Lincoln Journal Star: lawsuit alleges cover-up of Nebraska football team sexual assaults

[MplsGopher]

https://journalstar.com/news/local/...cle_8fca9778-9c38-560e-adde-1f230d5ee8d4.html

"
Lawsuit claims UNL, athletic department protect Huskers accused of sexual assault
A federal lawsuit details several instances of rape and sexual harassment perpetrated against University of Nebraska-Lincoln students -- including a former Husker volleyball player -- by members of the football team since 2015.

The complaint, filed against the NCAA in U.S. District Court in Michigan on behalf of students at UNL and Michigan State University, also accuses Husker Athletics employees of pushing a student-athlete to use social media to denounce false rumors that she was pregnant.

In each case, the 70-page lawsuit alleges, UNL failed to act in a timely manner, or handled the women’s reports with indifference, because male student-athletes on Husker sports teams were involved.

“UNL has fostered a culture in which female victims are discouraged from reporting sexual assaults, sexual harassment, stalking, and other forms of general discrimination when those acts are perpetrated by male student-athletes in order to protect UNL, the male athletics program, male student-athletes, and the NCAA, at the expense of female victims,” the lawsuit states.
"

 

[MplsGopher]

If true, it is disgusting, and the NCAA should give the death penalty to Nebraska football.

Regardless, the Big Ten should eject them from the conference. They never belonged here. They were never good enough to be one of us. It was the biggest mistake in the conference's history, and this is a chance to correct it. Go let them rejoin the Big XII.


However, of course, they are innocent until proven guilty.

 

[A_Slab_of_Bacon]

also accuses Husker Athletics employees of pushing a student-athlete to use social media to denounce false rumors that she was pregnant.

Man that is weird...

The women reported the incident to UNL’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance, the office responsible for investigating instances of sexual misconduct and harassment under Title IX, but the lawsuit states no investigation was initiated as is required by law.

Davis later told an instructor at UNL about the alleged assaults, and the employee reported the incident to the Title IX office, but still no investigation was started.

They went to the office a third time in August 2019 after learning the two football players -- both are unnamed in the lawsuit -- had been accused of rape by another UNL student. An investigation was launched at that point, according to the suit, which led to the football players confronting the women at a Halloween party later that fall.

Oh man if they can prove that ....

One unnamed student, who reported being sexual assaulted by a Husker player, said she was reluctant to move forward with a Title IX investigation after learning the office sent another female student’s confidential information to an involved student with the same first name but a different last name.

That's bad...

Another former UNL student, Sheridan Thomas, reported being raped by a football player in 2015 to administrators and Title IX investigators, but said the office did not interview potential witnesses she provided and later found there had been no wrongdoing.

So does anyone at that office ... do anything?

 

[beavergopher]

“There is no place like Nebraska.”

 

[Livingat45north]

Sick stuff. I knew my hatred for the corn people would grow over time, it is... In addition to all the sick stuff in this article, note that the lawyers are suing the NCAA for punitive damages. Is that common, like did that happen with Penn State? Right now anyways they aren't going after Nebraska, but rather the NCAA. And, why is Michigan State a plaintiff in the case?

 

[#2Gopher]

Players still committing to be apart of this environment.

 

[Crosby]

Stuff like this, if true, is so sickening. I have no love for the Huskers but you hate to see this happen anywhere. But yes... I know. Innocent until proven guilty. Couple of tangents.

1) I do not believe there is a "rape culture" on campuses.
2) Rapes do happen of course and they are terrible. Castration should be a legal punishment for those found guilty.

 

[MNVCGUY]

Unfortunately, I think this culture of certain communities protecting/insulating the football program is far more common then most would like to admit. We have seen plenty of examples of this with schools like Penn State, Florida State and others. I have no doubt that Nebraska falls into that same boat.

The big thing that has changed from the past is that now we have social media and it is far easier for those that couldn't be heard in the past to get their story out there. Innocent till proven guilty but I think it is naive to think that many colleges don't bend over backwards to protect their athletes, especially football players.

 

[Plato]

It is curious that the defendant in this case is the NCAA itself and not the universities.
That is why the suit is in MI and also involves students from the most recent, notorious sexual abuse enabler MIST.
Perhaps they hope to get a class action suit if students from other schools will testify their schools did the same thing, the NCAA knew about it and the NCAA refused to enforce their own rules and punish the schools.
To me and to all of us that pull out our hair at the selective punishment the NCAA metes out this is a very bright day.
Hopefully their hypocrisy will be made public and they will be hit with crippling fines and heads will roll.

