School suspended 10 players after internal investigation
MINNEAPOLIS — Minnesota football coach Tracy Claeys doubled down Sunday on his support for players who boycotted practices and threatened to skip a bowl game if 10 teammates suspended after a sexual assault investigation weren’t reinstated.
Speaking publicly for the first time since a standoff between 110 Golden Gophers football players and the administration, Claeys said he understands the players’ frustration with a Title IX investigation that they felt was inherently unfair to teammates who were accused of assaulting a woman at an off-campus dorm in September.
“As kids, they have no problems being held to a higher standard than the university requires and should require,” Claeys said after Minnesota’s practice. “This is all about the due process.”
Claeys also clarified a comment he made on WCCO radio on Sunday morning when he said he was risking his job by supporting the players. The coach said he was just advising his players of possible ramifications during a team meeting on Thursday, before the team made the announcement to boycott.
“I was a sounding board for them and it was their decision,” Claeys said. “I made sure to make sure that they knew what the possible fallouts could be and we went through all those things. … I was there to make sure that they were doing it for the right reasons and they knew what the consequences could be.”
The boycott ended Saturday when the team backed down and said they would play in the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl against Washington State in San Diego, even though officials declined to reinstate their suspended teammates. The players agreed after getting assurances that those accused will get a fair hearing next month.
After the entire team announced the boycott Thursday, Claeys publicly backed his players.
“Have never been more proud of our kids,” Claeys tweeted at the time. “I respect their rights (and) support their effort to make a better world!”
Claeys said Sunday he wished he would have chosen his words more carefully in the tweet, but said he did not regret sending it.
“If you just show support for the players behind closed doors, you’re going to have a group of them that don’t believe you,” he said. “I needed to do that in a public way and I tried to do it as short as possible. … It was all about me supporting their actions to try to improve the due process. Not just on this campus but other campuses.”
Claeys said his players were not condoning sexual assault or harassment in any way. But they believed their suspended teammates were denied due process.
Officials announced the suspensions Tuesday after an internal investigation determined the 10 players violated school conduct codes in an encounter involving a woman and several players on Sept. 2.
According to the police report, the woman told police she had consensual sex with two men that night, but that she did not consent to sexual contact with other men who were present, including players. According to university’s more detailed internal report, she told university investigators that she believed 10 to 20 men had sex with her that night, though she wasn’t sure because she had memory gaps from drinking. Prosecutors declined to press charges, saying there was insufficient evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but the university uses a lower bar in student discipline cases.
Linebacker Nick Rallis told WCCO the players believe the boycott succeeded, even though nobody was reinstated, because they believe it will ensure that athletes at Minnesota and other colleges who are accused of misconduct in the future get fair hearings.
The Title IX investigative process has become a hotly-debated topic on campuses around the country. Opponents argue that school investigators are often not professionals and do not have subpoena power or the ability to put a witness under oath.
Proponents say the problem of sexual assault on college campuses is too important, especially after the Department of Education threatened to pull federal aid for public schools if they did not increase their efforts to address the problem.
Minnesota President Eric Kaler said Saturday that he understood that Claeys’ position.
“Coaches are in a challenging position,” Kaler said. “They need to support their players. They need to motivate their players. At the same time, they need to be responsible for their actions, and there are times in which those two demands put coaches in very difficult positions.
“And I think some of our coaches around this issue were in that very difficult position and we’ll talk about that with them and try to improve both their understanding and our understanding.”
Claeys said he has spoken with athletic director Mark Coyle several times since Thursday and is not concerned about his job at the moment.
“I understand why (the suspensions) were made,” Claeys said. “But as for the players, the due process part was the part I did agree with on the players.”
ORIGINAL STORY: MINNEAPOLIS – The entire Minnesota football team said Thursday that it is boycotting all football activities, which could include its bowl game, until it gets satisfactory answers from the university about the suspension of 10 players.
The school suspended the players Tuesday after an internal investigation into a sexual assault case. Police declined to arrest or charge any of the players, but the school suspended them based on its own standards for conduct.
The team’s players said they haven’t ruled out skipping the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 against Washington State in San Diego. They asked the bowl’s committee to be patient while they work through the situation.
