Today, in doing it for the kids

Sounds like they’ve got a real mess brewing at Colorado State.

Joyce McConnell, president of Colorado State University, said Tuesday she was launching an “immediate and objective” investigation into the athletic department following allegations that student-athletes have been intimidated and threatened as leaders sought to disregard COVID-19 protocols.

Coaches, players and sports medicine staff at Colorado State University told ESPN that athletic department leaders are discouraging athletes from being tested for COVID-19, are failing to provide accurate information to local and state health officials and are ignoring guidelines to quarantine athletes who might have been exposed.

Football players have also been told their playing time could be affected by a positive test and an extensive absence due to COVID-19, according to multiple sources.

To be fair, there are CSU players who have contradicted the story publicly on social media, so it’s wise to let the process play out.  Notably, though, neither the head coach nor the athletic director have taken such a stance.  This may be a reason why:

Last week, Addazio addressed the team in a virtual meeting the day after the program had temporarily paused activities following a COVID-19 outbreak, according to sources who participated.

At the time, eight players had tested positive for the virus, prompting a 14-day quarantine, as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for the entire team. According to multiple sources, Addazio told players that he’d planned to resume activities as early as this week, depending on the results of Monday’s teamwide testing.

“I can confirm he said that ‘although the CDC recommends 14 days, we’re going to try to come back early,'” a source who attended the meeting told ESPN.

Another person who attended the meeting told ESPN, “He was making it sound like, depending on the test results, he wants to get back before 14 days. It’s like … is that even possible?”

Team spokesman Kyle Neaves said the quarantine was voluntary.

“I can tell you that there was never any official 14-day quarantine,” Neaves said. “When we voluntarily paused — where most others are being shut down by their local health departments — that was instituted in order to give us the opportunity to test the entire team again, which we did on Monday and ran 150 tests.”

There is a lot of pressure on these mid-major programs that don’t have the resources to match what the P5 schools can bring to the issue.  But that’s not really a good look.

Speaking of things that aren’t a good look, Eastern Kentucky kicker Landon White quit the program on Tuesday over concerns related to the COVID-19 pandemic (h/t).

At Eastern Kentucky Football there is little or no testing, (last team test was July 6). Symptomatic players still in the building and around other teammates. But the same day people had symptoms we continued to practice instead of face the issue head on. Keep in mind we started fall camp on Friday July 31st. We have plenty of players and staff test positive over the past month. But you have probably heard very little on the matter. Have y’all heard about us suspending anything? Of course not. There are meeting rooms with 100+ players and staff crammed into it with zero space and no social distancing rules in sight. There are a bunch of potential positives in there. The Player cafeteria (case dining hall) endangers the EKU Cafeteria staff as well as other students who are now on campus, masks are routinely not worn while players are constantly being reminded by the dining hall staff instead of our coaches to keep it on.

The Head Coach knows and the Head Coach does nothing. The Head Coach does not care about his players safety as well as his staff and their families. He cares about the 500k we are about to earn by playing WVU in Morgantown at the end of the month. The truth has to be told and I’ll be your guy.

Yeesh. I guess we’re about to hear of another investigation being opened.