Mel Tucker responds to MSU attempt to fire him for cause - ESPN

The attorneys for suspended Michigan State football coach Mel Tucker responded Monday to the school's written letter last week that it intends to fire him for cause, claiming the university adopted the allegations against Tucker «without any meaningful review of the facts.»

In the latest of a tense back-and-forth between Tucker and the university, his lawyers laid out a case in a 25-page document that includes point-by-point reasons why the school shouldn't be allowed to fire him for cause.

The letter on Monday from Foley & Lardner LLP — titled «Response to Term Notice» — comes in the wake of the letter from MSU athletic director Alan Haller last week in which Haller states that the school intends to fire Tucker on Tuesday unless reasons are presented why it shouldn't.

"[Tucker] did not engage in unprofessional or unethical behavior or 'moral turpitude' by any stretch of the imagination," the letter from Tucker's lawyers on Monday states. «In fact, as discussed below, under Michigan law, assault and battery does not even constitute 'moral turpitude,' and the flimsy foundation of the university's finding — a private relationship involving mutual flirting and one instance of consensual phone sex — falls far short of the mark.»

Michigan State is in the process of attempting to fire Tucker for cause in the wake of a sexual misconduct complaint brought by Brenda Tracy, a sexual assault awareness speaker. The university opened a sexual misconduct investigation against Tucker in December 2022. The case to decide if he violated university policy is scheduled to go to a hearing in the first week of October.

Tracy has disputed the notion that the phone sex referenced in the complaint was consensual.

By attempting to fire Tucker