Texas Tech basketball coach Mark Adams has officially resigned from his position with the university. The school agreed to pay Adams $4.1 million after he stepped down for what the school stated was Adams being “racially insensitive.” Adams was suspended earlier in the month while the school investigated a complaint about a Bible verse Adams had cited to a student-athlete. Another complaint alleges that Adams spit on the athlete, an allegation that Adams denies. 

Initially, the school had reprimanded Adams for the complaint on March 3rd, with Athletic Director Kirby Hocutt writing in a statement to Adams, “I provided you an opportunity to respond to an allegation I received today regarding a conversation you recently had with one of your student-athletes during a coaching session… Although you provided me an explanation and context to your conversation with the student-athlete, which you indicated you were trying to use as a teaching opportunity, I have determined your comments were insensitive, inappropriate, and unacceptable regardless of your intentions.” By March 5th, Adams was suspended with the intention of further investigation, with Texas Tech writing, “Adams was encouraging the student-athlete to be more receptive to coaching and referenced Bible verses about workers, teachers, parents, and slaves serving their masters. Adams immediately addressed this with the team and apologized… Hocutt subsequently made the decision to suspend Adams effective immediately in order to conduct a more thorough inquiry of Adams’ interactions with his players and staff.” By March 8th, the school had announced that Adams had chosen to step down. Despite the school having “determined that the racially insensitive comment was unintentional and an isolated incident,” a statement announced Adams had chosen to resign in order to avoid any distractions. 

Speaking with Jeff Goodman of Stadium, Adams said the comments he made were not racist and that “I was quoting the scripture. It was a private conversation about coaching and when you have a job and being coachable. I said that in the Bible that Jesus talks about how we all have bosses and we all are servants. I was quoting the Bible about that.” After being told that the scripture had bothered the player, Adams stated he did try to further explain what he meant but that he “didn’t apologize.” He also denied the spitting incident against the player that was under investigation earlier in the season, saying he’d had a cold and may have “slobbered.” He also stated he did not remember ever saying, “I can spit on you whenever I want to,” which was reported by a person close to the situation.

The use of words like “master” and “slave” have become increasingly controversial over the last decade. In 2020, the Houston Association of Realtors (HAR) announced it would no longer use the term “master bedroom” or “master bathroom.” “The origin of the terms is debated, and we are not saying they are rooted in slavery. Others didn’t personally view them as sexist or racist but believed we should change the terms for anyone else who might find them objectionable. The consensus was that Primary describes the rooms equally as well as Master while avoiding any possible misperceptions,” HAR said in a statement. Harvard University removed the word “master” from its job titles in 2016 due to protests from students who said the word had racist connotations. Princeton and Yale followed suit with similar changes. Dr. Everett Piper, president of Oklahoma Wesleyan University, went viral for an open letter he posted after a student criticized a sermon for making him feel bad. The letter criticized what it felt was a “narcissistic” mindset in the culture, particularly in universities, writing, “This is a place where you will quickly learn that you need to grow up. This is not a daycare. This is a university.”