SC Republicans want inquiry into Staley’s canceling of BYU games? Now that’s overreacting

The only overreaction in the Dawn-Staley-cancels-BYU-games has been by people bashing the University of South Carolina women’s basketball coach.

Staley handled the situation with class, and she should be praised for every step she took.

Now, some South Carolina legislators want a caucus inquiry into the cancellations, as reported by The State’s Joe Bustos.

A more ill-conceived, waste of time couldn’t be conjured up by even the most ineffective lawmakers.

During a womens’ volleyball match between Duke University and Brigham Young University, a Duke player said she and her team were “racially heckled” and subjected to slurs. Eventually one fan was led out of the arena and banned from future sporting events. A couple days later, Staley canceled scheduled games between the University of South Carolina womens’ basketball team and BYU.

“As a head coach, my job is to do what’s best for my players and staff,” Staley said in a news release at the time. “The incident at BYU has led me to reevaluate our home-and-home, and I don’t feel that this is the right time for us to engage in this series.”

When reporters later asked for details, Staley explained that she “vetted” her decision.

“I talked to various people that were a part of the situation. I slept on it a few nights and I woke up with the same gut feeling that I shouldn’t put our players in the situation.”

“I didn’t do it to condemn BYU,” Staley said. “I was only thinking about South Carolina women’s basketball. I wanted to handle it on my own and didn’t involve anyone else. I wanted to make sure our players didn’t have to endure that. If something were to happen in that manner, I don’t have the words to comfort them. I’d rather just not put ourselves in that situation.”

Those statements should only garner praise. They show the amount of care Staley has for her players and her ability to navigate a heated situation. Like any good college coach, she was protecting her players from potential harm. She never made any moral judgment against BYU or its fans, but she went with what felt right to her. No one was harmed by Staley’s decision.

Both USC and BYU can simply reschedule those games against different opponents. No harm, no foul.

What happened next also shows what a class act Staley is and why she’s a South Carolina treasure.

BYU investigated the allegation of racist remarks and found no evidence that anything was said. The ban on the fan was lifted.

“I continue to stand by my position,” Staley said in a statement following BYU’s findings. “After my personal research, I made a decision for the well-being of my team. I regret that my university, my athletics director Ray Tanner and others got drawn into the criticism of a choice that I made.”

And, Staley moved on.

That’s a classy handling of the situation. She stood by her conviction to protect her players and expressed some regrets but didn’t succumb to any pressure she might have felt to offer a hollow apology that she probably wouldn’t have believed in.

Then the legislature’s Freedom Caucus jumped in. The Freedom Caucus is made up of 14 lawmakers in the South Carolina House of Representatives.

“Given the totality of the circumstances, it seems the University of South Carolina rushed to appease the loudest voices of the far left by ‘canceling’ BYU both literally and figuratively without respect for the truth,” the caucus said in a letter to USC.

Who are these voices of the “far left” that made such calls? That simply didn’t happen. Staley made the right decision on her own.

Figuratively ‘canceling’ BYU? That’s laughable. Its football team in still on television. It’s still one of the largest schools in Utah. No one out here is saying BYU is some terrible school and should be shut down.

The Freedom Caucus members are now taking steps for a more formal inquiry into the cancellations.

Here’s an idea. Instead of a useless inquiry, the Freedom Caucus could spend their time on the very real problems South Carolina faces.

The ignorant fan comments also started rolling onto Gamecock sports outlets after the cancellation and BYU’s finding.

Look at these comments on The State’s site.

“What gives this dictator the right to cancel any games?” a commenter said. “Why do we have an athletics director? If she doesn’t like the way games are scheduled she should quit her job and go back up north to coach.”

Another wrote: “Pitiful woke ultra sensitive thin skinned pathetic political, wrong. just keep your head down and do your job. Growing these kids to be wussys in the real world.”

Those are the nicer ones. People said much worse, racist comments that shouldn’t be reprinted.

Talk about overreactions.

Staley is not above reproach. She should be subject to fair criticism like any other highly paid sports figure. But in the BYU situation, as expected, the criticisms strayed way beyond rational in many cases.

Staley handled the whole situation like the champ she is.