A small public university in southwest Virginia has become the nation’s second school to adopt the most comprehensive serious misconduct policy in college sports.
University of Virginia’s College at Wise on Tuesday formally adopted the Tracy Rule, which requires thorough background checks for athletes and bans those found responsible in a Title IX hearing or court for sexual or violent offenses from playing on varsity sports teams.
Title IX is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.
“For us, it’s kind of a natural next step in continuing to develop our campus culture,” UVA Wise athletic director Kendall Rainey said in an interview with USA TODAY. “It’s about continuing to educate our college constituents on how we can just be better, and just be the best us we can be.”
Kendall Rainey, athletic director for University of Virginia’s College at Wise.
The NCAA in April 2020 announced a new policy requiring NCAA athletes to annually disclose to their schools any allegations of sexual violence against them that resulted in an investigation, discipline through a Title IX proceeding or a criminal conviction. The policy also covers dating and domestic violence and other forms of violence that result in serious body injury or involve deadly weapons.
In addition, the NCAA directed all 1,100 member schools to adopt written policies instructing staff to gather that information from the previous schools of recruits and transfer athletes. Aimed at preventing troubled athletes from slipping through the cracks without the schools’ knowledge, the policy was supposed to take effect before the 2021-22 school year, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused the NCAA to delay it until fall 2022.
The NCAA’s Board of Governors adopted the policy four months after a four-part USA TODAY investigation called “Predator Pipeline” that…
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