Again, let me be clear. I side with the players because of LACK OF DUE PROCESS. That's where it begins and ends with me.

But a 24 hour boycott has gained them what? The promise of a more diverse group of people to decide the fate of these 10 players? Even if they're given that, there are no promises of what the end result will be.

A victory would have been a change if University rules of who and how the Code of Conduct standards are enforced, and to assure EVERY STUDENT, regardless of whether they play sports or not, is treated fairly before a recommendation by an Affirmative Action board is to kick them out of school.

Perception is reality. The reality to many is they raped this girl, irregardless of the fact that no criminal charges have been filed.

My initial opinion is nothing was gained here, except to throw this all into the national spotlight and give ammunition to other coaches to negative recruit against us.

I know the prevailing board’s attitude about Reusse, but this article captured important insights and nuance. Well worth the read. It also gives some of the University’s equal opportunity and affirmative action committee back story and context for the players I haven’t seen anywhere else. Sorry, I copied and pasted the entire article just in case the link doesn’t work.

http://www.startribune.com/clash-of-powerful-social-forces-or-maybe-a-feud-roil-u-waters/407164706/
Reusse: Clash of powerful social forces – or maybe a feud – roil U waters
Two forces are colliding, justice for young black males and justice for exploited female students.

You would have to go back 25 years to the Rodney King beating to find the time when as much attention was paid to justice for young black Americans as has taken place in the past year.

You could go back to 1837 and Oberlin College, the first coed college in the United States, and not find a time when colleges have gone to such lengths to define sexual exploitation and protect female students from all of its forms.

These are two mighty forces sweeping America as well as its college campuses, and when they collide, good luck to anyone caught in the middle.

Tracy Claeys is a giant of a man, “Big Country” in my terminology, but in this, the Gophers football coach might as well be the reincarnation of Tiny Tim … except these aren’t tulips through which you can tiptoe.

You are on one side or the other.

You are on the side of 10 football players, all black, who were exonerated of any sexual crime by trained police investigators.

Or, you are on the side of the female student who was at TCF Bank Stadium in an in-game role, went to a player’s room one night, and wound up being engaged in sex with four or five players.

“Consensual,” say the players. “It looked that way,” said the trained investigators.

“It was assault,” said the female student. “That’s the way we see it,” was the message from the university’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA), which has a staff of eight to look at such things.

The average hard-core Gophers fan is 65, a lifelong Minnesotan, Lutheran, and has been wearing the same maroon sweater to games for two decades. I’m a little older, a lifelong Minnesotan, a casual Catholic and make sure not to wear my 10-year-old maroon sweater if attending a Gophers game.

I’m confident that the average Gophers fan and I do have this common: not many sexual encounters with four friends and one woman.

So most of us are shocked when we hear that detail and then exclaim: “How can the rest of the players possibly support these louts as teammates? Throw them all out of school. Fire Claeys. Fire the athletic director … what’s his name? Fire Eric Kaler, the university president.”

I’m not endorsing anything. I’m just suggesting the shock level for millennials is much lower when hearing of such an encounter than it is for us baby boomers in our maroon sweaters.

We find it impossible for this to have been consensual; Hennepin County investigators did not.

So, we have these two forces colliding, justice for young black males and justice for exploited female students.

We have a football roster with numerous players who a year ago woke up on a mid-October morning to hear of a Star Tribune article claiming that some among them had been accused of sexual assault, sexual harassment and retaliation in the 2014-15 academic year.

The accusation had come from Kimberly Hewitt, the director of the aforementioned EOAA office, in an e-mail sent to then-athletic director Norwood Teague dated July 16, 2015. The Star Tribune had gained access to the e-mail months later through a records request.

Hewitt and her office had looked into the 2014-15 allegations and substantiated one case of sexual harassment. One.

A month after Hewitt sent the e-mail, Teague’s own issue with sexual harassment came to light and he wound up being fired.

I was told by a couple of university sources that Kill was very upset that Kaler sided with Hewitt internally on the original e-mail.

