🪨 When College Coaches Hit Rock Bottom

I’ve spent a lot of time complaining about the kingdom of college athletics.

Coaches are treated like royalty with players’ needs cast aside, but today the dark side of this power imbalance is on full display.

Here’s what we have on tap:

🗞 The Big Story: Northwestern Football’s Horrific Hazing Allegations

📉 Biggest Loser: Bob Huggins is Forced to Re-Sign (PSYCH!!)

🏆 Winner’s Circle: Baseball Gets a Champions League

🗞 The Big Story

Northwestern football has hit an all-time low.

And honestly, I didn’t think it could get any worse after the team failed to win a single game on American soil last year.

But oh boy, has it gotten worse.

Content Warning: Hazing, Sexual Assult, and Racism

Late last week, The Daily Northwestern - a student newspaper - came out with a report detailing hazing that was allegedly happening on the team.

Now, these hazing allegations had been under a formal, internal investigation since January 11th, but only on July 7th did the official findings get released.

At the time, no evidence was found to support the fact that the team’s head coach, Pat Fitzgerald, knew about the hazing but he was still suspended for two weeks without pay.

However, the day after his suspension was announced, the Daily dropped an exclusive with a former player who detailed the full extent of what was actually happening and how much Fitzgerald really knew.

For even more information on this hazing scandal, check out my interview with NU student and reporter, Bradley Locker. He’s had some of the best coverage on this scandal and walks me through his exclusive reporting on the situation as a part of this week’s podcast.

Also available on Apple Podcasts.

Here are the allegations, all via The Daily Northwestern:

“Running” - A hazing practice in which a player (usually a freshman) “would be restrained by a group of 8-10 upperclassmen dressed in various “Purge-like” masks, who would then begin “dry-humping” the victim in a dark locker room.”

Naked Traditions - “Freshmen were forced to strip naked and perform various acts, including bear crawling and slingshotting themselves across the floor with exercise bands.”

Carwash - “Players would stand naked at the entrance to the showers and spin around, forcing those entering the showers to “basically (rub) up against a bare-naked man.” Upon entering the showers, the player alleged that players set up a hose they connected to the shower to spray people.”

The whistleblower described it as “extremely painful.”

Naked Exchanges - Freshmen quarterbacks were forced “to take an under-center snap from a freshman center, while both players were naked.“

Gatorade Shake Challenge - “Teammates, often freshmen, were forced to drink as many Gatorade shakes as they could in a 10-minute period.”

The whistleblower states how he “had never seen anyone not through up.”

Several players also describe that if you were unwilling to participate in these hazing activities, you’d be threatened with “getting run.”

Reporting from the Daily Northwestern and their player sources also describe how a player selected specifically for “running” would have an upperclassman do what is called a “Shrek Clap” to them.

Which is just when they would clap above someone’s head.

This would get that player’s name put on a list on a whiteboard in the middle of the locker room, which was usually titled something like “Runsgiving,” “Runsmas,” or the “Shrek List” depending on the time of year.

The anonymous player in this report describes the practice of “running” as “shocking, egregious, vile and inhumane” and notes how everyone else in the locker room would just sit and watch.

But the whole time this stuff was going on, it was just being dismissed as “team bonding” - even allegedly by Pat Fitzgerald.

Now, in the initial report released by the university, they found no evidence that Fitzgerald was directly aware of any of this happening.

But according to The Daily Northwestern’s sources, Fitzgerald would repeatedly make the “Shrek Clap” signal at players during practices, especially when freshmen made mistakes.

And this anonymous player talks about how he believes some players took this to mean Fitzgerald was ok with the hazing practice.

Now, after this report was published, Northwestern’s president came out and said he regretted how short he initially suspended Fitzgerald for.

Especially since a few days after these hazing allegations came out, another article was published in The Daily Northwestern outlining a culture of racism in the football program, which reportedly includes:

• Forcing black players to cut off their dreadlocks

• Shaving “Cinco de Mayo” into a Hispanic player’s hair and asking him why he didn’t play soccer instead

• A coach asking that same Hispanic player “how to clean a dirty room” and saying how that player’s family must know how to clean houses

• Telling black players to stop wearing certain hats because they “weren’t in the hood anymore”

• Calling a black player’s walk a “gangster walk”

• Asking a black teammate to show him “how monkeys act”

And to put a cherry on top of all of this, it’s now come out that the school’s baseball coach might be fired because half of his team ended up in therapy after his first year on the job.

