Iowa State president: UH to ‘get a fair shake’ if Big 12 opts to grow

While the University of Houston continues to receive support for Big 12 expansion inside the state of Texas, the challenge now becomes convincing the six out-of-state schools.

Iowa State president Steven Leath told the Ames Tribune that Big 12 presidents “feel the league is Texas-heavy already,” but that UH will “get a fair shake” when it comes to deciding whether to add two or four schools.

Adding a fifth Texas school along with Texas, Texas Tech, TCU and Baylor has long been considered a possible roadblock for UH to join the Big 12.

Houston has received endorsements from Texas and Texas Tech. The Big 12 includes six out-of-state schools — Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa State, West Virginia, Kansas State and Kansas.

“They certainly have a lot of factors we’re interested in,” Leath told the newspaper. “I feel a lot of the (Big 12) presidents feel the league is Texas-heavy already, which helps with the Texas schools, but it’s a little problematic for the rest of us to go from the very northern part of the league, like us, to the very southern part of the league.

“All I can say on that is they will get a fair shake. We will take a good serious look at it if they continue to express interest.”

Any potential candidate will need eight of 10 votes from the Big 12 presidents.

Woman joins suit against Baylor

A woman has joined a federal lawsuit against Baylor University, accusing the school of doing nothing to help her and others after they reported being sexually assaulted on or near campus.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reported the former Baylor student claims to have been raped by a group of football players in 2011.

She joins the lawsuit previously filed by Jasmin Hernandez, who was raped by a former player later sentenced to 20 years in prison.

The lawsuit names former Baylor head football coach Art Briles, former athletics director Ian McCaw and the university as defendants. The school faces three federal lawsuits alleging the school violated federal Title IX anti-gender discrimination regulations.

Hernandez, who originally filed the lawsuit in March, was sexually assaulted in 2012 by Tevin Elliott while both were Baylor students.

The original suit outlines Baylor mishandling the cases of three women other than Hernandez who had reported sexual assaults or rapes by football players.

In the amended suit, Hernandez’s attorneys Susan Hutchison and Alex Zalkin added a fourth woman, saying she “was gang raped by Baylor football players in 2011.”

The lawsuit states Baylor had knowledge of the gang rape but “failed to respond promptly and equitably.”

From staff and wire reports