of misconduct that warrants termination.”
Tracy’s sexual misconduct complaint in December 2022 includes claims of unwelcome advances from Tucker, including him masturbating without her consent during a phone call in April 2022. Tucker admitted to masturbating, but claimed in a statement last week that it was part of a consensual intimate relationship.
Tucker, who is married, added in the letter that he finds “solace” in the investigator concluding they had a “personal relationship.”
“Tracy expressed consent to every facet of our relationship,” Tucker said in his statement Tuesday. “I look forward to one day obtaining discovery against MSU, including the Trustees and the Athletic Department, to see what they really knew and said about this matter, as well as their motives in handling the entire investigative process.”
In Michigan State’s letter to Tucker, they refer to Tracy as a vendor, as she was hired to come speak to the Michigan State team about sexual assault awareness.
“The unprofessional and unethical behavior is particularly egregious given that the Vendor at issue was contracted by the University for the sole purpose of educating student-athletes on, and preventing instances of, inappropriate sexual misconduct,” Haller wrote in the letter to Tucker.
Tucker’s claim of a double standard comes from how the school handled leaks in the case. He says that on Aug. 25, well before the story went public, he “demanded an investigation into leaks.”
Recently, after Tracy’s attorney complained of a leak of her name, the school hired an outside law firm to investigate and claimed confidentiality “is paramount.”
“So when I complain, nothing happens; when she complains, MSU acts?” Tucker said in his statement Tuesday. “This double standard reflects the bias against me throughout this process.”
Tucker has been replaced by staff member Harlon Barnett, who is serving as the interim coach. Former MSU coach Mark Dantonio has also joined the staff in a consultant role and as a sounding board for Barnett.
ESPN’s Dan Murphy contributed to this report.
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Heather Dinich, Senior College Football Insider
ATLANTA — No major decisions were made regarding the future format of the 12-team College Football Playoff on Sunday, but “tweaks” to the 2025 season haven’t been ruled out, CFP executive director Rich Clark said.
Sunday’s annual meeting of the FBS commissioners and the presidents and chancellors who control the playoff wasn’t expected to produce any immediate course of action, but it was the first time that people with the power to change the playoff met in person to begin a review of the historic expanded bracket.
Clark said the group talked about “a lot of really important issues,” but the meeting at the Signia by Hilton set the stage for bigger decisions that need to be made “very soon.”
Commissioners would have to unanimously agree upon any changes to the 12-team format to implement them for the 2025 season.
“I would say it’s possible, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen or not,” Clark said on the eve of the College Football Playoff National Championship game between Ohio State and Notre Dame. “There’s probably some things that could happen in short order that might be tweaks to the 2025 season, but we haven’t determined that yet.”
A source with knowledge of the conversations said nobody at this time was pushing hard for a 14-team bracket, and there wasn’t an in-depth discussion of the seeding process, but talks were held about the value of having the four highest-ranked conference champions earn first-round byes.
Ultimately, the 11 presidents and chancellors who comprise the CFP’s board of managers will vote on any changes, and some university leaders said they liked rewarding those conference champions with byes because of the emphasis it placed on conference title games.
Mississippi State president Mark Keenum, the chair of the board of managers, said they didn’t talk about “what-ifs,” but they have tasked the commissioners to produce a plan for future governance and the format for 2026 and beyond.
Starting in 2026, any changes will no longer require unanimous approval, and the Big Ten and the SEC will have the bulk of control over the format — a power that was granted during the past CFP contract negotiation. The commissioners will again meet in person at their annual April meeting in Las Colinas, Texas, and the presidents and chancellors will have a videoconference or phone call on May 6.
“We’re extremely happy with where we are now,” Keenum said. “We’re looking towards the new contract, which is already in place with ESPN, our media provider, for the next six years through 2032. We’ve got to make that transition from the current structure that we’re in to the new structure we’ll have.”
Following Sunday’s meeting, sources continued to express skepticism that there will be unanimous agreement to make any significant changes for the 2025 season, but a more thorough review will continue in the following months.
“The commissioners and our athletic director from Notre Dame will look at everything across the board,” Clark said. “We’re going to tee them up so that they could really have a thorough look at the playoff looking back after this championship game is done … and then look back and figure out what is it that we need.”
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Andrea Adelson, ESPN Senior Writer
ATLANTA — ACC commissioner Jim Phillips said Sunday that the league will have conversations among coaches and athletic directors about whether to make changes to its conference championship game format.
The conversations are a result of the expanded 12-team College Football Playoff, and ensuring conference champions and the teams that play in conference championship game remain important.
This past season, SMU entered the ACC championship game as the regular-season champion but lost to Clemson in the ACC title game and had to sweat it out before selection day before earning a spot in the 12-team field.
Phillips said the ACC could consider giving its regular-season champion a bye, and have the teams that finish second or third in the league standings play in the ACC championship game.
He said another possibility is having the top 4 teams play on the final weekend of the regular season: first place versus fourth place, and second place vs. third place, with the winners playing the following weekend in the ACC championship game.
Phillips said he will have conversations with league head coaches on a conference call next week to get their feedback on the plan — specifically pointing to comments SMU coach Rhett Lashlee made leading up to the game in which he indicated the Mustangs might be better off not playing to protect its spot in the field.
Phillips also said these conversations will continue at the league’s winter meetings next month in Charlotte, North Carolina, and he has mentioned this is a topic among league athletics directors.
“The conference championship games are important, as long as we make them important, right?” Phillips said. “Do you play two versus three? You go through the regular season and whoever wins the regular season, just park them to the side, and then you play the second-place team versus the third-place team in your championship game. So you have a regular-season champion, and then you have a conference tournament or postseason champion.
“That’s one of the options, depending on how you treat the conference champions, or that championship game, you may want to do it different.
“I have alluded to that in some of our every-other-week-AD calls, and these are some of the things moving forward. We want to have a recap of the regular season, postseason, and what do we think moving forward?”
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