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Liberty University -- a private Baptist school founded by Jerry Falwell in 1971 -- has talked in recent years about becoming a big fish in college sports,UK as opposed to the minnow it has long been.

In doing so, the school that purports to prepare students for a life of piousness and Christ-serving would be wise to heed the cautionary example of Baylor University.

Instead, Liberty appears to be doing the opposite.

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Baylor, another Baptist university, set out on a similar mission some 15 years ago, seeking to become a sports powerhouse. Baylor achieved its goal, but a heinous scandal -- involving myriad cases of sexual assault -- came with that athletic success.

The sexual assault scandal is still unfolding at Baylor. It led to the resignation earlier this year of Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw -- the very man Liberty hired this week to become its athletic director.

It seems like some kind of dark farce, but this is real life. And there's more -- plenty more.

"Ian’s success really speaks for itself," Jerry Falwell Jr., who now runs Liberty University, said in a press release about the hiring of McCaw. "You look at what Baylor was able to do during his tenure, it fits perfectly with where we see our sports programs going. This is an exciting time for us."

In the same press release McCaw said he has a "vision" for Liberty sports, one that aligns with what the school has publicly talked about building itself into for a few years now.

"My vision for Liberty is to position it as a pre-eminent Christian athletic program in America and garner the same type of appeal among the Christian community as Notre Dame achieves among the Catholic community and BYU garners from the Mormons," he said.

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McCaw indeed found sports success at Baylor in 13 years as athletic director. Liberty's press release touting the hire lays out his impressive credentials: five national team championships; 58 Big-12 Conference titles; six consecutive bowl appearances for the football team; a national-best combined record of 350-84 for the football, men's basketball and women's basketball teams.

Now is a good time to revisit part of that Falwell quote hyping McCaw's hire: "You look at what Baylor was able to do during his tenure, it fits perfectly with where we see our sports programs going."

On the field? Sure.

But off the field it's a completely different story.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Seventeen women reported sexual or physical assaults by 19 Baylor football players dating back to 2011 -- including four alleged gang rapes -- in an extended scandal one school regent called "horrifying and painful" earlier this year.

McCaw resigned in May, after the scandal broke. He followed football coach Art Briles and university president Ken Starr out the door.

“After much reflection and prayer, I have decided that a change in athletics department leadership is in Baylor University’s best interest in order to promote the unity, healing and restoration that must occur in order to move forward," McCaw said at the time in a press release.

Now he's been hired by Liberty, another Baptist university with dreams of athletic glory.

After Liberty's hiring of McCaw was widely criticized, the school published an online Q-and-A with Falwell, in which he insisted that Liberty thoroughly reviewed McCaw's time at Baylor. Falwell said he concluded that McCaw is a "a good man and a great athletic director."

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Liberty's hiring of McCaw certainly sends a powerful message to the rest of college sports -- his success at Baylor shows Liberty is serious about becoming a big-time player in athletics. But the message it sends women on the Liberty campus is a different one entirely.

That message says: Our chase of success may come at the expense of your safety -- as happened at Baylor, when our new man McCaw was athletic director there.

"You Want a Christian University that Prepares You for Life," reads a tagline on the Liberty website. "You Need Liberty."

Liberty, meanwhile, needs to rethink what it wants to stand for.