Michigan State University is embroiled in a legal crisis over the Dr. Larry Nassar criminal sexual misconduct case, similar to the scandal Penn State University endured and that cost its president and general counsel their jobs.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association released a statement Wednesday saying it is opening an investigation into MSU. At about the same time, Nassar, a former MSU sports doctor and physician for USA Gymnastics, was being sentenced to an additional 40 to 175 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in state court to sexually assaulting and abusing young women athletes at MSU for years.

Nassar already had been sentenced last year in federal court to 65 years in prison after pleading guilty to child pornography and criminal sexual misconduct with women not included in the state case. Last week, more than 100 women testified against him at his highly publicized sentencing hearings in state court, perhaps prompting the NCAA to act.

“The NCAA has sent a letter of inquiry to Michigan State University regarding potential NCAA rules violations related to the assaults Larry Nassar perpetrated against girls and young women, including some student-athletes at Michigan State,” the statement said. The NCAA declined further comment.

At the center of the inquiry are allegations that at least eight women at MSU had reported Nassar's misconduct to some 14 university representatives, according to the Detroit News. The newspaper said one of the reports, a Title IX complaint and a police report against an unnamed physician, reached MSU President Lou Anna Simon in 2014.

Simon announced Wednesday in a letter that she has resigned from her post. A member of the school's board of trustees over the weekend had released a statement calling on Simon to step down, as did some legislators.

Barry Burgdorf, general counsel for the University of Texas System from 2005 to 2013, told ALM that at times like this a GC's office shifts into crisis management mode. Burgdorf is now special counsel with Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman in Austin.

He noted that sexual misconduct cases at Penn State and Baylor are not far in the past. “These are big, important, and at times all-consuming issues for universities and their legal departments,” he said.

Asked what he would do if he were the GC in such a crisis, Burgdorf said, “I'd be surprised if they hadn't done something already. I would have already hired an outside counsel and have them digging deeply into it. You want that objectivity from outside counsel to help you understand what may be coming down the pike.”

In fact, ALM reported in June that MSU hired Patrick Fitzgerald, a former U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and now a partner at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom in Chicago, to conduct an internal investigation at the university and handle litigation. Dozens of women have filed civil suits against the school for failing to protect them or to take action against Nassar earlier. Detroit-based Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone is also advising Michigan State in the matter.

The school's office of general counsel said Robert Noto, vice president and GC, is on vacation this week. They referred calls to the media communications department, which did not immediately return messages.

Christine Helwick, former general counsel at California State University and now of counsel with Hirschfeld Kraemer in San Francisco, said, “For better or worse, universities in these times are used to investigations into high-profile subject matter.”

Helwick said she expects the NCAA to choose an independent investigator, if it hasn't already, and to ask MSU to give free reign to the gathering of facts and interviewing of pertinent witnesses.

Helwick said MSU, as a member of the Big Ten sports league, is required to cooperate fully with the investigation. But she said the NCAA has control only over violations of its rules or procedures.

Still, NCAA sanctions can cripple a university's sports program. Penn State was slammed in 2012 with severe NCAA sanctions, but last year Baylor escaped NCAA penalties over how it mishandled alleged sexual assaults by football players. Its sports league, the Big 12, did penalize the university several million dollars.

As Burgdorf put it, “Depending on how you play your cards, this case could have a substantial impact on the university. These are the circumstances where you do some of your best lawyering.”

Update (1/25) : While Baylor University has not received any NCAA sanctions as of yet, Jason Cook, Baylor's vice president for marketing and communications, told ALM Thursday that the NCAA investigation has not been completed. “Baylor is continuing to provide requested information to the NCAA,” he said, so it's too early “to say we've escaped penalties.”  

Cook also confirmed that the Big 12 Conference is withholding 25 percent of Baylor's conference distributions, but on a temporary basis, “until the conference has verified the completion of Baylor's 105 self-imposed recommendations in response to past issues of sexual violence. I would not characterize this as a penalty, but a temporary withholding.” 

Update (1/24): This story has been updated to include Lou Anna Simon's decision to resign from MSU.