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Bob Bowlsby: Some feel Baylor has 'sullied' Big 12's image

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby addresses attendees during Big 12 media day, Monday, July 18, 2016, in Dallas. With expansion still an unsettled issue for the Big 12 Conference, Commissioner Bowlsby gave his annual state of the league address to open football media days. And a day later he meets with the league's board of directors. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)
Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowlsby addresses attendees during Big 12 media day, Monday, July 18, 2016, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Big 12 commissioner Bob Bowslby addressed reporters to kick off the conference’s media days. Predictably, the ongoing saga at Baylor was a major topic of conversation Monday morning in Dallas.

Bowlsby said the Big 12’s board of directors will meet with Baylor officials Tuesday to discuss the fallout from the investigation into the school’s handling of sexual assault allegations, including several involving Bears football players.

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The commissioner, at times, was blunt, but ultimately seemed unsure with how the league will address the situation – if it does at all.

Bowlsby said the conference is “deeply concerned about the associational elements” of the Baylor situation and that some members of the league’s board feel the Big 12’s image has been “sullied” as a result.

“I think that there are certainly those among or board that have felt that the image of the Big 12 and the other members of the Big 12 have been sullied as a result of this incident,” Bowlsby said. “It’s gotten a lot of publicity, obviously, so that’s the reason the board took the steps they took.”

Bowlsby said sexual assault is an issue that the league is “committed” to addressing.

“As it pertains to all of our institutions, we are very committed as a group of ten schools to eradicating sexual assault on our campuses,” he said. “It almost goes without saying that when you combine alcohol and drugs and raging hormones and the experiences of 18-to-22-year-olds, it’s probably unrealistic to think that these kinds of things are never going to happen. But we certainly want to make sure that from the center we do everything we can to ensure that they are minimized, if not eradicated.”

Bowlsby acknowledged that the conference’s board does not have “any legal standing” with regard to Baylor, but it still plans to monitor the situation.

“We will have an opportunity to pose any questions that we want to ask and it’s an ongoing process,” Bowlsby said. “It isn’t going to be completed (at Tuesday’s meeting), but I think that we will take a big step down the path and I think we will also have the opportunity to get a little more information about where the rules violations, if there are any, might intersect at the Big 12 level and also at the NCAA level. Baylor voluntarily met with the NCAA fractions staff early in this process.”

Baylor has been and will continue to be “forthcoming,” the commissioner said. And as had been reported several times, Bowlsby confirmed that there is no written report from Pepper Hamilton, the law firm Baylor hired to lead the investigation.

“They have told us that there is not a written report and what’s out there, what we have in writing is what you have in writing. That is the finding of facts and the steps behind it,” Bowlsby said.

However, in what seemed to be contradictory, Bowlsby acknowledged that “on an oral basis,” the league already has more information from Baylor than the public. Bowlsby previously met with Baylor officials on June 23.

“We will get more than the public. There isn’t any doubt about that. We already have more than the public on an oral basis,” Bowlsby said. “So any discussion of steps the conference would take would be premature at this point.

“Baylor is the client of Pepper Hamilton. The firm wouldn’t give us anything even if we asked. So anything we would get in addition would have to come through the university because they’re the client of the law firm.”

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And when it comes to that additional information, Bowlsby said he is “not at liberty to talk about” it.

“They’re confidential discussions and I think they’ll stay that way,” he said. “I think our CEOs will ask different questions than I posed. I expect to learn more (Tuesday), but, you know, this is going to be a process. It isn’t going to go away soon, and I don’t know how to characterize it other than that. I think there are going to be things that we ask questions about that we’re not going to share publicly and that will just be the way it is.”

Ultimately, Bowlsby made it plainly clear that the Big 12 is unsure how it will proceed with addressing the Baylor situation. He hopes it becomes clearer following Tuesday’s meeting.

“I think it’s an affiliational issue that all of us share. I think some have stronger feelings about it than others and we will probably hear a little more about that during the meeting, but I expect it will be collegial, I don’t think it will be – I think there will be hard questions,” he said.

“There isn’t any doubt about that, to the extent that they can answer them, they will answer them. But there are a lot of pending processes in place right now and all of that’s not going to go away any time soon. So to say that we have a vision for what the end game is would not be accurate.”

For more Baylor news, visit SicEmSports.com.

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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!