Three months ago, the San Jose Mercury News published an investigative report exposing allegations of misconduct against Santa Clara head coach Michelle Bento-Jackson. The report claimed that Jackson had treated her players badly and that her husband had sexually harassed some of them. Santa Clara announced plans to fire her.

After the completion of an investigation by an independent reviewer, the university reversed course. Bento-Jackson will remain as coach.

The Mercury News has been forced to defend its reporting.

For better or worse, the reason for the reversal is unclear. Neither the school nor the coach will comment further, so we don't know whether they decided to keep her because the allegations were proven false, or whether they decided that the misconduct wasn't serious enough to warrant termination, or whether they just didn't want to face a lawsuit and a buyout.

On Thursday, Merc columnist Ann Killion tore into the school, calling its handling of the situation a "travesty" and claiming that it deserves to be "a national laughingstock." She suggests that Santa Clara ultimately decided to sweep the whole thing under the rug.

Here's the message that Santa Clara is sending: Hey, it's just Santa Clara women's basketball. Nobody will notice.