It looks like the Minnesota football team is set to follow through on its threat to boycott the Holiday Bowl as a protest to the suspension of ten players who were suspended over gang rape allegations.
According to the Star Tribune’s Joe Christensen, players met with school president Eric Kaler and have begun preparing a statement to forego the bowl game after the university pledged to uphold the suspensions and the university standard.
A “late-night summit” took place including athletic director Mark Coyle and university regents.
Ultimately, no agreement was reached as the university held firm.
ESPN’s Adam Rittenberg shared a statement from Kaler regarding the ten suspended players.
That was a values-based decision by the Athletics Department and not a legal judgment. But we can tell you that certain behavior is simply unacceptable and antithetical to our institutional values. We support Gopher Athletics’ decision because this is much bigger than football. It is about the values every University of Minnesota student is called on to uphold. We make these expectations clear, and when they are not met, there are consequences.
If Minnesota does indeed follow through on their boycott, Northern Illinois would replace them in the Holiday Bowl against Washington State.
The protest certainly doesn’t look good for the Minnesota football program.
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