Summary: Football player is accused of raping a student-trainer and, despite claiming consensual nature of sex, is nearly expelled from the school. Admittedly, this is a bit of a rant, and I am a little biased as a fan, but it's just an outrageous case in all aspects.

Body: I am an admitted college football devotee. August-January are consumed with my love for the sport, except in cases like these, which have become all too frequent in recent years.

In this particular case, USC freshman tight end Bryce Dixon was suspended from the team and the university some months ago for "raping" a student-trainer who worked with the team. Given USC's recent history with the NCAA they opted to nip this in the bud and suspended him, pending investigation.

Here is the bio of primary investigator, "Dr." Kegan Alee:

Kegan joined USC as a Title IX investigator in 2013. Prior to joining the university, she was the Assistant Director for Women’s Center programming and Campus Advocacy, Resources & Education at UC Santa Barbara. In this capacity she oversaw student-initiated programming, and also directed advocacy services for survivors of interpersonal violence and harassment. She received her PhD and second master’s degree from UCSB in Sociology, her first master’s degree in Women’s Studies from San Diego State, and her bachelor’s degree in Political Science from the University of Florida. She developed and taught six university courses, and has lectured extensively on university responses to interpersonal and gender-based violence. Kegan holds certifications from national organizations on Title IX investigations, bystander intervention trainings, and danger assessment.

Here are my, admittedly biased, findings based on her bio: PoliSci degre (ok) from UF (a huge party school in the south) who then Mastered in "Womyn's Studies" (feminist and perhaps feminazi), plus another Masters PLUS a PH. D in Sociology!

Now, my biased rant aside, the court's push nationwide to get universities to handle rape cases in kangaroo courts has been a bit of a disaster, and this has been no different. Here are some relevant facts of the cases:

  1. Mentioned student-trainer is a senior. If some of you don't know, these positions are highly coveted and extremely competitive student jobs that are UNPAID (except if you are the head student-trainer). You do it for the experience at a top football school. She is old enough and had been there long enough (at least one season) to know the rules and regulations regarding fraternization of student athletes.

  2. The athlete in question was a freshman at the time. Still 18. Not much in the way of worldly knowledge. So when he thought he had affirmative consent from her (I'll post a relevant blurb below) and then summarily explained this to the investigators, he had no idea the trap he was walking into.

  3. It was also later found out that she had a boyfriend at the time who, according to the below report, is implied to be another player on the team. Like most things we hear about, she was either guilted into this decision to cry rape by her boyfriend, or hamstered herself into it because she regretted it, despite, you know, every college co-ed wanting to sleep with a star football player. Dixon's party claims that said player was not invited as a witness because she most likely didn't tell him all the facts because, if she did, he'd believe that it was a consensual act too. So she played the victim.

  4. Lastly, here is a blurb from the head investigator:

    Mr. Dixon did describe behaviors that he believed indicated [the female trainer's] affirmative consent during both incidents. He stated that he believed there was affirmative consent because she was "Lip biting, moaning, kissing me back on my neck type thing." He also stated that he believed she indicated affirmative consent by lying naked on the bed while he put on the **. However, since both accounts cannot be true, and I find [the female trainer] to be more credible, I find that it is more likely than not that sexual activity on October 23-24, 2014 between [the female trainer] and Mr. Dixon was forcible and nonconsensual.

Think about that, for a moment.

Despite his insistence that it was consensual and his account that she was willingly lying on the bed, buck naked, she finds the girl's account to be "more credible".

This comes back to something we talk a lot here, how a woman's decisions are solely based on how she feels now, in this moment, without regard to how she might look back at it later (I think the only regret she will have is that she ruined his USC career...in the sense that it could have possibly led to bigger things down the road for her). There was no planning for the future, no thought to how her future self would feel or deal. Just the now.

He is still barred from the team--a court injunction is keeping him in school because of obvious reasons: "USC’s investigator acts as police, prosecutor, and judge. There is no hearing, no right to counsel, no rules of evidence, no presumption of innocence, and no right to confront witnesses. Courts are beginning to recognize the injustice imposed on students" (from Dixon's attorney). But given the situation the university is in, it's highly doubtful that he will ever rejoin the team. After all football players, like many men, are an expendable commodity. There will always be someone else to take their place, but we have to keep protecting the special snowflakes because they are one of a kind.

EDIT: To post source link for quotes: https://archive.is/y4lMY and the court write up: http://media.scout.com/media/doc/156/1568623.pdf