ESPN's Outside the Lines recently completed an investigation into ten "quintessential college town" schools with big-time athletics programs across various geographies to determine how often crimes involving college athletes are prosecuted and what factors, if any, influence them.
The schools chosen were Auburn, Florida, Missouri and Texas A&M from the SEC, Florida State from the ACC, Michigan State and Wisconsin from the Big Ten, Oklahoma State from the Big XII, Oregon State from the Pac-12 and Notre Dame.
ESPN OTL graphic. Source
Among the findings:
Access to Auburn police records made making athlete-crime comparisons very difficult, and Alabama's sunshine laws aren't all that conducive to university-centric investigations.
Florida had 80 athletes - that's 24% of its roster from 2009-14 named as suspects in over 100 crimes, along with having the most repeat offenders.
Missouri's handling of off-the-field issues was so curious it became the catalyst for OTL expanding its investigation not only into how many crimes involve athletes, but how they're handled.
Texas A&M is working with law enforcement to reduce its off-the-field incidents.
Florida State is every bit of the lawless yokel stereotype the Jameis Winston escapades made it out to be: of 107 criminal cases involving FSU athletes from 2009-14, 70% were dropped or never followed; significantly higher than how often non-athletes' crimes are prosecuted.
Conversely, there was no difference between prosecution frequency between Michigan State athletes and non-athletes.
Wisconsin doesn't look good here, though the majority of its report is centered around one case.
Oklahoma State athletes generally avoid prosecution when accused of crimes.
It's difficult to for anyone to be convicted of crimes at Oregon State, let alone athletes who along with regular students are provided free legal representation by the university.
Notre Dame shielded ESPN from doing this investigation thoroughly.
Here is how ESPN conducted its investigation and here is the complete report. Some of the police departments involved refused to release records citing state disclosure laws.
ESPN has sued the Notre Dame as well as Michigan State University for not releasing material. Both cases are on appeal. ESPN sued Ohio State under similar circumstances during the Tatgate investigation in a case that was later ruled in favor of the university by the Ohio Supreme Court.
