LET ME first say my cousin played for the University of Colorado’s 1990 national championship team, and it was the school I wanted to attend out of high school because of its journalism program and its gorgeous setting in Boulder.
This was before I learned there was no way I could afford the out-of-state tuition. Thus I was spared the embarrassment the football program has put my cousin and the rest of its alumni through these days.
After a four-month investigation into a recruiting scandal that rocked the university, the only definitive conclusion reached is: Don’t send your daughter to the University of Colorado. Clearly, the welfare of females at the Boulder campus ranks below that sanctity of the football program, its testosterone-driven players, and the coaches, who plead ignorance after fostering a climate of recklessness.
Gary Barnett’s reinstatement as the head football coach by CU president Betsy Hoffman and university chancellor Richard Byyny on Friday sent the worst kind of message about college athletics. It said coaches aren’t responsible for the actions of their players even when those actions lead to allegations of sex to lure recruits and even sexual assault on female coeds.
“The responsibility of the university extends only so far,” Hoffman said during a press conference where she basically blamed alcohol abuse by players and their female victims for the allegations of sexual assault. “You are old enough to be responsible for your own conduct and the consequences of that conduct.”
How insulting that must have sounded to the nine women who have accused CU players or recruits of rape over the past seven years.
Hoffman’s way of addressing the scandal was to present an 11-page reform plan essentially giving the faculty more power in overseeing the athletic program and its academic standards. But the long list of reform lacks teeth with the reinstatement of Barnett.
He should have been fired because his players obviously didn’t fear being reprimanded for supplying recruits with alcohol and sex partners. While it’s true a coach can’t always know what his players are doing, Barnett’s players clearly didn’t fear his wrath. Otherwise, why would they risk their own scholarships just to give a high school kid a thrill unless they figured the coach wouldn’t mind?
Furthermore, Barnett deserved to lose his job for his insensitive remarks about place-kicker Katie Hnida, who charged a CU football player in a private off-campus apartment raped her. Barnett’s response to the allegation was to degrade her skills as a place-kicker, as if that somehow hurt her credibility. For that, Barnett was suspended with pay. Hoffman admitted on Friday she found Barnett’s remarks “offensive,” but apparently not offensive enough to warrant termination.
Barnett’s reinstatement goes against everything the NCAA is trying to do to clean up recruiting practices. If the coaches aren’t accountable for what their players do, then who is?
“Once violations come to light, coaches and institutions need to be accountable,” said Sonia Price, the athletic director at Alabama State, who was appointed to an NCAA task force seeking recruiting reform. “What went on at Colorado is of great concern to me being a female first of all. Unfortunately, I think the general consensus of most people is that it’s something that’s been going on in a long time.”
Barnett didn’t attend the press conference, but issued a statement that said in part, “I am dedicated to leading a socially responsible program that will be a source of pride to CU, athletically and academically.”
Fat chance.
The message from Colorado is recruiting abuses are OK as long as ignorance is a justifiable excuse.