Michigan State University football coach Mel Tucker is under investigation for sexually harassing a rape survivor and sexual assault prevention activist, according to a USA Today report published Sunday morning.
Interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff and Athletic Director Alan Haller will hold a press conference at Spartan Stadium at 5 p.m. to "provide an update on the football program."
Tucker and the MSU program had invited Brenda Tracy, a prominent activist, to campus several times in 2021 and 2022 to “fight the culture of sexual violence in sports,” according to the report. She twice spoke to the team and once served as honorary captain in the team’s spring game.
But in April 2022 during a phone call between Tucker and Tracy, he allegedly ”made sexual comments about her and masturbated,” the report says. She filed a complaint with MSU’s Title IX office in December.
The USA Today report says Tucker admitted to a Title IX investigator that he masturbated during the call but said she “grossly mischaracterized” the incident and he believed they had consensual “phone sex.”
In a letter to the investigator, Tucker reportedly said Tracy’s “distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me,” according to USA Today. “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”
The Title IX attorney reportedly finished her investigation in July and a formal hearing to determine whether Tucker violated the school’s sexual harassment and exploitation policy is scheduled for early October during MSU’s bye week, according to the report.
"The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it's hard for me to even wrap my mind around it," Tracy told the USA Today. "It's like he sought me out just to betray me."
Tucker, one of the highest paid college football coaches in the country, is owed about $80 million over the rest of his contract, which could be terminated if he is fired for cause.
Tracy claims Tucker is “following through on a threat to ruin her career and reputation by painting her as a woman who mixes professional and personal relationships and files false reports,” according to the report.