CU, Football, and Education

Football reigns supreme in Boulder. Well, maybe not any more. It has a new boss, called the President of the University.

CU Athletic Director Dick Tharp still has his job, although he has been demoted. But football Coach Gary Barnett is back facing a lot of tough new rules and restrictions.

If you can read and have access to a newspaper, you know the outline of the CU football mess. I shudder to think of the trees which have lost their lives to newsprint in the past month.

The recruiting methods used at CU were undoubtedly not much different from those used in other big football schools--offering booze, drugs and women to High School recruits to get them to play football for them. CU, though, was the one that got caught, thanks to nine brave women who consider rape a crime, even when accompanied by too much alcohol, and had the guts to say so.

There s nothing new about this, In 1997 a High School student reported that she had been sexually assaulted by two Colorado recruits at a party. No charges were filed.

In October last year, Boulder District Attorney Mary Keenan was deposed as a potential witness for one of the women filing suit against the University. Keenan had met with officials and said in her deposition, "They decided that they would not change anything because they could not afford to lose the competitive edge against universities such as Oklahoma and Nebraska." Barnett and Tharp denied it, of course, and they still are saying they didn't know about what was going on.

In February, this year, CU president Betsy Hoffman ordered an investigation into allegations that the football team uses sex and alcohol to recruit high school players and it published its report last week.

Living over here in the toolies, I was completely naive about how the Athletic department was operating. Reading a summary of the report made me want to send my new "C" jacket back. I did not realize that the Athletic department, specifically the football coaches have had their own private little fiefdom. But that is about to come to an end.

One recommendation from the panel that especially shocked me was that the university "decrease the percentage of football players admitted below the index score minimum. Establish a "floor" Index score for admission no greater than 10 percentage points less than the score for the entire student body. ..... And set a definite goal for graduation of football players." So the football players have been getting financial scholarships and some of them were not even meeting basic admission requirements. I must look up the definition of "university."

President Hoffman walked a narrow line with pressures on both sides. While I wish she had fired Barnett and Thorp, I am glad she is keeping her job. She has handed the athletic department a new playbook which makes major changes. The department will be on a level with the other departments. The Athletics Director will report to the Provost, to whom deans and other academics report. Athletes will be integrated with other students. Hmmmm, it seems that there have been CU students and CU athletes.

And in all the furor, in all the apologies, I have not seen the word "rape". One woman might be lying. Two might, just might not have said NO loud enough. But nine? None of the men have been prosecuted. Three of the woman are suing the university, however, the suit based on Title IX.

Maybe football's powerful reign at CU is over, and the players can get an education and still play football.