Other Voices: Ban sex offenders from college sports

Like so many other institutions Americans love, college athletics has more than its share of problems. And many of its athletes -- far too many -- also pose a ton of dangers.

A yearlong USA Today Network investigation uncovered college athletes' oversized involvement in sex assault cases. Universities have disciplined NCAA athletes for sexual misconduct at more than triple the rate of regular students.

Worse, many schools choose to keep those incidents secret. As part of the investigation, journalists requested disciplinary records from 226 Division I public schools. Only 35 complied.

"That's 191 schools -- 85% of the total -- that shielded the identities of alleged abusers at the expense of women's safety and the public's right to know," Gannett's Kenny Jacoby wrote.

How could it get worse still? Athletes found guilty of sex crimes are still allowed to play.

Athletes can lose their eligibility for a lot of infractions -- such as accepting payoffs or doing drugs. But not for rape, apparently.

The NCAA doesn't punish sexual misconduct. It lets schools and the courts handle the disciplinary part. So right now in America, a college athlete -- even if he's expelled -- is allowed to just walk down the road to another school and join another team.

Why on Earth is there no unified prohibition in preventing athletes from plying their talents at other schools when acts of sexual misconduct got them kicked out of a school in the first place?

Without question, colleges and universities must show a united front regarding punishment, to send an unwavering message: If you're an athlete, and you've been found guilty of sexual misconduct, for the rest of your life you won't be allowed to pick up a ball or score a point for a team representing any institution of higher learning.

We can't think of a university in the nation that doesn't have its own well-defined sexual misconduct policy. But beyond that, there doesn't seem to be uniformity about permanent banishment from the playing field.

Sexual misconduct is a broad term that even today is still being defined. It can apply to anything from an innocent but unwanted hug all the way up to rape. As the classical theory of criminology maintains, let the punishment fit the crime.

But if the penalty for breaking a law isn't severe, then authorities essentially are saying the crime isn't severe, either. Nothing could be further from the truth when it comes to rape.

College athletics is supposed to impart valuable life lessons to its participants -- teamwork, time management, a strong work ethic. Athletes also should learn to take responsibility for their actions and, more importantly, live with the consequences.

Authorities must make rules now to make athletes realize that their proven guilt in sex crimes will ban them forever from college sports.

Gannett

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