 

[GopherDog1]

To be honest I wonder how long the Big Ten will put up with this behavior? Of course the Husker fan base is huge and BTN money would drop if they are given the boot. Penn State was given a second chance, who knows if anything will happen to this shell of a former powerhouse. At least Penn State has come back to the National Conversation. 'Braska is not even close.

 

[MplsGopher]

1) I do not believe there is a "rape culture" on campuses.
2) Rapes do happen of course and they are terrible. Castration should be a legal punishment for those found guilty.

It's just that it is almost impossible to "prove". Without hard evidence, which itself can even be challenged as "fake", how are you going to castrate someone just based on he said/she said?

I'm sure you understand all this nuance already. Just saying

 

[MplsGopher]

To be honest I wonder how long the Big Ten will put up with this behavior? Of course the Husker fan base is huge and BTN money would drop if they are given the boot. Penn State was given a second chance, who knows if anything will happen to this shell of a former powerhouse. At least Penn State has come back to the National Conversation. 'Braska is not even close.

Nebraska is a small, unimportant state. Just an up-jumped South Dakota.

They are king in that small, unimportant state, sure. How many of the diehards who sellout Memorial Stadium in Lincoln for every home game, live outside of Nebraska? Probably few. Only takes 80k, and Lincoln itself is 300k+ right there, with Omaha 1M or so not a far drive.

Outside of Nebraska?? Who gives a shit about some team that was good in the late 90's??? Pretty much same with Miami, at this point.

Each program had its hay day when cheating and cover-ups were just part of the deal and tolerated as such. Not so much anymore.

 

[Gophers1992]

If true, it is disgusting, and the NCAA should give the death penalty to Nebraska football.

Regardless, the Big Ten should eject them from the conference. They never belonged here. They were never good enough to be one of us. It was the biggest mistake in the conference's history, and this is a chance to correct it. Go let them rejoin the Big XII.


However, of course, they are innocent until proven guilty.

They were a far better fit than Rutgers or Maryland. Arguably Penn State even.

 

[Word]

If true, it is disgusting, and the NCAA should give the death penalty to Nebraska football.

Regardless, the Big Ten should eject them from the conference. They never belonged here. They were never good enough to be one of us. It was the biggest mistake in the conference's history, and this is a chance to correct it. Go let them rejoin the Big XII.


However, of course, they are innocent until proven guilty.

If the big ten is ejecting teams for moral reasons they should have ejected Penn State many years ago.

 

[Word]

They were a far better fit than Rutgers or Maryland. Arguably Penn State even.

Totally agree. I don't see the big ten as an eastern conference.
I would love to have Iowa State and Missouri in the Big Ten too.

 

[Veritas]

The interesting thing to me is that a newspaper in Nebraska would run this story at all. There was a day when a sports reporter would lose his job over such a thing.

 

[MplsGopher]

The interesting thing to me is that a newspaper in Nebraska would run this story at all. There was a day when a sports reporter would lose his job over such a thing.

Thank goodness times have changed

 

[MplsGopher]

Totally agree. I don't see the big ten as an eastern conference.
I would love to have Iowa State and Missouri in the Big Ten too.

I'll take Iowa State over Nebraska, every day and twice on Sunday. Football program on the rise, rather than on the decline, and solid MBB.

Agree with you on Penn St. That was a mistake. Now they have a chance to get it right.

 

[Livingat45north]

They were a far better fit than Rutgers or Maryland. Arguably Penn State even.

I'll disagree with you on that one. Those schools have AAU membership. Nebraska's membership was revoked. A key difference between B1G schools and other conferences is that academic accreditation.

 

[Word]

I'll take Iowa State over Nebraska, every day and twice on Sunday. Football program on the rise, rather than on the decline, and solid MBB.

Agree with you on Penn St. That was a mistake. Now they have a chance to get it right.

Iowa State football will crash again after their coach leaves though. Nebraska has the fan support to keep the program going strong - maybe not ever at the level it was in the 80's and 90's but they should always be decent.

 

[THE Chitown Gopher]

The NCAA has proven to do nothing in these instances (Baylor, PSU). The power is in the hands of the conference commissioner. With the changing of the guard in the B1G, this is a BIG oppertunity for Kevin Warren to establish a new (and proper) direction.
There appear to be a lot of similarities in the cover ups and IF both proven to be true should be dealt with strongly. Punishing two schools for such offenses is almost easier than singling one out.

