N.C.A.A. Opens Investigation of Michigan State Over Nassar Case

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The N.C.A.A. sent a letter of inquiry to Michigan State University, formally opening an investigation into how the university handled the case of Lawrence G. Nassar, the doctor who sexually assaulted scores of female athletes.

Dr. Nassar spent decades on the faculty at the university and treated its athletes, as well as members of the United States national gymnastics team.

“The N.C.A.A. has requested information from Michigan State about any potential rules violations,” said Donald M. Remy, the association’s chief legal officer, on Tuesday.

N.C.A.A. bylaws require colleges to protect the health, safety and well-being of athletes. Among those who have said Dr. Nassar abused them are members of the Michigan State cross country and softball teams. Kathie Klages, the former gymnastics coach who retired last year, has been accused of seeking to cover up allegations against Dr. Nassar, who served as team physician for the university gymnastics and women’s crew programs.

A Michigan State spokesman said Tuesday night that the university was reviewing the letter before issuing a response.

Several years ago, the N.C.A.A. was widely criticized for how it handled a case involving Penn State University in which Jerry Sandusky, a longtime assistant football coach, sexually abused young boys. (Sandusky is serving a decades-long prison term.)

Less than a year after the scandal at Penn State became public in the fall of 2011, the N.C.A.A. and the school reached a consent decree, based on an independent investigation commissioned by Penn State and led by Louis J. Freeh, requiring a $60 million fine, the vacating of more than 100 wins from the lifetime record of the former head coach Joe Paterno, who died earlier that year, and other sanctions. Several of the penalties were later rescinded, and the wins restored.

The Nassar case has drawn comparisons to the Sandusky case, raising questions about how university officials responded to warning signs about federal crimes being committed on their campus and whether they tried to protect someone who was considered valuable to the athletics program.

The N.C.A.A.’s penalties against the Penn State football program were considered unprecedented. Before that case, the organization generally had not punished programs for transgressions that were outside its specific bylaws.

Mark Emmert, the N.C.A.A. president, called the Penn State case the most painful “chapter in the history of intercollegiate athletics,” at the time and said it could be argued that the punishment was “greater than any other seen in N.C.A.A. history.”

In 2014, the N.C.A.A. ended the Nittany Lions’ postseason ban and scholarship limits.

As the Nassar case has drawn more attention, Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon, a former chair of what is now known as the N.C.A.A. Board of Governors, has faced calls for resignation, though Michigan State’s board has largely backed her. University police received a report about Dr. Nassar as early as May 2014.

The Nassar case has been pushed further into the spotlight over the past week as Judge Rosemarie Aquilina has allowed more than 140 women, and others connected to the case, to speak at a sentencing hearing for Dr. Nassar, who is likely to spend the rest of his life in prison.

On Tuesday, a former rower at Michigan State said she had received no response to two separate reports of abuse by Dr. Nassar. Monday, three leading members of the U.S.A. Gymnastics board resigned amid increasing criticism of how they responded to reports of Dr. Nassar’s abuse.