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NCAA president Mark Emmert alerted to Michigan State sexual assault reports in 2010

NCAA President Mark Emmert Press Conference

GLENDALE, AZ - MARCH 30: NCAA President Mark Emmert speaks with the media during a press conference for the 2017 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four at University of Phoenix Stadium on March 30, 2017 in Glendale, Arizona. (Photo by Tim Bradbury/Getty Images)

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NCAA president Mark Emmert was alerted to the problems with sexual assault reporting and enforcement at Michigan State in 2010, six months after he got the job, according to a report from Nicole Auerbach of The Athletic.

Auerbach obtained a letter that was sent from Kathy Redmond, the founder of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, to Emmert in 2010 alerting him to the problems that were detailed in ESPN’s bombshell report on Michigan State.

Detailed in that letter was handling of an allegation against Michigan State basketball players, Keith Appling and Adreian Payne.

Redmond had a face-to-face meeting with Emmert, she told Auerbach, prior to sending the letter, and during that meeting she specifically mentioned the way that MSU president Lou Anna Simon was dealing with the basketball players. Simon resigned from her position earlier this week.

Payne told investigators that he could “understand how [his accuser] would feel that she was not free to leave” during their encounter. Prosecutors declined to press charges, and the assistant prosecutor that interviewed Payne’s alleged victim now works in Michigan State’s Title IX office.