 

[FredCoxRocks]

Who said 1990's Nebraska football can't be restored? (...except for the winning part)

 

[Gophers1992]

I'll take Iowa State over Nebraska, every day and twice on Sunday. Football program on the rise, rather than on the decline, and solid MBB.

Agree with you on Penn St. That was a mistake. Now they have a chance to get it right.

Iowa State's best years that have everyone so excited recently would be considered very down years in Nebraska. Stop being ridiculous just because you don't like Nebraska.

 

[MplsGopher]

Iowa State's best years that have everyone so excited recently would be considered very down years in Nebraska.

Because of what happened 20 years ago? Not good enough. And that's only football.

Rutgers (on the upswing, new awesome practice facilities, just needs a new arena, which they'll get) and Maryland can add tremendous value to the Big Ten in basketball.

Nebraska is worthless (outside of women's volleyball), in a low population state that doesn't add many cable viewers, and their ability to capture national "casual" viewers is rapidly diminishing.

 

[Deleted_User]

Players still committing to be apart of this environment.

One small spacebar movement can cause it to mean what you intended. One less spacebar movement and it means exactly the opposite of what you intended. Now that may be the greatest example of why you need to look at what you typed before hitting post reply.

 

[Plato]

To be honest I wonder how long the Big Ten will put up with this behavior? Of course the Husker fan base is huge and BTN money would drop if they are given the boot. Penn State was given a second chance, who knows if anything will happen to this shell of a former powerhouse. At least Penn State has come back to the National Conversation. 'Braska is not even close.

The BIG put up with far worse behavior at MIST. That is why MIST students are involved in the suit against the NCAA.
The cries for the death penalty for NE are fine and similar cries were heard about MIST and again the NCAA did nothing and that seems to be the basis for the suit.
In this case the NCAA is the one in the cross hairs, not the schools.
The schools behavior will be testimony but the judgement will be for or against the NCAA.
The fan base is only important to the BTN in the number of TV sets that carry the BTN. That is where the money comes from.
The MN metro area even if only a small fraction of the people go to MN games or watch them on TV but have the BTN as part of their cable package is more or just as important as the whole state of NE to the BTN where more fans go to the game and watch on TV.

 

[Crosby]

It's just that it is almost impossible to "prove". Without hard evidence, which itself can even be challenged as "fake", how are you going to castrate someone just based on he said/she said?

I'm sure you understand all this nuance already. Just saying

Yes, you are correct. Very hard to prove.

 

[#2Gopher]

The interesting thing to me is that a newspaper in Nebraska would run this story at all. There was a day when a sports reporter would lose his job over such a thing.

Need to get the truth out there.

 

[MplsGopher]

The BIG put up with far worse behavior at MIST. That is why MIST students are involved in the suit against the NCAA.
The cries for the death penalty for NE are fine and similar cries were heard about MIST and again the NCAA did nothing and that seems to be the basis for the suit.
In this case the NCAA is the one in the cross hairs, not the schools.
The schools behavior will be testimony but the judgement will be for or against the NCAA.
The fan base is only important to the BTN in the number of TV sets that carry the BTN. That is where the money comes from.
The MN metro area even if only a small fraction of the people go to MN games or watch them on TV but have the BTN as part of their cable package is more or just as important as the whole state of NE to the BTN where more fans go to the game and watch on TV.

Well said.

BTN only got to be added to cable systems in the state of Nebraska (and maybe Sioux City and Coucil Bluffs type communities) because of adding UNL to the conference. That was not worth that much.

But it was their supposed ability to capture large numbers of national "casual" viewers, with their cachet, that was supposed to be valuable. And of course adding a high-level team to make the conference even more competitive.

They've largely failed and I would dare say have taken more from the Big Ten financially than they've boosted value of the conference products nationally.

 

[Gophers1992]

Well said.

BTN only got to be added to cable systems in the state of Nebraska (and maybe Sioux City and Coucil Bluffs type communities) because of adding UNL to the conference. That was not worth that much.

But it was their supposed ability to capture large numbers of national "casual" viewers, with their cachet, that was supposed to be valuable. And of course adding a high-level team to make the conference even more competitive.

They've largely failed and I would dare say have taken more from the Big Ten financially than they've boosted value of the conference products nationally.

Any data that backs up these claims about the BIG essentially losing money on Nebraska, or just making assumptions?