(Excerpts from Inside Higher Ed News)

• With its hands tied by NCAA's lack of rules governing athletes' sexual violence, infractions panel leaves Baylor barely punished for institutional student sexual assault scandal.
• A slew of sexual assaults by Baylor University athletes in the first half of the 2010s -- and widespread efforts by university administrators to quash information about the violence -- made the Texas private university a national example of a sports program out of control.
• But when the National Collegiate Athletic Association announced the results of its years-long investigation into the Baylor scandal Wednesday, it concluded that virtually none of the university's misbehavior actually went against the association's rules.
• "Baylor admitted to moral and ethical failings in its handling of sexual violence on campus but argued that those failings, however egregious, did not constitute violations of NCAA legislation," the NCAA report said. "Ultimately, and with tremendous reluctance, this panel agrees."
• "We determined that this failure was not limited to the athletics department," Joel Maturi, chief hearing officer for the panel, said during an NCAA press conference. "Faculty and staff throughout campus did not know or understand their obligation to report allegations of sexual and interpersonal violence. As a result, we reluctantly concluded that the failure to report and address incidents of sexual violence was not a violation of bylaw 16."
• ​​The outcome of the Baylor case comes as the NCAA is preparing to rethink how it governs college sports, at a time when the association has suffered major legal setbacks over its restrictions on compensating athletes and faces broad public disdain. ​​