And don’t discount how much that mid-October revelation by the Star Tribune added to Kill’s level of angst as he unsuccessfully battled to control his epilepsy. He was beside himself when that story appeared.

The Gophers followed with a horrible performance vs. Nebraska one day after the Hewitt e-mail story. And 12 days after it was published, Kill retired as the football coach.

Why are the players — including senior leaders Mitch Leidner and Drew Wolitarsky — standing up for 10 teammates after these suspensions and calls for expulsions?

Relax, baby boomers. The players’ agenda here isn’t to support group sex or assaults.

I contend these football players felt as if they all were in Hewitt’s cross hairs from the time her e-mail — with its wide-ranging accusations based on little evidence — surfaced as a major news story.

The Gophers’ protest could be as simple as their conviction that 10 teammates never had a chance with Hewitt and her staff of advocates. There is e-mail evidence from July 2015 to support that theory.

signs point to playing in the Holiday Bowl

Drew Wolitarsky read off a statement saying the boycott has ended and the team will play in the Holiday Bowl. Kaler and I believe Coyle are meeting with the team and will soon meet with the media.

Interesting story about another university taking action. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-12-17-12-37-13

He is playing tonight at Jerry's World for the state championship here in Texas.

We NEED to make sure he signs in February as he is a future All Big 10 D-lineman.

http://www.expressnews.com/sports/h...hp?t=b1c555db5dbc83a41f&cmpid=twitter-premium

Link: Holmes excited to be a Gopher

From @Connor Stevens

Very interesting. I think Kaler, Coyle and BOR are getting a ton of pressure from the big hitters.

http://m.startribune.com/support-for-players-boycott-strong-among-alums-donors/407164606/

Something with the same publicity happened to the basketball team and here they are 11-1 and appearing to have a bright future.

It was all doom and gloom last year for the hoops program.

Granted, this is football and involves more players, but who is to say it doesn't just blow over?

Mixon breaks a girls jaw.....and was protected. Interesting to see the difference how both situations were handled. Video of Mixon......in my opinion he should have been kicked off the team and expelled.

Has anyone seen what the players receive?

I hope we can be competitive and put on a good show.

Let's build some recruiting momentum! Kyrei announces Monday. That would be a good start, although my confidence on that one is not great.

Signing Day will be here before we know it. It will be nice to turn the attention back to football and recruiting, but I know that'll take time.

never leave my brother is the hashtag of choice for the team today...hoping they stick together this offseason, and live by that motto.

I don't think you all get this.

All this did was expose the cancer of the U Atheltic Department and all Kaler and Coyle did was put a bandaid on a knee and say, "see we are making it better".

We. Are. Still. F'ed.

The program still is full of cancer. And now we have a visible band aid that fixed nothing.

I am done. I am out. No more donations. No more $$ spent. Until those 2 are gone, we are the lovable losers.

Looking for fairness and honest communication from leader ship. I am very proud of the players. IMO they won the day. They showed concern for the alleged victim and spoke against sexual assault. They are going to play in the bowl and represent Minnesota well. Public opinion will now shift away from being against the players to a much more positive opinion.

On the other hand, Kahler and Coyle will be exposed as not handling this well. The EEOC process will be examined as to its fairness. Bad situation overall but this is the best possible solution considering Kahler would not pull suspensions under any condition.

More schools will react to these situations.

I'm just wondering what everyone is thinking

Clearly Holiday Bowl sponsors have a very large financial stake in the success of this bowl venture and are not focused on the "values" issues tormenting all parties to the Minny fiasco.

Can the U be sued for willful failure to fulfill a bowl contract or do they have a force majeure out?

Certainly the sponsors could argue that U Administrators were aware that one serious consequence of choosing to impose very harsh penalties on the team just days before the bowl...with no allowance for transparent and fair player due process...was likely to produce a backlash from the players leading to a possibly serious crises for the event and all of its participants.

Simple fairness dictates that they have a case for significant financial damages if the U does not perform per their bowl agreement.

