(OOC: This is inspired by stories of burglars turning in child porn after finding it as part of their haul. BTW, the burglar's name is fictional.)
This summer marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most consequential burglaries since Watergate helped bring down President Nixon in 1974. On June 20th, in Holt, Michigan, a burglar named Frank Smith broke into a residence and stole several items, including a computer belonging to the owner of the house. After driving back to his own residence, Smith turned on the computer and was shocked to find child pornography on the computer. He promptly called the police. When they arrived, he admitted to stealing the items and said that the porn was on the computer. The police, seeing the child pornography, promptly called the FBI, and the subsequent investigation would make headlines.
Because the owner of the computer happened to be Michigan State sports and US Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Shortly after the arrest, several young women came forward to report being molested at Nassar's hands (the total would be in the hundreds), and Nassar would be charged with child porn and sexual abuse. He would be found guilty in the winter of 2011 in federal court and in 2012 in state court and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The fallout would lead to the resignation/firing/voting out of Michigan State's athletic director, several coaches, the president, and most of the Board of Trustees, Michigan State suffering a 2-year postseason ban and probation, and Michigan State coming within an ace of being kicked out of the Big Ten (reportedly, Michigan lobbied against it), as well as to changes in US Gymnastics and the USOC (the performances of the "Fierce Five" in 2011-2012 are widely considered to have begun restoring gymnastics' reputation IOTL)...
So, WI Smith never turns in the child porn or doesn't break in? On the downside, this means that Nassar remains uncaught, with more victims than he had IOTL, with all the implications of that...
This also has another effect: as the Nassar case was winding its way through the courts, the Jerry Sandusky scandal became national news. If there's no Nassar case, maybe Penn State doesn't get the death penalty dropped on its football program and get kicked out of the Big Ten as a result (to this day, Penn State has to play as an independent)…
And this triggers a whole lot of effects, because I don't see Nebraska, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A & M joining the Big Ten, while three of the remaining members of the Big 12--Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri--joined the Mountain West Conference and Baylor, which was suffering its own football sexual assault woes (1), also became an independent...
(1) ObWI: WI Baylor doesn't ask for a Texas Rangers investigation of the football program? Part of the reason they did so, it is believed, is because they saw what happened to Michigan State and Penn State and were trying to prevent that outcome at Baylor...
This summer marks the 10th anniversary of one of the most consequential burglaries since Watergate helped bring down President Nixon in 1974. On June 20th, in Holt, Michigan, a burglar named Frank Smith broke into a residence and stole several items, including a computer belonging to the owner of the house. After driving back to his own residence, Smith turned on the computer and was shocked to find child pornography on the computer. He promptly called the police. When they arrived, he admitted to stealing the items and said that the porn was on the computer. The police, seeing the child pornography, promptly called the FBI, and the subsequent investigation would make headlines.
Because the owner of the computer happened to be Michigan State sports and US Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar. Shortly after the arrest, several young women came forward to report being molested at Nassar's hands (the total would be in the hundreds), and Nassar would be charged with child porn and sexual abuse. He would be found guilty in the winter of 2011 in federal court and in 2012 in state court and sentenced to life in prison without parole. The fallout would lead to the resignation/firing/voting out of Michigan State's athletic director, several coaches, the president, and most of the Board of Trustees, Michigan State suffering a 2-year postseason ban and probation, and Michigan State coming within an ace of being kicked out of the Big Ten (reportedly, Michigan lobbied against it), as well as to changes in US Gymnastics and the USOC (the performances of the "Fierce Five" in 2011-2012 are widely considered to have begun restoring gymnastics' reputation IOTL)...
So, WI Smith never turns in the child porn or doesn't break in? On the downside, this means that Nassar remains uncaught, with more victims than he had IOTL, with all the implications of that...
This also has another effect: as the Nassar case was winding its way through the courts, the Jerry Sandusky scandal became national news. If there's no Nassar case, maybe Penn State doesn't get the death penalty dropped on its football program and get kicked out of the Big Ten as a result (to this day, Penn State has to play as an independent)…
And this triggers a whole lot of effects, because I don't see Nebraska, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Texas, and Texas A & M joining the Big Ten, while three of the remaining members of the Big 12--Kansas, Kansas State and Missouri--joined the Mountain West Conference and Baylor, which was suffering its own football sexual assault woes (1), also became an independent...
(1) ObWI: WI Baylor doesn't ask for a Texas Rangers investigation of the football program? Part of the reason they did so, it is believed, is because they saw what happened to Michigan State and Penn State and were trying to prevent that outcome at Baylor...