{"id":2301200,"date":"2024-07-19T16:58:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T20:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/former-utah-state-football-coach-fired-calls-investigation-a-sham\/"},"modified":"2024-07-19T16:59:44","modified_gmt":"2024-07-19T20:59:44","slug":"ex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham-8","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham-8\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-Utah State Football Coach Fired, Denounces Investigation as &#8216;Sham"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham-8%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2301200&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Former\u2063 Utah \u2063State coach Blake Anderson was fired \u2063for &#8220;convenience&#8221; and not for cause, according \u2062to his response to the school&#8217;s termination letter. The investigation that\u2063 led to his dismissal was described as a &#8220;sham&#8221; \u200cin the response. Utah State notified Anderson\u200b of \u2063its intent to dismiss for cause \u200cafter an investigation found that he failed \u2062to comply with Title IX policies regarding the reporting of\u200d sexual misconduct\u2062 cases. Anderson&#8217;s attorney\u200b posted excerpts from the response on social \u200cmedia. The\u200d response stated that Utah State violated standards for a \u2062professional investigation and made\u200b false allegations \u2062against Anderson. Anderson is seeking\u2063 his\u200c full buyout, which was $4.5 million as of last December, and \u2064a\u200b public apology from the \u2063university. \u2064Utah State&#8217;s \u200dPresident, Elizabeth Cantwell, stated that \u200dthe decision to\u2063 dismiss Anderson was based on facts and \u2062the university is committed to building a winning athletics\u2063 program. Anderson had a record of \u206423-17 with a Mountain West title in three\u2064 seasons \u200bat Utah State. He is\u200d now seeking\u200c his buyout and a \u2064public apology from the university.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<p><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><?xml encoding=\"utf-8\" ?><\/p>\n<section>\n<p>Former Utah State coach Blake Anderson&rsquo;s response to the school&rsquo;s termination letter says that he was fired for &ldquo;convenience,&rdquo; not for cause, and that the investigation that led to his dismissal was a &ldquo;sham.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Anderson&rsquo;s attorney, Tom Mars, posted excerpts from the 70-page response that was provided to the school earlier this week&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/TomMarsLaw\/status\/1814339519245914370\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">on social media<\/a> on Friday. Anderson&rsquo;s firing was made official Thursday. Utah State notified him of its intent to dismiss for cause July 2 after an investigation found he failed to comply with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/federal-judge-blocks-bidens-transgender-title-ix-changes-slams-admin-abuse-power\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Title IX<\/a> policies regarding the reporting of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/family-5-completely-shattered-discovering-dads-hidden-folder-horrifying-situation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sexual misconduct cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;These reporting requirements include a prohibition on employees outside the USU Office of Equity from investigating issues of sexual misconduct, including domestic violence,&rdquo; the school said. &ldquo;Additionally, Anderson failed to manage the team in a manner that reflects USU&rsquo;s academic values.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The response said the university began its investigation last year following an incident that occurred in April 2023. The document referred to Kansas&rsquo; dismissal of then-football head coach David Beaty in 2018 as starting a trend in college sports where schools attempt to manufacture reasons to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham-2\/\" title=\"Ex-Utah State Football Coach Fired, Denounces Investigation as &#039;Sham\">fire highly paid coaches<\/a> without paying the agreed upon buyout.<\/p>\n<p>Beaty won a $2.5 million settlement with Kansas. Anderson was under contract through 2027, and his contract called for a buyout.<\/p>\n<p>  <script> \t\t\t\tif( ! getCookie( 'ff_subbed' ) ) if( typeof FFADS.replace_ict !='undefined' ) if( FFADS.replace_ict ) eval( FFADS.replace_ict ); \t\t\t<\/script> <\/p>\n<p>The response said Utah State failed to understand the limitations of its policies and violated standards for a professional investigation while &ldquo;grasping at straws to find cause.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The result, the response said, was false allegations against Anderson.<\/p>\n<p>The response concluded that Utah State owes Anderson his full buyout &mdash; which stood at $4.5 million as of last December, according to USA Today&rsquo;s coaches&rsquo; salary database &mdash; and a public apology.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;While I recognize that today&rsquo;s decision has a significant impact, it is the only one that could be made based on the facts. We are committed to moving forward in building a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham-3\/\" title=\"Ex-Utah State Football Coach Fired, Denounces Investigation as &#039;Sham\">winning athletics program grounded<\/a> in student success and integrity,&rdquo; university President Elizabeth Cantwell said in a statement Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Anderson, 55, was 23-17 with a Mountain West title in three seasons at Utah State. He went 6-7 in each of the last two seasons. He is 74-54 in 10 seasons as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/ex-utah-state-football-coach-fired-denounces-investigation-as-sham\/\" title=\"Ex-Utah State Football Coach Fired, Denounces Investigation as &#039;Sham\">major college football coach<\/a>, including seven seasons at Arkansas State.<\/p>\n<p>The Aggies open the 2024 season on Aug. 31 against Robert Morris.<\/p>\n<p style=\"font-style: italic;\">The Western Journal has reviewed this Associated Press story and may have altered it prior to publication to ensure that it meets our editorial standards.