A news report on Tuesday accusing Representative Jim Jordan of ignoring accusations of sexual abuse as a wrestling coach at Ohio State University has left a cloud over the powerful congressman as conservative activists put him forward as potentially the next speaker of the House.

The university announced in April that it had started an investigation into accusations of sexual misconduct against a former team physician, Dr. Richard Strauss, who killed himself in 2005.

The report, by NBC News, said that three former wrestlers said it was commonly known that Dr. Strauss showered with students and touched them inappropriately during appointments, and that Mr. Jordan, an assistant wrestling coach at Ohio State from 1986 to 1994, must have known about the abuse. Mr. Jordan, a Republican, has denied that.

“Jim knew this — there’s no ifs, ands or buts,” Michael DiSabato, one of the former wrestlers named in the NBC account, said Tuesday in an interview. “It boggles my mind that he would take the position that he’s taken.”