There is a temptation in stuff like this to wander off into speculation about conspiracies.
The obvious one here is that Gragg’s vacation was deliberately scheduled during the time that the report was delivered and the announcement of Fitz’s suspension. That way he wouldn’t be available for comment.
The “why” for something like that is even more speculative.
But the opposite is also true. If for some reason there was a last minute change in the report delivery date and Fitz announcement, don’t you think that Schill would ask the spokesman for the Athletic Department to cut short their vacation and return to campus?
Perhaps they were thinking that making the announcement while Gragg was out of town would support the impression they were trying to convey that this was not a big deal. Obviously they were really wrong about that. Even if it didn’t blow up in their faces as spectacularly as it did, not having the AD in town to meet with the staff and players about a decision to suspend the head coach speaks volumes about their commitment to changing whatever culture allowed hazing to go unchecked. The AD had to deliver a strong message to the staff and players that he’s in charge, the days of turning a blind eye to hazing are over, and all the responsible parties will be held accountable.
You can draw your own conclusions about why that didn’t happen.
Athletic Directors, like coaches, have to schedule vacations around the sports calendar, there probably are only a few weeks a year when the AD could take a vacation.
I’m willing to believe that Gragg’s vacation was planned months ago, possibly even before the initial investigation was launched.
But whether it was just unfortunate timing or poor planning, Gragg wound up looking bad. But to be honest, having to fire a coach in his first season because of bullying looks worse. It speaks to a poor hiring process, and ‘hiring’ is one of an AD’s biggest jobs. There are now TWO head coach hires to be made at NU. Other sports have been mentioned, this mess could still snowball.
I would respectfully suggest that this mess has ALREADY snowballed.
The only remaining question is how much bigger it will get.
With the potential money involved, my guess is that it will get A LOT bigger.
I suspect that every FBS school AD already has “internal hazing investigation” on the top of their todo list. That’s the first step all of them need to take to protect their own jobs against future claims from previous players.
I would also bet that those consulting organizations who specialize in building and auditing internal abuse reporting mechanisms are seeing a big uptick in their business.
The thought of some is going to be that if it could happen at a small elite school like Northwestern, it could happen anywhere.
The thought of others is that a small private school for the entitled children of the economically elite is exactly the place where hazing could flourish.
It doesn’t really matter.
What is driving this is the assumption that there is a lot of money in college sports (particularly football), hazing is wide spread, it is possible to prove some financial damage occurred to those who experienced hazing, and it is also likely that schools will be held liable for those damages.
What is also driving this is the reality that FBS colleges ARE big businesses, and big businesses always insure themselves against big loses. So it will ultimately be the insurance companies who decide what a reasonable settlement will be for these sorts of claims. Very few of them will actually go to trial because proving damage is also risky. Lawyers will get 1/3 of the settlement and the institutions will take whatever steps the insurance companies require to protect themselves from future claims.
If college football survives, this just sets the stage for the round of CTE claims that will eventually put college football out of business.
Between deductibles and limits ,Insurance may only cover part of the cost of damages. In addition the rates for an institution that has a payout will assuredly go up , not to mention the likelihood of rates going up for every university because of concerns from insurance companies of increased claim payouts .
But for AD ‘s to get out in front of this they will have the opportunity to add a person not reporting to the athletic department , but to the president or some other committee that can confidentially hear complaints. You can also bet there will be lectures / videos/ presentations by experts and coaching staff what not to do; what constitutes hazing, what doesn’t. When in doubt , don’t ,etc etc.
I wouldn’t be surprised to see some marginal programs drop a sport or two because they don’t want to deal with it