Reeling from a growing hazing scandal in its football program, Northwestern University announced Wednesday that it has hired former U.S. Attorney General Lorretta Lynch to launch a review of the allegations amid a cascade of lawsuits by former players. The announcement came just days after a pair of new lawsuits were filed in a circuit court in Cook County, Illinois, alleging the conduct by coaches and upperclassmen football players created a "culture of violent, intimidating, sexualized abuse and hazing, and extreme mental abuse resulting in degradation, humiliation, embarrassment, and at times, causing devastating physical and mental illnesses to individual football players." The legal actions mark the fourth and fifth lawsuits filed against the Evanston, Illinois, school in the burgeoning scandal that prompted the firing last month of head football coach Pat "Fitz" Fitzgerald, the winningest coach in the university's history.