EDITORIALS

Editorial: NCAA must ban 'hostesses', protect women

Redding

With each emerging ugly detail of the Baylor sexual assault tragedy, the more intense the pressure grows on the NCAA to punish the school in some meaningful way.

The oversight group may not have jurisdiction in criminal activities — as it learned during its failed effort to penalize Penn State in the child sexual abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky. But here's one rule the NCAA could easily adopt that would improve the athletics culture nationwide:

Editorial

Specifically prohibit schools from using access to women or sex to help lure recruits and make clear that programs will be in big trouble if they disregard this ban.

The NCAA keeps mouthing the words that it wants to eradicate ways in which college athletics programs put women in harm's way, particularly in regard to schools' continued "hostess programs." So just do it.

As Jessica Luther, author of "Unsportsmanlike Conduct: College Football and the Politics of Rape," puts it, "So little has changed despite all the debate. An explicit ban would make it clear that it is committed to helping end practices that put women in particularly vulnerable positions."

Historically, hostess clubs worked like this: Universities signed up female students whose official role in athletics recruiting involved acting as tour guides or hosting dinners. Victims' advocate groups say even that arrangement sends dangerous messages to recruits about their status on campus and could result in pressure for sexual encounters.

The NCAA had no choice but to address hostess clubs in 2004 after a number of documented recruiting scandals: A former University of Colorado student sued, saying she had been raped by a football recruit, and hostesses at Arizona State and Oregon brought to light stories of fellow hostesses having sex with recruits.

The NCAA's tepid response was to say that host programs for recruits must be consistent with each school's policies for all tours and visits.

College leaders have long maintained that fraternizing between hostesses and athletes is strictly prohibited. Many women who have participated in the clubs adamantly defend them, saying the programs and their members have been unfairly cast in a negative light.

Most recently, the now-defunct hostess club known as the Baylor Bruins was referenced in a Jane Doe lawsuit filed Jan. 27 on behalf of a woman who joined the organization in 2012. Although her alleged 2013 attack by two football players occurred off campus, Doe says a fellow Bruin arrived on the scene and tried to persuade her to change her story to police to protect the athletes.

The Dallas Morning News met Monday with four women who served as Bruins. Each stressed the strictness of rules governing the hostesses and said they never felt victimized in any way.

Baylor dissolved the Bruins in spring 2016, shortly before announcing results of the Pepper Hamilton investigation into sexual assault reports involving football players. University spokesperson Tonya Lewis said the Bruins duties are now handled by the same students who lead tours for all prospective attendees, athletes and non-athletes alike. Lewis did not respond to our question about what prompted the Bruins to be dissolved.

Other schools have ended their hostess clubs as well; for instance, the University of Tennessee and Auburn, for instance, did so after the NCAA alleged they weren't following the updated 2004 guidelines.

Recruiting is the lifeblood of successful sports programs, so it's no surprise that athletics departments keep finding loopholes in the rules to exploit women. That's all the more reason for the NCAA to explicitly ban these practices.

This editorial originally appeared in The Dallas Morning News.