Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker is facing a sexual harassment investigation stemming from allegations made against him by a well-known rape survivor and activist.

The accusations against Tucker came from Brenda Tracy, who has established herself as a sexual assault prevention advocate with a focus on college sports. Reports on the Title IX investigation say that Tracy has accused Tucker of making sexually suggestive comments about her and masturbating without her consent during a phone call they had last year.

USA Today reported that the relationship between Tracy and Tucker started in 2021 after the former spoke at Michigan State about preventing sexual violence. The two reportedly developed a fast friendship where Tucker seemed engaged in Tracy’s activist work while she was repeatedly invited back to campus and made into an honorary captain of the football team.

Tracy wound up filing a complaint against Tucker in December 2022 because their professional relationship allegedly took a turn when the latter started making romantic advances toward her.

From USA Today:

They frequently made flirtatious comments about each other’s looks and bodies, Tucker said. Tracy told him she wanted a “sugar daddy” who would pay her a monthly amount to be his girlfriend, he said, and that she would be “all over” him if he wasn’t married.

Tucker said they had acknowledged their mutual desire for a romance but agreed it would be “too messy” because of his marriage and the physical distance between them.

By contrast, Tracy told the investigator that Tucker’s romantic interest in her was entirely one-sided. She said she came to feel he was less interested in her cause than in her.

Tucker messaged her photos of herself that he had found on her Instagram page, making comments such as, “This is the one,” or complimenting her eyes, Tracy said. Tucker also sent her two gifts – a pair of Jordans and $200 in cash through Venmo – and donated $2,500 to her nonprofit.

Once, Tucker called Tracy via FaceTime. He was in bed, shirtless. He talked about his unhappy marriage, describing himself as “more or less single.” Then, during a Nov. 9, 2021, call, she said he asked her, “If I wasn’t a football coach and if I wasn’t married, would you date me?”

Despite Tracy telling Tucker they should only be friends, she said there was another incident where Tucker asked her to meet him alone, and “even suggested slipping into her hotel through a back door so no one would see him.” Days later, the two had a 36-minute call where Tucker started touching himself, leaving Tracy in shock.

From the report:

The call started off normal, she said. But when she sent Tucker a photo of them together from the spring game, she said he responded by commenting on her buttocks and calling himself an “ass man.”

She remembered Tucker’s voice getting deeper and weirder as he continued talking about her buttocks. She asked him what he was doing, and he said he had a “hard dick” and was touching himself.

“You’re touching yourself?” Tracy asked, according to the investigation report. Tucker responded, “Yes.”

Tracy said she thought to herself, “Oh my god, this is happening, and I can’t stop it.” In the moment, she said, it didn’t occur to her to hang up. Eventually she said something along the lines of, “If you do this, I don’t ever want to hear about it, we are only friends, that’s it.”

Tracy also spoke to reporters about the incident, saying “The idea that someone could know me and say they understand my trauma but then re-inflict that trauma on me is so disgusting to me, it’s hard for me to even wrap my mind around it. It’s like he sought me out just to betray me.”

In statements to the investigator, Tucker acknowledged he masturbated on the call, but claimed it was consensual “phone sex.”

“Ms. Tracy’s distortion of our mutually consensual and intimate relationship into allegations of sexual exploitation has really affected me,” Tucker said. “I am not proud of my judgment and I am having difficulty forgiving myself for getting into this situation, but I did not engage in misconduct by any definition.”

Both Tucker and Michigan State declined to give comment. The investigation occurs as the university attempts to move past the infamy connected to their former sports physician, Larry Nassar, who was sentenced to life in prison for sexually assaulting hundreds of female athletes.

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