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position: relative;\">\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\">  <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-submit-correction inner-content\">\n<div class=\"correction-form\">\n<form style=\"display: none;\">\n<div class=\"sc-name-field\"> <label>* Name<\/label> <br \/> <input type=\"text\" name=\"name\" required> <\/div>\n<div class=\"sc--field\"> <label>* <\/label> <br \/> <input type=\"text\" name=\"\" required> <\/div>\n<p> <label>* Message<\/label> <br \/> <textarea name=\"message\" required><\/textarea>  <\/p>\n<div class=\"required-message\" style=\"display: none; padding-bottom: 15px;\">* All fields are required.<\/div>\n<p> <input type=\"submit\" value=\"Submit\" onclick=\"event.preventDefault(); firefly_sc();\">  <\/p>\n<div class=\"firefly-sc-confirm\" style=\"display: none;\">Success!<\/div>\n<\/p><\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p> <script> \t\t\tfunction firefly_sc() { \t\t\t\tif( typeof window.captchaPublicKey==typeof undefined ){ \t\t\t\t\tconsole.error('window.captchaPublicKey is not defined'); \t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\tgrecaptcha.execute( window.captchaPublicKey, { action: 'submit_correction' } ).then( function( token ) { \t\t\t\t\tvar opts={ \t\t\t\t\t\taction:    'firefly_sc_submit', \t\t\t\t\t\tname:      document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"name\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\t:     document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tmessage:   document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"message\"]' ).value, \t\t\t\t\t\tpost_id:   firefly_post_id, \t\t\t\t\t\tcap_token: token \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tvar inputs=[ 'name', '', 'message' ];  \t\t\t\t\tfor( var i=0; i <inputs.length; i++ ) if( ! ( opts[inputs[i]]=document.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction [name=\"' + inputs[i] + '\"]' ).value ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .required-message' ).style.display='block'; \t\t\t\t\t\treturn; \t\t\t\t\t}  \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction input[type=\"submit\"]' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).src=firefly_loading_gif_url; \t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='inline-block';  \t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( 'ma subbing' );  \t\t\t\t\tif( firefly_post_id ) opts['post_id']=firefly_post_id;  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Send the data using post with element id name and name2*\/ \t\t\t\t\tvar posting=jQuery.post( firefly_ajax_url, opts );  \t\t\t\t\t\/* Alerts the results *\/ \t\t\t\t\tposting.done( function( response ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tif( response.success ) { \t\t\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log( response.data ); \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-submitting-img' ).style.display='none'; \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.querySelector( '.entry-submit-correction .firefly-sc-confirm' ).style.display='block';  \t\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push( { 'event': 'submit-correction' } ); \t\t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t\t}); \t\t\t} \t\t<\/script>  <\/div>\n<div class=\"ff-fancy-header-container\">  <\/div>\n<style> \t\t\t \t\t\t.insticator-unit.type-commenting{margin: 0 10px 25px 10px}@media screen and (max-width:1060px){#div-insticator-ad-cmt-1, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-2, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-3, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-4{margin: 0 auto 25px auto !important;}}#div-insticator-ad-cmt-1, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-2, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-3, #div-insticator-ad-cmt-4{height: 280px !important; width: 336px !important} \t\t<\/style>\n<div class=\"insticator-unit type-commenting\">\n<div class=\"insticator-ads\">   <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\t\t\tif ( ! getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-1\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-2\"); \t\t\t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-1\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-2\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t<\/script> <\/div>\n<div class=\"insticator-ads additional\">   <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\"> \t\t\t\t\tif ( ! getCookie( \"ff_subbed\" ) ) { \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-3\"); \t\t\t\t\t\tInsticator.ad.loadAd(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-4\"); \t\t\t\t\t} else { \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-3\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t\tdocument.getElementById(\"div-insticator-ad-cmt-4\").remove() \t\t\t\t\t} \t\t\t\t<\/script> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Utah State coach Blake Anderson&#8217;s attorney, Tom Mars, shared excerpts from Anderson&#8217;s response to the school&#8217;s termination letter on social media. The response stated that Anderson was fired for &#8220;convenience&#8221; rather than for cause, and that the investigation leading to his dismissal was a &#8220;sham.&#8221; The response also criticized the school for failing to understand its policies and violating standards for a professional investigation. Anderson&#8217;s response demanded his full buyout, which was $4.5 million as of last December, and a public apology from Utah State. University President Elizabeth Cantwell defended the decision to fire Anderson, citing the need to build a winning athletics program grounded in student success and integrity. Anderson had a 23-17 record with a Mountain West title in three seasons at Utah State and is 74-54 in 10 seasons as a major college football coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2301201,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2b24276a86434b6ea27ea9541ba4c723-scaled.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[35612,5541,3976,6626,35608],"class_list":["post-2301200","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-coach-fired","tag-football","tag-investigation","tag-sham","tag-utah-state"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.westernjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/2b24276a86434b6ea27ea9541ba4c723-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301200","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301200"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301200\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2301201"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301200"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301200"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301200"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}