Just When You Think Things Can’t Get Any Worse….

I wasn’t going to touch this one, but it seems as though this is on Sports Center just about every day at this point.  And nobody thought it could get worse in Minnesota…But if you’re a Golden Gopher Fan that’s got to be what you’re feeling right about now. 

For those of you not keeping up on the developing story out of Gopher Town (that’s Minneapolis, MN) I’m going to give you the MMQ abridged version of the facts of the case to get you up to speed (Believe me – if you’re not familiar with this story, A LOT OF THIS IS GOING TO MAKE YOU FEEL A LITTLE SQUEAMISH!):

1. On September 2^nd, after the Gophers first home game, there was some sex (actually, a LOT of sex) between some people and one woman who may have had too much to drink.
2. How many people she had sex with isn’t confirmed.  It’s more than 4 and could be up to 12. 
3. The woman was on video (camera phone) that showed that the sex acts being conducted were reciprocating and consensual.
4. There are accounts that she didn’t want “any more men” coming in to the bedroom to have sex with her after the first 3 or 4 people had sex with her.
5. The next morning the woman then called the police “thinking” that she may have been sexually assaulted.
6. The police reviewed the case, spoke with the players involved, looked at several “phones and videos of the episode” and concluded that the woman was coherent, alert, and enjoying herself and the “Gang Bang” and concluded that it was not assault, albeit there were multiple partners and sex acts performed. 
7. She never said “No” or “Stop”.
8. Charges were not filed by the Minneapolis police due to lack of evidence.
9. The University decided to suspend 4 players in September after learning of the incident from the woman when she went to the administration.
10. The players were re-instated at a later point.
11. The University started its own Title IX investigation and have NOT officially share the EOAA findings.
12. In December, the University re-suspended the original 4 players and are considering expulsion for them plus they suspended an additional 6 players as part of their investigation.
13. The Football Team Boycotted practice and threatened to boycott the Holiday Bowl.
14. Coach Tracey Claeys publicly supported the team (and in essence, supported the “gang bang” activity – leading to a public outcry for his head on a platter).
15. The President, AD, coach and players met and finally decided to stop the boycott and practice and play in the Bowl once the players were read the facts from the EOAA report case/investigation.
16. The 10 players remain suspended.

I think that’s pretty much everything.

While there’s a part of me that is utterly repulsed by what took place, the woman in question probably had a little too much to drink, was looking for some kind of action, got some, and then probably felt bad regarding the amount of action she received.  Then she decided to cry “Foul!”, and called the police to discuss.   

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/cs/files/University%20of%20Minnesota%20Police%20Department%20Redacted%204.pdf

(You can read the entire police report here.  Takes about half an hour and is VERY GRAPHIC IN NATURE regarding the discussion of the sexual acts performed.)  I’ve also read parts of (but not all of) the LEAKED EOAA report – 80 pages - which reads a lot more like a point of view of the victim and the accused rather than just an explanation of the facts.  ALSO VERY GRAPHIC IN NATURE.) 

http://kstp.com/kstpImages/repository/cs/files/U%20of%20M%20EOAA%20redacted5.pdf

It’s easy to see that the EOAA report was written by a woman and that part of the investigation may have had a lot of “leading questions”.  Either way, group sex was had and the alleged victim was the focal point for all the males involved. 

 As a father of daughters all I can say is, “How was this girl raised and how did she let herself get into this situation???”   Granted, the male members of this little party ain’t no saints or angels either, and one of them could have had the decency to say that, “Hey, maybe this isn’t exactly the right thing to do or be doing.”

But nobody did.

Instead, there was a lot of texting back and forth stating that there was a girl available for sex.  The question I have is, again, while I’m not condoning the activity, when does a University, or any institution for that matter, become a decision maker regarding one’s “Moral or Immoral Activities”?   I know that if you read the report, you’ll come away with some level of “Wow, I can’t believe all of this happened.”  Unless, you think that having multiple partners is okay.  And there are people that feel that way.  And to them, the report probably reads like, “Hey, a good time was had by all!”

So how does a University under the guise of Title IX, step in and say, “Nope – we don’t approve of that and what we have found in our investigation goes against our Code of Conduct.”  What’s next?  Telling us who we can or can’t vote for?