Anyone know if the sponsors have a case and how they might proceed?

This needs to come to a head FAST, or the Holiday Bowl may move on to Northern Illinois and I wouldn't blame them.

I'm not even sure what snapchat is.

Did this women snapchat something about going to have sex with gopher football players?

Maybe I have this wrong, but didn't I read something about snapchat.

Could someone explain this better?

Thanks

A somewhat different take: http://www.startribune.com/clash-of-powerful-social-forces-or-maybe-a-feud-roil-u-waters/407164706/

Again, the bulletpoints indicate what the report says, not my personal opinion. I'm just summarizing the info that others are summarizing that will be on the news, elsewhere on the internet, etc. I understand this is sensitive and don't mean to cause any harm to the football program, accused players, alleged victim, etc.

Sgt. Schmidt

• Received a call from the alleged victim's mother, who explained that the alleged victim did not want to file a report and that the mother wanted to do so on her behalf. Schmidt explained that nothing could be filed without the alleged victim's consent.
• Later, Schmidt met with the alleged victim alone in an interview room. She wasn't sure she wanted to report the crime and had a lot of questions. She said she felt tipsy when she started the night and went to several parties.
• She went into a player's bedroom and gave oral sex to the player, then a recruit started to have sex with her from behind and the player abruptly left. Then the player's roommate entered and she remembered their Tinder conversations. The two had sex but she didn't remember how it started.
• She remembers people having their phones out but didn't remember if photos or videos were taken. She recalls yelling for them to step sending people in the room because she couldn't handle it. She wrapped herself in a blanked to try and shield herself. Then, two players, one of which she thought would help, tried to force her to perform oral sex. The player she originally thought was going to help then started to have sex with her, and she said it caused pain.
• After about an hour and a half, she tried to leave but initially couldn't. She couldn't remember if she was being held down physically or if she couldn't leave out of fear. She eventually left.
• She said other men had sex with her, then there's three lines of text blacked out.
• She then got an Instagram message from the player whose room it was wanting to talk. She agreed to meet with him and went back to his room. He asked her if she was cool with what happened. The Instagram message was shown to Schmidt and he took pictures of it.
• She also had a text conversation with a player whose name has not been brought up yet. She asked him if he heard anything about the previous night and he said he heard something about a girl at the Radius. She said that it was her, but he said that it was a freshman and not her and that it wasn't that bad. She forwarded the texts to Schmidt.

Sgt. Wente, Faluconer, and Murray

• The three went to the Radius to determine relevant camera angles. They got them and the videos were inventoried.

