My name is Kenny Jacoby. I'm an investigative journalist.
I write a lot about sports, but I don’t have one assigned topic.
I consider my beat to be any abuse of power, where someone takes advantage of others. There happens to be lots of those stories in sports – and not enough people covering them.
As an investigative reporter, my goal is to not only shed light on problems, but prove that wrongdoing occurred and people were hurt as a result. That means not just relying on what people tell me, but finding the documents, data and witnesses to back their stories up. It is time-consuming, tedious, often frustrating work that I find highly rewarding.
My investigations into sexual harassment and assault in schools – college athletic departments, in particular – have sparked sweeping impact and positive change. They prompted the firing for cause of one of the highest-paid coaches in all of sports; forced the head of the nation's largest public university system, a national-championship-winning college football coach, two university presidents and two athletic directors to resign; and landed a longtime sports medicine director in federal prison. Louisiana and California adopted new laws designed to protect students from sexual assault and domestic violence and improve how colleges handle their complaints in response to my reporting. The NCAA also adopted a nationwide policy requiring all 1,200 member colleges to screen athletes for histories of violence.
I’m pretty nifty with a computer. In college, I studied computer science and taught myself how to scrape websites and PDFs. Ever since, I’ve incorporated my programming skills into every step of my reporting, from finding stories to building source lists, collecting and organizing data and analyzing large sets of documents.
Since 2019, I’ve been a reporter for the USA TODAY investigative team. I also do freelance data scraping – contact me if you have any scraping needs.
I'm always looking for new stories. If you have a tip or idea that needs digging into, please don't hesitate to reach out.
6x winner: Associated press sports editors award for investigative reporting
4x winner/finalist: Investigative Reporters and Editors Award for Sports Investigations, student reporting
3x winner/finalist: Education writers association award for investigative reporting & Public service
3x winner/finalist: national headliner awards for newspaper public service, news series, sports beat reporting
2x finalist: Livingston award for national reporting by journalists younger than 35
society for professional journalists sigma delta chi award for investigative reporting
news leaders association first amendment award
Recent Work
‘They’ll hold you over a barrel’: how nhl team’s execs milked youth hockey families for profit
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | March 24, 2025
PLAYERS PAID THOUSANDS FOR A NEW CHANCE AT COLLEGE FOOTBALL. WHERE DID THE MONEY GO? -
by kenny Jacoby and Chris Quintana, USA TODAY | December 12, 2024
EXCLUSIVE RECORDS SHOW NEVADA ATHLETICS RAN AFOUL OF TITLE IX. ITS LEADERS SHRUGGED.
by Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | May 7, 2024
MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL COACH MEL TUCKER ACCUSED OF SEXUALLY HARASSING RAPE SURVIVOR
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | September 10, 2023
AFTER ALLEGED RAPE BY MICHIGAN ATHLETE, A WOMAN’S DEATH AND A MOM’S SEARCH FOR ANSWERS
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | April 6, 2023
DESPITE MEN’S RIGHTS CLAIMS, COLLEGES EXPEL FEW SEXUAL MISCONDUCT OFFENDERS WHILE SURVIVORS SUFFER
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | November 16, 2022
TITLE IX WAS INTENDED TO CLOSE THE GENDER GAP IN COLLEGE ATHLETICS. BUT SCHOOLS ARE RIGGING THE NUMBERS.
By Kenny Jacoby, Lindsay Schnell, Rachel Axon, Steve Berkowitz, Nancy Armour and Dan Wolken, USA TODAY | May 26, 2022
FRESNO STATE PRESIDENT MISHANDLED SEXUAL HARASSMENT COMPLAINTS. NOW HE LEADS ALL 23 CAL STATE COLLEGES.
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | February 3, 2022
SIX WOMEN REPORTED A LOUISIANA COLLEGE STUDENT FOR SEXUAL MISCONDUCT. NO ONE CONNECTED THE DOTS.
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | May 26, 2021
LSU MISHANDLED SEXUAL MISCONDUCT COMPLAINTS AGAINST STUDENTS, INCLUDING TOP ATHLETES
By Kenny Jacoby, Nancy Armour and Jessica Luther, USA TODAY | November 16, 2020
MARSY’S LAW WAS MEANT TO PROTECT CRIME VICTIMS. IT NOW HIDES THE IDENTITIES OF COPS WHO USE FORCE.
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY, and Ryan Gabrielson, ProPublica | October 29, 2020
SAN JOSE STATE REINVESTIGATES CLAIMS ATHLETIC TRAINER INAPPROPRIATELY TOUCHED SWIMMERS
Kenny Jacoby and Rachel Axon, USA TODAY | April 17, 2020
PREDATOR PIPELINE: NCAA LOOKS THE OTHER WAY AS COLLEGE ATHLETES PUNISHED FOR SEX OFFENSES PLAY ON
By Kenny Jacoby, USA TODAY | December 12, 2019