MSU’s integrity takes a hard hit
Mississippi State University athletic director Scott Stricklin is a stand-up guy. He has lived and worked in the public spotlight for decades, and by all accounts he’s as good as they come.
And today, he’s in a very bad spot.
Stricklin leads the athletic department in Starkville, which includes a Bulldogs football team that has gone from occasionally good to ranked atop the polls under coach Dan Mullen. That transition never can happen without talent. The best coaching, the best intentions, the best whatever pales in comparison to skill and size and speed when it comes to Saturdays in the Southeastern Conference.
This is not a revelation. This is the reality. And Stricklin and the MSU program sold a chunk of their integrity to add five-star defensive lineman Jeffery Simmons to the fold this week.
Simmons was the crown jewel of the Bulldogs’ incoming recruiting class, a player with the potential to play right away at a position that demands excellence in the SEC West.
Well, Simmons will not be able to play right away, and he’s lucky he will be able to play for the Bulldogs at all.
In what was shamefully described as breaking up a family fight in a MSU press release, the video of Simmons — all 6-foot-3, 277 pounds of him, mind you — hitting a female is real and horrifying. He took to social media to apologize almost immediately.
The power of his words paled in comparison to the force of his fists. The images are haunting.
And for that act — a physical and brutal act against a female — Simmons will miss one game. The same penalty a player would get for targeting another player, who is roughly the same size and clad in the armor our football gladiators wear.
One game. It’s barely a hiccup, especially since MSU opens with a directional school that is a five-touchdown underdog.
We are so deep into the process that we can rationalize anything. Stricklin, a man who has made his career with honesty and thoughtfulness, no doubt wants to believe he and his school are giving Simmons a second chance. He also is accurate in stating that if MSU told Simmons yesterday morning to find a new home, the five-star recruit would have one before ordering lunch.
We have arrived to the place that every decision in big-time college sports is a transaction. And that transaction is based on how much integrity are folks willing to sacrifice for success.
Stricklin did the honorable thing and sought out the media this week after the announcement was made about Simmons being admitted to MSU. He faced the questions — and they were harsh and pointed — and offered the limited answers you can in a scenario such as this where you have made a decision you hate because you need the player more than you care to admit.
And if you think talent has nothing to do with this, well, when was the last time a twostar junior college transfer was afforded this big of a second chance in a moment of time in which domestic violence has never been more in our social crosshairs.
For the most part, that’s the best thing of this tragic epidemic among our male college stars. The fight against domestic and sexual assault has received a great lift by the increased attention we now are affording it.
That attention toppled the underhanded debacle that Art Briles was operating at Baylor. It has rightly raised questions about culture and conduct and enforcement and follow through at college campus from Knoxville to Starkville to every ’ville across the country.
But Stricklin and Co. allowing Simmons in with such a light slap on the wrist — light years from the power with which Simmons used to strike that female — undermines the entire movement forward. It reminds us that capability rules more than character, regardless of our heightened awareness to domestic assault. It shows us that being able to pressure the quarterback means high-powered people are willing to take the pressure that comes with ignoring your sins. It’s sad. This is not about second chances — if it was, would Stricklin and Co. be as accommodating to the two-star recruit as well — as much as it is about accumulating talent.
This is not a new state of affairs, and unfortunately MSU is not alone. But for those of us who love the pageantry and long for the tradition-rich days of college football, the transaction of selling integrity for talent never will sit well.
It’s painful — like a punch to the face — and it leaves us all wondering if we can ever go back.
Contact Jay Greeson at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6343. Follow him on Twitter @jgreesontfp.