“The boycott will remain in effect until due process is followed and the suspensions for all 10 players are lifted,” senior receiver Drew Wolitarsky said, reading from a prepared statement while flanked by all of his teammates. “We further request that (President Eric) Kaler and (athletic director Mark) Coyle (apologize) and demand that these leaders are held accountable for their actions. This decision for the players to take this stance is not easy, but important to preserve the integrity of the program and ourselves.”
The university announced the suspensions Tuesday night without disclosing why. The incident at an off-campus apartment in September led to three-game suspensions of four of the players earlier this season. Another six were added to that list this week after the internal investigation for reasons that remain unclear.
A joint statement issued by Kaler and Coyle on Thursday night said the school’s decision was “based on facts and is reflective of the university’s values.”
“We understand that a lot of confusion and frustration exists as a result of this week’s suspension of ten Gopher football players from all team activities,” the statement read. “The reality is that not everyone can have all of the facts, and unfortunately the university cannot share more information due to federal laws regarding student privacy.”
Kaler and Coyle said they want to “continue an open dialogue with our players.”
Ray Buford Sr., the father of defensive back Ray Buford Jr., said the new suspensions resulted from an investigation by the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action that was separate from earlier investigations into the alleged assault in the early hours of Sept. 3.
Buford Jr., KiAnte Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson were suspended for three games when their names came up in the police investigation. The players were not arrested, prosecutors decided not to press charges and the players returned to the team. The restraining order was lifted after a settlement on Nov. 2.
The other six players are defensive backs Antonio Shenault and Antoine Winfield Jr., running backs Carlton Djam and Kobe McCrary, and quarterbacks Seth Green and Mark Williams. Hardin and Winfield are starters and Buford and Shenault are key reserves.
The school has recommended expulsion for Buford, Hardin, Dior Johnson, Tamarion Johnson and Djam and one-year suspensions for the other five players.
According to police records released Wednesday, the woman told police she was drunk when she was sexually assaulted in Djam’s apartment by several men, including some of the suspended players. She said her sexual contact with two men may have been consensual, but her contact with four of them was not. Several players told police it was consensual.
The players boycotted practice Thursday, one day after meeting with Coyle. Then they all lined up in the team’s indoor practice facility, wearing their maroon jerseys with gold numbers and vowing to stay united.
“When we had questions for him, he basically told us that he didn’t have answers,” Wolitarsky said. “So that led us basically to believe that this is kind of unjust and he has the power to reverse this and he won’t.”
In recent seasons, big-time college football teams have been much more aggressive about exercising their collective right to protest by threatening not to play when they are dissatisfied with issues they confront on campus.
Just last season, more than 30 members of the Missouri football joined campus protests and threatened to boycott team activities unless school president Tim Wolfe resigned after his handling of several racially charged incidents on campus. The coaching staff and entire team threw support behind the boycott – which could have threatened a game against BYU – but the Tigers ended up never even missing a practice when Wolfe stepped down two days later.
When asked if the Golden Gophers would boycott their bowl game, Wolitarsky said they would take it “day by day.”
“The thing of it is, all these kids’ reputations are destroyed,” quarterback Mitch Leidner said. “Their names are destroyed. It’s extremely difficult to get back and it’s very unfair for them and that’s why we’re sticking together through this thing.”
There has been some confusion about whether Gophers coach Tracy Claeys backed the decision to suspend the players or not. Coyle and Kaler said he was consulted, but the players said Thursday night they did not believe their coach had a say in the matter.
“Have never been more proud of our kids,” Claeys tweeted. “I respect their rights (and) support their effort to make a better world!”
Former Minnesota Vikings star cornerback Antoine Winfield Sr. said his son did nothing wrong and blistered university leadership for what he said was a lack of communication.
“If the president and athletic director keep their jobs, my son, Antoine Winfield Jr., will not attend the University of Minnesota,” Winfield Sr. said.
When asked if he was concerned about the threat of the university pulling their scholarships in reaction to this show of force, Wolitarsky struck a defiant tone.
“We’re in this together,” he said. “What, are they going to pull 120 guys off the team? I mean, they’re not going to have a team if that’s the case.”
Holiday Bowl executive director Mark Neville said they were “monitoring it closely.” A request for comment from the Big Ten was not immediately returned.
Washington State sold out its 7,000-ticket allotment in less than two days and has already requested more.
Getting a team to fill the bowl spot on short notice would be difficult, if not impossible. But the next team in line to receive a bid is Northern Illinois, which finished 5-7 but has the highest Academic Progress Rate among teams with that record.