If Baylor University did suspend football Coach Art Briles for a year and then allows him to return for the 2017 season -- which won't happen -- it should go ahead and change the name of the school.
The Bad News Bears.
If winning football games is that important, then the school that was chartered in 1845 and has become the biggest Baptist college in the world has lost its integrity, purpose and direction.
Baylor has long had the reputation of being a sanctuary for academic and spiritual growth.
That is quickly becoming tarnished by some powerful -- which usually means rich -- boosters who enjoyed the Big 12 Conference championships and being part of the national football picture too much.
This week, the rumor of a one-year suspension went from Twitter and blogs to mainstream media when billionaire Baylor booster Bob Simpson responded to the rumor with: "We don't know. We'd like to see that."
Really?
An institution of higher education would sacrifice its reputation and image for some Saturday success?
Understand, Simpson is not just a regular fan. He's the co-owner of the Texas Rangers, and his name is on a couple of buildings on campus, but he is not on the board of regents, which met Monday.
Information that the board Monday would consider a suspension and later reinstatement of Briles -- which was reported by several major publications and websites this week -- was not accurate.
However, for weeks Texas-based newspapers have urged Baylor officials to release the Pepper Hamilton report without redacting names.
The university, citing personnel and privacy issues, has refused.
Hopefully, all this talk about a one-year suspension is being stirred by a handful of fans and not Bears Nation, which is international.
Simpson, who has a Bachelor of Science in accounting and a Master of Business Administration from Baylor, regularly attended Briles' news conferences and was a regular at games.
Perhaps the personal friendship with Briles is clouding his and others' thinking, but there is no doubt winning football games has to be part of the equation.
Briles, known as a staunch churchgoer, had success on every level of coaching in Texas.
He was 165-46-3 with four state championships as a high school coach; he led the Houston Cougars to a 34-28 record (they were 8-26 in the years before he was hired); and he was 65-37 at Baylor, including 32-7 the past three seasons.
The man is a great football coach, and the depth of his involvement in trying to cover up sexual assault by his football players is not known, but when you are the head coach of any sport at Baylor that is like being the senior associate pastor at a Baptist megachurch.
There isn't a lot of wiggle room for wrong, and Briles was being paid millions to watch over his program.
Of course, all of this is in the early discovery phase. Victims have not begun to file Title IX lawsuits, and those names and the actions can't be redacted in court without a judge's order, and the federal government hasn't become involved over possible Title IX violations.
If someone had said two months ago that a Power 5 school's football coach was going to be suspended and the president of the school removed from that office, Baylor wouldn't have been in your first 10 guesses.
That's how solid the school's reputation for academic and spiritual growth -- which combined should mean student safety -- had been.
It is time to stop the rumors. Fire Briles or rename yourself the Bad News Bears sponsored by Chico's Bail Bonds.
Sports on 06/15/2016