Sgt. Wente

• The alleged victim's mother called and asked what had been done in support of her daughter's investigation. He said wanted to meet with her during the day.
• Due to the higher profile nature of the investigation, he contacted Coyle and advised him of the investigation as well as the UMPD chief and management at the Radius.
• Used the UMPD to find the player whose bedroom the incident occurred in. After one of his classes ended, he and Sgt. Faulconer made contact with him in a hallway outside the classroom and then went to City Hall where an interview with him was conducted.
• During the interview with the player, a DNA swab was taken, and he also gave consent to conduct a forensic exam of his cell phone. Sgt. Faulcnor searched his apartment in the Radius.
• On September 8, he reviewed the video and on September 9, he contacted Coyle to see if he could have the players contact him. Coyle referred him to Lee Hutton. He met with four players and Hutton at the Capella Tower. Interviews were recorded and DNA was collected.
• Later in the day a lab report came backs showing semen on several parts of the female's body.
• Lots is blacked out in the next section, but he appears to have talked to a female witnessed who remembers seeing some of the accused players and not others. She recommended that he talk to Seth Green, who she believed to be there but sober that night.
• In the eight-second video, she is closed and as a male is reaching towards her right arm she says "noooo" sarcastically, then what appears to be a slap can be heard. She appears lucid, alert, somewhat playful, fully conscious and not objecting to anything.
• In the 92-second video, there are two males and the female and all three are naked and performing sexual acts. She sounds as if she's somewhat intoxicated but is not slurring words and is certainly aware of what is happening and not upset by the activity.
• In the interview with the player whose room it was, he explained the two had consensual sex and that they met up afterwards after talking on Instagram and that she never mentioned feeling as if she was sexually assaulted. He told her he had told other members of the team about the sexual activity and just wanted to make sure she was okay. The next day she again contacted him and was a little more confused about what happened the night before, a and that she didn't remember during parts of the night. He informed her that they had sex.
• In the interview he then identified teammates who took part in the sexual activity with the activity after him. He remained steadfast that he did not sexually assault the victim and that he didn't believe his teammates did either. He said he witnessed the female speaking with her friends prior to leaving her apartment after the alleged assault happened and that all was fine.
• When searching his room, the sheets on his bed were different than the ones depicted in the video. There was no evidence of condom wrappers or anything else of sexual nature.
• He then made contact with the teammates the player referred to, and the teammates said they were willing to speak with the presence of Hutton. They were absolute in denial of sexually assaulting her. They provided DNA samples and said it was possible their DNA was present on the female but that any sexual interaction was with consent.
• A female friend of the victim said its possible sexual activity occurred between at least one of the males and the victim because they were flirting on the couch. She was with the player whose bedroom it was and the alleged victim when she left and said she hadn't heard of the sexual assault until the following day, when the alleged victim told her.
• At the start of the next week, he contacted another female friend, who confirmed she saw the alleged victim flirting with the player whose bedroom it was. She said the alleged victim was alert and responded affirmatively that she was fine and wanted to go with them. She said the alleged victim was intoxicated but not out of control. Later she was contacted by the alleged victim and told that something horrible happened and that she was in a bad situation. The texts were emailed to Wente.
• In an interview with a freshman whose roommates with the player whose bedroom the incident occurred in, he said he entered his teammate's bedroom clothed and that the female was not clothed and under a blanked. He said she was alert and happy. He said they talked and did not talk about having sex but then sexual activity ensued. He said she encouraged him to do so. The player said that one of his other freshman teammates then walked in and began talking to her but did not have sex with her, and that he left when his teammate came in. Hutton was present for the interview.
• Wente then conducted an interview with a redshirt freshman with Hutton present. The redshirt freshman was told she was willing to have sex with others and that he entered the room with a teammate. He says she began to rub his leg and then perform oral sex. He then says they had consensual sex. He had been drinking and didn't know if she had or not. He said that they had a laughing, regular conversation. He said his teammate may have had sexual contact with her but that he wasn't sure. He said the teammate left after three to five minutes.
• The Sexual Assault Exam was collected approximately 15 hours after the incident.
• Investigators found no evidence to support other additional participants described.
• Wente requested that the Hennepin County Attorney's Office review the investigation for possible prosecution.
• Wente interviewed a true freshman. He said he was with his girlfriend who was visiting. He went to the room of the alleged assault to see what was happening and said he was unaware of the action that was occurring. He said she sounded sober, fine, and that they were chilling. He could tell that she was naked but was covered up by bedding. He did not believe she was in fear or distress. He said he left the unit as his teammate began having sex with her and was passed by three teammates entering the room.
• In an interview with another accused male (it's unclear if Hutton was present for this one or not), he said he, the player whose bedroom it was, and the player and began to flirt. He said she was fully functioning and able to take care for herself and did not appear in distress or fear. He said the female was kissing and feeling him and that he and the teammate whose room it was took turns having sex with the female. He said when he left the room she remained flirty and not distressed. He said he was not drinking alcohol but that there was alcohol in the room.
• DNA from two players were matched to the female.

Mark Coyle

• Student privacy levels prevent me from talking about individuals.
• My goal is to for student-athletes to achieve at the highest level academically, athletically, and socially. When I make decisions, it will always be with those goals in mind. We have a commitment to treating all students fairly, respecting all students' rights, and upholding all University values.
• Last night met with Coach Claeys and in consultation with him, we made the decision.