Maybe Northwestern should just focus on academics because this whole sports thing is blowing up in their faces…

📉 Biggest Loser

We have a hostage situation happening live in West Virginia…

It’s head basketball coach, Bob Huggins, vs. West Virginia University, and Huggins is demanding millions.

You see, the last we heard from the Mountaineers basketball coach was when he was retiring in disgrace after a pair of controversies.

The first was back in May when Huggins went on a Cincinnati radio show and called Catholic fans of Xavier University a homophobic slur.

This resulted in Huggins being suspended for the first three games of the upcoming season and a reduction in his salary of $1 million which would be used directly to support West Virginia University’s LGBTQ+ Center.

Huggins later apologized for his remarks but that didn’t stop people in Morgantown from calling for his job.

In response, the university amended his multi-year contract and made it a year-by-year agreement that would be up at the end of next season.

They also made it clear that any similar incidents of derogatory and offensive language would result in immediate termination.

But that’s not what ultimately did him in.

Because just a month later, Huggins was arrested and charged with a DUI in which he blew a .210 - more than three times the legal limit in Pennsylvania, where he was found blocking an intersection.

He was so drunk, in fact, that he thought he was in Ohio - which was ironically where his first DUI was in 2004 when he coached at the University of Cincinnati before the school bought out his contract for $3 million the next year.

Now, after his arrest in June, it was reported that Huggins submitted his resignation and met with the team on his way out.

And usually, the story would end there.

But now Huggins is claiming that he never re-signed at all and is demanding to be reinstated as coach or threatening to sue.

Now the university maintains that Huggins re-signed in June after his arrest, but Huggins and his lawyers are claiming that he never signed a resignation letter.

In fact, they’re claiming he never even re-signed at all.

Instead, they’re saying that it was Huggin’s wife, who sent a text to university officials writing:

“Please accept this correspondence as my formal notice of resignation as WVU Head Basketball Coach and as notice of my retirement from West Virginia University, effective immediately.”

But apparently, Huggins never signed off on that message - even though he still went through all the motions of a coach that was re-signing by meeting with the team and issuing a statement.

Now, the university is basically claiming that this is just an attempt by Huggins to get one final paycheck - and Huggins's lawyers are admitting as much.

Because they’re saying that Huggins is entitled to the money he’s owed in his contract through April of 2024 - which even after the $1 million salary reduction amounts to $3.2 million - $250,000 of which is guaranteed.

And in Huggin’s latest statement, he claims that his focus on rehabilitation is what prevented him from responding to reports that he had re-signed but he still claims that he’s rightfully employed by West Virginia University

Probably because he wants to get bought out of this contract too, just like he was at Cincinnati.

I guess the winningest coach in college basketball is just trying to add one more to his record.

🏆 Winner’s Circle

I’m about to break some news to you because I can almost guarantee you haven’t heard about this yet:

There’s now a Champions League for baseball.

But it wasn’t even MLB’s idea…

You see, for decades, American sports fans have looked at the model of European soccer and wondered why our favorite sports couldn’t do the same thing by organizing multi-national tournaments with the best teams from the best leagues.

Until now.

Here are the details:

⚾️ Organized by the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC)

• The same organization that sanctions the World Baseball Classic

🗓 September 28, 2023 - October 1, 2023

🏟 Kukulcán Alamo Ballpark in Yucatán, Mexico

🏆 It will feature four teams that won the 2022 championships in their respective leagues:

• Colombian Professional Baseball League

• Mexican Baseball League (LBM)

• Cuban National Series

• American Association of Professional Baseball (AAPB)

🌎 The plan is to expand to other continents after two years, likely first to Asia and Australia.

🏅 Teams will play in a round-robin format

• The top two teams will face off in the finals

• The bottom two teams will play for third

And honestly, besides soccer, baseball is the next logical sport to have a Champions League like this.

It’s wildly popular all across the world and boasts some of the most talented professional leagues outside of MLB in places like Japan, Korea, Latin America, and even here in the US.

Now, if you’re going to be rooting for America, you’ll want to read up on the 2022 American Association Champion Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks.

They’re managed by 2008 World Series Champion Chris Coste and I’ll be pulling for them to win the whole damn thing…

⏱ In Other News

• Skip Bayless can’t seem to find a cohost for Undisputed, and I’ll give you one guess as to why.

• An average ticket to the MLB Home Run Derby was $241. It cost a minimum of $2,500 to sit in the lower level of the outfield.

• I’m hiring. Apply now.

👋 You might have noticed, but I moved to Beehiiv. I’m excited about all the cool new tools I have at my disposal - keep an eye out for those…