School adds alleged rapist to roster, claims "error of judgment."

Yesterday Jaborian "Tip" McKenzie was removed from the Alcorn State University football team. You may not know who he is, or why that's notable, but you're not alone. Apparently, no one at Alcorn State was aware of whom McKenzie was when he joined the team a short time ago, or at least that's the only conclusion that the university's president wants us to draw from his prepared statement accompanying news of the player's release.

"Alcorn failed to sufficiently examine the allegations against McKenzie before allowing him to participate in our football program," said President M. Christopher Brown II.

Those allegations against McKenzie include five counts of aggravated rape and two counts of sexual battery in Nashville. McKenzie was one of four Vanderbilt football players accused of raping a female undergraduate student in a Vanderbilt dorm room in June. He has pled not guilty to all charges and is currently out on bail awaiting trial for those charges.

Vanderbilt released all four players on July 15, the day the charges were made public.

On Saturday, September 7, McKenzie returned three kickoffs for 80 yards in a 50-7 loss to Mississippi State.

"In an effort to provide educational opportunities to a Southwest Mississippi student, Alcorn State University made an error in judgment," Brown said.

Alcorn State is a FCS team and the country's first land grant historically black university. Former NFL MVP Steve McNair is an alumni, as well as Leslie Fraizer, the Minnesota Vikings head coach.

McKenzie was a three-star recruit out of Trinity Episcopal Day School, located about 40 minutes away from Alcorn State's campus. There's no way the school did not know who he was when he joined the team. The football program had offered him a scholarship before he chose Vanderbilt instead. He redshirted there for a year, then was involved in the alleged rape and dismissed from the team.

The allegations, charges and dismissals made headlines across the country, both in and out of the sports section.

So if the school "failed to sufficiently examine the allegations" against McKenzie the school has no one to blame but itself.

What likely happened was the football coaching staff knew of local product McKenzie and jumped at the chance to add SEC-level talent to its program. Winning makes everything better in sports and the program's coach, Jay Hopson, likely thought adding McKenzie would add to the team's win total and any fallout that followed him would be forgiven as the Ws piled up. Either that or they wrongfully assumed no one would notice McKenzie on their roster.

It's a shame that the school won't admit this fact and are attempting to hide behind a claim of an "error in judgment."

"Alcorn State University maintains its commitment to academic excellence and student achievement. A safe campus environment and well-managed intercollegiate athletics unit is central to these ambitions," Brown said.

Sometimes maintaining a safe campus and a well-managed college athletic program can conflict. The message Brown seems to be sending is that a safe campus is his top priority until people start to notice his football team is recruiting alleged rapist to its roster.