Coyle couldn't answer just about any of the questions, citing student privacy laws and an Ahletic Communications department staffer escorted him out pretty quickly.

Jay Sawvel

• Have to play with what you have. It's a resilient group. We've went through coaches that have had to retire, we've went through restraining orders. We'll be fine. We've been under attack before. We practiced hard today and will do the same thing tomorrow. Our players have been through a lot. Our players will be fine and work hard. They'll finish their finals well. I don't question that one bit.
• We've studied their pass offense a lot. It's a hard offense to play. There are good teams that have failed playing this football team. They know their system very well, have a great quarterback, are coached well.
• We've went through tidal wave after tidal wave during the season. You get players back, next thing you're losing ten of them. The only thing you can do is just move on.
• There's a frustration level for everyone. The players are frustrated. There was a certain group and now all of a sudden there's a new group.
• I was aware of this about 4:30 yesterday. This was definitely a surprise.
• Our team GPA is over 3.0, our APR is in the top five in the country. The police dropped the other thing involved with that. We've had guys recently commit. Our culture isn't broken.
• The decisions are out of my hands, and we go with whatever the investigation decides. That's part of it.
• I support everyone's investigation. Wouldn't protest something like this.
• There's no cultural thing wrong with our program.
• One of the players who is claimed to be involved, and I know he wasn't even at the apartment. I talked to him about it, and he's been in the program a while, and I trust him.
• I can talk to the players. I can't do football activities with them. I'm not even worried about that. I texted with a couple of them last night just in terms of guys who are new to this whole thing.
• We can't pull a redshirt off Kiondre Thomas now when earlier in the year, we would have in a situation like this. You lose like five guys in the secondary, so we lost a lot of depth. It's not the perfect opponent to lose these guys against.
• Planning as if we won't have them against Washington State. You have to otherwise you'll be ill-prepared.

Jay Johnson

• Our guys have handled it well. They practiced well today.
• Jonathan Femi-Cole has been working hard and looked good.
• Not worried about Seth not getting reps. We'll move forward and we have a lot of time with them in the future still.
• Very surprised when I heard the news, like everyone else.
• We'll let the due process take place.
• Washington State probably thinks that we'll start with the run game. I would anticipate they'll try to stop us there first.
• It's been an exciting bowl over the year, and it should be fun this year again.
• Practice was business as usual today. Guys came out and flew around. Guys had fun and took care of business.
• This program definitely stacks up to other places I've been in terms of the character and culture.

I have heard a few times that under title ix the eeoa actually cannot discuss the investigation with the administration and that when the investigation is complete they provide administration the report and recommendations and the recommendations Cannot be reversed by administration. If this is true would explain at least part of the communication cluster.

I know there's many who say you shouldn't follow title ix because it's unconstitutional (I tend to agree). I just want to know what the rules are under title ix and the dear colleagues letter because I'm hearing conflicting information

https://www.washingtonpost.com/inve...b0774c1eaa5_story.html?utm_term=.3520fb5770c4

'By Craig Whitlock and Bob Woodward December 5 at 6:47 PM


Pentagon buries internal study documenting billions of dollars in waste
Play Video1:05

The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste, according to findings by The Washington Post.(Victoria Walker/The Washington Post)


The Pentagon has buried an internal study that exposed $125 billion in administrative waste in its business operations amid fears Congress would use the findings as an excuse to slash the defense budget, according to interviews and confidential memos obtained by The Washington Post.

Pentagon leaders had requested the study to help make their enormous back-office bureaucracy more efficient and reinvest any savings in combat power. But after the project documented far more wasteful spending than expected, senior defense officials moved swiftly to kill it by discrediting and suppressing the results.

The report, issued in January 2015, identified “a clear path” for the Defense Department to save $125 billion over five years. The plan would not have required layoffs of civil servants or reductions in military personnel. Instead, it would have streamlined the bureaucracy through attrition and early retirements, curtailed high-priced contractors and made better use of information technology.'