I know that’s comparing apples to oranges, but that’s what we’re talking about here.  Consensual sex is just that – consensual.  You can’t wake up the next morning, have everything you did come flooding back into your head and decide that what you’ve already done was “assault”.  She consented the whole entire time the activity was happening and then decided that she’d been abused in retrospect.  Nope, you can’t have it both ways.

And now that it’s being investigated by the University:  What you consider to be “Okay” in the bedroom might be considered taboo by someone else.  And what are the guides to moral conduct? Also – your definition of “sexual assault” might just mean “kinky” to someone else and the law’s definition (in Minnesota) is also different.  Can’t look at the evidence and decide for yourself that the victim was being assaulted, if in fact that’s what she wanted to begin with. 

There are a LOT of blurred lines here for sure.  And everyone does stuff in college that they may later regret.   But for the administration to find fault where there was no criminal activity that took place is crossing a line and they need to be very careful because once that line is crossed, well, it’s crossed for everyone.

Best Advice For Minnesota:  Get rid of Claeys.  There’s something amiss when guys on a team treat women like that.  Get an entire new coaching staff in there that will recruit the right guys the right way.  I’m talking about Character here.  There’s still coaches out there that are available right now (PJ Fleck) and would be much better for your program. 

Disturbing Trend or Players Coming to Their Senses

Leonard Fournette and Christian McCaffery are both sitting out their bowl games.  They are both claiming that they’re sitting out in order to better prepare themselves for the NFL Draft.  And while I get that, is this something that the uselessness of Bowls and their “exhibition” nature also driving?

If either one of these players’ teams were in the CFP, you can bet that they’d both be playing.  Guaranteed.  Yet another argument for CFP expansion.  But, with LSU and Stanford just playing in a couple of “whatever” bowls, it becomes easy for the individual to say, “I’ve made it this far this season, why do I want to risk a professional career on a meaningless game?”

And as this becomes more popular, less and less fans will buy tickets to meaningless bowl games because they’ve already seen their favorite player play his last game on his home field.  Hell, the stats from Bowls don’t even count in the FBS D1 Record books! 

You may recall Jaylon Smith, linebacker for the domers, getting a knee busted up in the Fiesta Bowl last year vs. the suckeyes and costing himself millions in the process by dropping from a sure 1^st round to a 2^nd round pick. 

It’ll be curious as to how this situation develops as student-athletes consider themselves first and the team second.  My guess is coaches will downplay it and say, “Hey, he should be getting ready for the next step of his career and we’ll play the younger kids and develop them.”  After all, begging a kid to play and then seeing him get hurt would make you sick to your stomach as a coach who cared….

But Bowls will hate it.  And when fans quit showing up, well, it makes me wonder if bowls and the bowl system really have that much time left?

Sparty’s Good Team Doomed?

In case you didn’t hear, Sparty Hoops was beaten by Northeastern University (who is 6-5 on the season) over the weekend.  Northeastern (they’re in Boston), as you may have already guessed, is not a top program in a power 5 conference.  They’re actually a middling program that’s not that good in the mid-major category.  Sparty has also struggled against the likes of Oral Roberts and some other “record padding fodder” schools.   

Don’t look now, but Sparty is heading into B1G season sitting at 7-5 and they still have one non-conference game left to play.  And with the way that Sparty’s playing, my guess is that game is also a toss-up. 

Sparty Hoops is sliding down a very slippery slope.  With 18 B1G conference games, every B1G coach (or any Power 5 Coach) will tell you that winning 9 games at home and stealing 3 or 4 on the road is a pretty successful season. I don’t think Sparty can do that this season.  While I always tease the Spartys I know and criticize them for not “being a rival” to Michigan, I sort of hate to see stuff like this happen.  I’d rather have a solid B1G entering into the Big Dance rather than one where Sparty being down brings the entire conference down.  It just doesn’t look good.

Can Izzo right the ship to save any kind of shot at the post season?  And I’m talking the NIT here at this point….I just don’t think the NCAA is in the cards.

Hot Seat Mascot of the Year!       

And then there were 2!   Jessica Storie and Jade Bryce!  I have to say that looking at either one of them up near the top of the MMQ blog is going to be easy on the eyes and help us get through this long winter!!!   Voting will be open until the CFP Game on Monday Night!!!

Vote Often!!!!