Woman to ask NCAA to ban sexually violent athletes

INDIANAPOLIS - A woman who says she was raped by college football players nearly 20 years ago is asking the NCAA to ban sexually violent athletes.

Brenda Tracy and her son will present a petition to the NCAA's Board of Governors at its meeting Wednesday in Indianapolis. Current guidelines generally allow schools or conferences to hand down such punishments.

Tracy's son Darius says he started the petition after hearing about multiple sexual assault allegations involving Baylor football players. The petition contains more than 157,000 signatures.

It's unclear when - or if - the NCAA committee will take action. It already has already met once with the family as it debates how to address sexual violence on campus.

Brenda Tracy says she was raped by four men, including two Oregon State football players, in 1998. The Associated Press generally doesn't identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, but Tracy has spoken publicly to draw attention to her situation.

She recently met with football players at Nebraska and Baylor. Nebraska is coached by Mike Riley, who was Oregon State's coach in 1998 and suspended the two accused players for one game. They were arrested but never charged.

Baylor faces at least three federal lawsuits brought by women who claim the school was indifferent to or ignored claims of sexual assault and didn't enforce federal gender discrimination protections under Title IX. The scandal cost coach Art Briles his job and forced university chancellor Kenneth Starr to resign.

Following Tuesday's announcement promoting the petition, the NCAA issued a statement that read in part: ''She has a compelling story and, like us, is seeking changes on campuses and nationally to stem the tide of sexual assault. We look forward to continuing our conversation with her and other leaders regarding this important matter.''

The NCAA first began discussing the issue in 2010, and held a summit in Indianapolis in the spring of 2011. It later announced it would sponsor the Violence Prevention Think Tank.

In August 2014, the topic came up again. This time, the NCAA issued a statement on sexual violence prevention.

One month later, the NCAA released a handbook about how to deal with sexual violence and joined the ''It's on Us'' campaign.

In July 2015, the NCAA started the Sexual Assault Task Force. In February, the NCAA held another summit on the topic.