WACO, Texas, June 22 (UPI) -- All student athletes transferring to Baylor University of Waco, Texas, will get a criminal background check, the Houston Chronicle reported Tuesday.
Besides the checks on transfers, the nation's largest Baptist university will work up character reports on all other new athletes.
The policy change follows last year's shooting death of 21-year-old basketball player Patrick Dennehy. Carlton Dotson, Dennehy's former teammate, was charged with murder and is awaiting trial in Waco.
Dennehy was a transfer student from the University of New Mexico where he had arguments with coaches and teammates. Dotson, 22, transferred from Paris Junior College in East Texas where he was kicked off the team.
"This is new country; it's new territory. It could be something that could transform recruiting in the nation," said Grant Teaff, former Baylor football coach and chairman of the task force, which released its recommendations Monday.
Teaff is also executive director of the American Football Coaches Association.
