LUBBOCK, Texas — Keith Allen received the phone call on an afternoon in early May 2016.



“Dad, I messed up.”



When Keith heard that line, he instantly suspected maybe his son had wrecked his car. Nothing serious. And that instinct made a lot of sense, because Dakota Allen had never been one to get into trouble.



“Then he started explaining to me what’s going on,” Keith recalled, “and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”



Keith listened but couldn’t take it much longer. He handed the phone to his wife, Stacey Hawkins, and told her she needed to speak with Dakota. Neither could fathom what they were hearing, a call dreaded by any parent who sends their kid off to college.



Their son was calling to say he was about to be arrested and kicked out of school.



In December 2015, Dakota participated in a home burglary with two of his Texas Tech teammates. Five months later, he...