Baylor will fire Head Coach Art Briles

                                                                                 Photo from ​Ron Jenkins / MCT

Baylor University has announced that it has suspended coach Art Briles with intent to terminate him after eight seasons.

School president Ken Starr has been removed as president and will transitions into role of chancellor; he remains a professor at the Baylor law school. Dr. David Garland has been named interim university president. Athletic director Ian McCaw has been sanctioned and placed on probation.

Garland apologized to Baylor's students, alumni and supporters for the school's handling of sexual assaults.

A person with direct knowledge of the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter said that the Baylor Board of Regents did not view any of the three key leaders involved in the sexual assault scandal — Briles, Starr or McCaw — as irreplaceable, and that the football program had reached a level of success that it would not backslide to the bottom of the Big 12 were Briles no longer the coach.

Under Briles, Baylor went 65-37 during his eight seasons with the Bears, and for the past 5 seasons went 50-15.

​In 2014, defensive end Tevin Elliott was sentenced to 20 years in prison for two counts of sexual assault against a former Baylor student in 2012. Defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was convicted of sexually assaulting a women last year. Standout defensive end Shawn Oakman is currently under investigation on allegations he sexually assaulted a woman earlier this year.

More alleged transgressions by Baylor football players were alleged in a recent ESPN report. Briles, Starr and the team chaplain were aware of sexual assault allegations against former Bears running back Devin Chafin, but the school didn't hand down any discipline, according to the report.