Barnett Likely to Keep His Job

Gary Barnett’s career as University of Colorado football coach remained suspended as he emerged from a meeting Wednesday with Athletic Director Dick Tharp at the Dal Ward Athletic Center.

The question was, for how much longer?

Barnett said he could not comment on the matter until “things settled down.”

His life has been in limbo since he was placed on paid administrative leave in February.

Wednesday, he said, someone had even taken his parking place. There is a growing sense, however, that Barnett may get his parking spot and his job back.

Earlier Wednesday morning, at a public hearing held in the student center, the Colorado Board of Regents unanimously accepted the findings of a critical but inconclusive report by the Independent Investigative Commission.

“The way I read things, everybody’s jobs are safe,” CU regent Jim Martin said at the hearing.

The panel was assigned to study alleged sordid recruiting practices in the football program that came to public light when three women filed federal Title IX lawsuits against the school, saying that they were raped by Colorado football players or recruits.

A total of nine women have alleged being raped by Colorado football players or recruits since 1997, although no criminal charges have been filed.

President Elizabeth Hoffman placed Barnett on paid leave while the school began an independent investigation. She said she would make a decision on Barnett’s fate by the end of this month.

The commission’s report was harsh in tone and spared few involved in the recruiting scandal, including Barnett, Tharp, Chancellor Richard Byyny and Hoffman.

“I am not going to make any comments about personnel other than to say I strongly support the chancellor,” Hoffman said.

The panel said that the university “must be held accountable for systemic failings that jeopardized students’ safety and allowed for ongoing misconduct in the football recruiting program.”

The panel confirmed there was evidence demonstrating that “sex, alcohol and drugs were used as football recruiting tools by some player-hosts and possibly a football recruiting assistant.”

But, the commission stated, “there is no clear evidence that university officials knowingly sanctioned this or had direct involvement.”

The commission report called for many reforms in the communication in the chain of command between the university and athletic department, but it did not recommend anyone lose their jobs.

“It would be a cop-out for the university to tell us, ‘What should we do?’ ” commission member David Powell Jr. said. “It’s their job to make the decision.”

The decision on Barnett rests with Hoffman.

Jerry Rutledge, another CU regent, drew applause when he said Barnett and Tharp “deserve and need an opportunity to show they can lead the university and right the ship.”

Janine D’Anniballe, executive director of the Boulder rape crisis team called Moving to End Sexual Assault, was not happy with what she heard at the public hearing.

“It seemed more like a pep rally,” D’Anniballe told Associated Press.

Kim Moss, a Colorado alumna who attended the hearing wearing a “Free Barnett” T-shirt, said the coach was being made a scapegoat for larger societal problems.

“They got the wrong guy, in my opinion,” she said.