Tennessee coaches appear at a news conference on Feb. 23, 2016, in Knoxville. The coaches held a news conference two weeks after a group of unidentified women sued the school over its handling of sexual assault complaints made against student-athletes.Funny how time can lessen legal bravura regarding a lawsuit.
In February of this year, a federal lawsuit just filed against the University of Tennessee by six women (it later grew to eight) who alleged the Knoxville campus condoned a “hostile sexual environment” – especially regarding sexual assault accusations against male athletes – UT outside counsel Bill Ramsey said: “In the situations identified in the lawsuit; the University acted lawfully and in good faith, and we expect a court to agree.”
Five months later, UT’s brass was apparently no longer so determined to have its day in court. Instead, in a move it probably should have made months ago, it settled, coughing up $2.48 million to the eight women while admitting no guilt.
So what happened to all that confidence of expecting a court to agree? Was the evidence more damning that first believed? Did Ramsey and the rest of the school’s legal team underestimate both the evidence and the determination of the women and their lawyers?
Or was this a calculated money grab on some level by the plaintiffs? Something along the lines of, “We may not be able to put these jocks behind bars for what they did to us, but we’re going to at least get enough money to let everyone know that something happened to us that wasn’t right.”