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MPR News Staff

U president stands by football suspensions; urges team to play bowl

University of Minnesota players speak to reporters.
University of Minnesota players speak to reporters in the Nagurski Football Complex in Minneapolis Thursday night.
Jeff Wheeler | Star Tribune via AP

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University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler refused to back down Friday on the suspensions of 10 football players, saying the university would not "change our values" for the sake of a holiday bowl game.

The entire team on Thursday said it would boycott practices and the upcoming Holiday Bowl against Washington State University until it got answers to why the players were indefinitely suspended following an internal university investigation into an alleged sexual assault.

Four of the 10 players were suspended earlier in the season for three games after becoming part of a sexual assault investigation. No arrests were made, no charges were filed and a restraining order put in place by the woman was removed after a settlement on Nov. 2. But this week the school's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action recommended suspending those four players and six others, saying they violated the school's standards for conduct.

Football team leaders said the suspended players had been "falsely accused" and insisted on meeting with Kaler. But Kaler in a letter Friday said he'd invited players to meet and would answer "any questions that we are legally permitted to address," but that the players had so far declined that offer.

In a second letter to the U's student athletes, Kaler and Athletics Director Mark Coyle said that while federal laws prohibit anyone at the university to speak about specific student conduct issues, "we can tell you that certain behavior is simply unacceptable ... 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."

Eric Kaler
University of Minnesota President Eric Kaler at a press conference announcing the resignation of athletic director Norwood Teague Aug. 7, 2015.
Jim Mone | AP 2015

As proof of "consequences," Kaler and Coyle pointed to the resignation under pressure last year of Norwood Teague, the U's former athletics director, who admitted sexually harassing two women on Kaler's staff. Coyle replaced Teague.

On Friday, Kaler said the university needs to tell the Holiday Bowl Committee soon if the team will play and expressed hope that they would.

"A bowl game is a wonderful reward for an excellent football season," he wrote. "It is my hope that our eligible football players, marching band, spirit squad and loyal fans take advantage of this opportunity."