Report: Baylor to Avoid Penn State-Like Sanctions from NCAA

A Wall Street Journal article that was released on Tuesday afternoon is reporting that the NCAA has informed Baylor that it will not be facing "sweeping sanctions" as fallout from the ongoing investigation into how the university handled reported cases of sexual assault. The article specifically references the penalties that were handed down to Penn State in 2012 in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, in which Penn State was handed a four year bowl ban and significant scholarship reductions along with a few other severe penalties. It should be noted that the NCAA later rescinded many of these penalties as they were roundly panned for overstepping their boundaries and were challenged in court.

Obviously for Baylor if the report is indeed accurate, this is a dose of good news for a change and should help answer some of the questions that may come up as the athletic department prepares to begin interviewing candidates for the new head coach which will likely be named in December. Baylor is not completely out of the NCAA woods, as the collegiate governing body will likely want to dig deeper to determine if athletes were given preferential treatment by the university when behavioral allegations came up. But certainly one can expect that if the NCAA does deem it appropriate to hand down any punishments from this situation, they should be minor in nature for the football program.

We'll have more on this piece of the story as more information arises.