Player, Under Threat of Arrest, Won’t Play

A West Virginia player expelled from Notre Dame in a rape case will not return to the South Bend, Ind., campus with the rest of his team for Saturday’s game.

Tailback Cooper Rego said Thursday he was threatened with arrest if he goes back to Notre Dame and decided not to press the issue out of respect for his team.

Rego, who was not charged and denies the rape accusation, was barred from the campus after a confidential disciplinary proceeding in 1998 and transferred to West Virginia.

The Rev. Edward A. Malloy, Notre Dame president, said in a statement that there are no exceptions to the ban and anyone violating it who refused to leave campus would be charged with trespassing.