There is only 1 reason Baylor is excluding Art Briles & his staff from a 10-year reunion
In a request for comment, or clarification, Baylor University did not specify why the coaches from the 2013 and 2014 Big 12 title teams were not invited to participate in the team’s reunion scheduled for this weekend.
On this complicated issue, the school, and at the time its fractured leadership, painted itself into a corner. That’s where it sits today.
The school invited the players from the ‘13 and ‘14 teams to run onto the field with the current students in the tradition of the Baylor Line before its game against TCU at McLane Stadium on Saturday night in Waco. Excluded from the guest list were members of the coaching staff, specifically head coach Art Briles.
Three members of that staff will already be there; TCU assistant coaches Kendal Briles, Carlton Buckels, and performance coach Kaz Kazadi were on staff at Baylor during those seasons.
The players themselves organized a reunion scheduled for Saturday afternoon at the Waco restaurant George’s, and invited Briles and the defensive coordinator from that team, Phil Bennett, among others. Both Briles and Bennett confirmed they plan to attend the reunion.
“Those guys have worked hard to make this happen and I would not miss it for the world,” Bennett said in a text.
“Pumped to see the players,” Briles said.
The school is trying to have it both ways, because it can. TCU did it last week with its reunion of its 2014 team, which was given a tailgate but not an appearance on the field.
Ultimately, the legacy of those Baylor teams, and that era, is that they changed the trajectory of the school, college football, and unintentionally became a part of the #MeToo movement. For better. For worse.
Why the Baylor coaches are not part of the reunion
On the surface, the way this looks is similar to Texas A&M’s relationship with former head coach Jackie Sherrill, who was fired after the 1988 season in the wake of NCAA violations. After many years, Sherrill was invited back, and inducted into A&M’s Hall of Fame in 2007.
The same thing happened at Ohio State when football coach Jim Tressel resigned in 2011 over NCAA violations. After some time passed, he was invited back to participate in official university functions and celebrations of his 2002 national title team.
Beneath the surface of this non-invite at Baylor, this one may need more than 10 years. Or 100. This remains a source of deep disagreement in the Baylor community.
There remain bitter feelings from members of that coaching staff at the university for its direction, and decisions, surrounding the flood of sexual assault allegations that popped up after Texas Monthly published a story over Baylor defensive end Sam Ukwuachu’s case, in 2015.
The university wants no part of the discussion that would come with this part of a reunion. There were so many contradictions throughout this process that to re-visit it, from the school’s perspective, has no benefit today. Maybe tomorrow. More like lots of tomorrows.
With years of hindsight as a tool, all mistakes, and nuances, are visible.
In a two-hour conversation with one high-ranking member of the Baylor Board of Regents, the person painted an accurate picture of that time: “We panicked,” he said. “We didn’t handle it right.” And, “I didn’t want to fire (head coach) Art Briles because I didn’t believe it was the right thing to do, but I supported the decision to do it.”
It was the calculated decision on the part of some high ranking Baylor board members to go out of their way to label Briles as the sole guilty party, thus ending his career, remains a point of division within that community. It’s fading, but the line is still visible.
The legacy of ‘those’ Baylor teams
As part of his $15.1 million settlement with Baylor, which effectively includes financial penalties if Briles publicly trashes the school, he has never delved into the details of his exit beyond a few sentences. Those close to him wanted him to go public with his version of events, but he has elected to remain quiet.
One of the reasons was to ensure that nothing would get in the way of his son, and son-in-law, continuing their respective coaching careers. He regularly visits Kendal at TCU, and his family in Fort Worth. Briles’ son-in-law, Jeff Lebby, is in his first season as the head coach at Mississippi State.
“When I personally look back, I think about all the good that was able to be accomplished. I think about the amount of family and friends that we were able to do so much in our in our time there,” Lebby said Wednesday on the SEC coaches conference call. “From the standpoint of being able to work for, and with, the people that are incredibly close to me, and will continue to draw from that experience.”
The teams that Baylor will celebrate this weekend were the foundation to a positive growth spurt of the university; the culmination of many years worth of investments to see a result that everyone associated with the school yearned to experience. Along with the wins came a spike in exposure, donations, applications, and campus improvements.
To suggest they were done via a “rape culture” in the football program is to parrot a lawyer looking for a bag of cash from an vulnerable target.
Those teams were also part of Baylor’s darkest days, and forced a painful growth spurt regarding acknowledging, handling and reporting of sexual assaults as well as Title IX violations. Baylor’s realities forced a lot of athletic departments, and football coaching staffs, across the nation to improve the way they conducted themselves.
There were real victims in this, whose cries were either minimized, or ignored. The primary concern of any parent who sends their kid to college isn’t a degree but safety; in these instances, their safety and mental well being were not prioritized to the necessary level.
It’s been 10 years since Baylor football won a share of its second straight Big 12 title, and the school will celebrate both the players and their achievements. To invite the head coach and his staff is to invite a conversation it’s not ready to have.
That’s why Briles, Bennett and the rest will be at George’s rather than McLane Stadium.
This story was originally published October 31, 2024 at 2:13 PM.
