For the second consecutive year, the University of Colorado won’t have a key member of its defensive line available this fall and fans of the football program don’t know why.
The school confirmed two weeks ago that senior Josh Tupou won’t be on the football field helping coach Mike MacIntyre try to produce the program’s first winning record since 2005, but it didn’t give a clear reason why. Tupou is a key contributor to a defense hoping to make big improvements this fall. Losing his services is a major blow.
Athletic director Rick George, members of the coaching staff and sports information director Dave Plati all say they are not allowed to speak about Tupou’s situation beyond the fact that he isn’t on the team for the 2015 season.
CU fans deserve better.
The school wants its football fans to buy tickets in bunches. It wants fans of its athletic programs to donate to its facilities projects and scholarship endowments, but when one of its student-athletes is removed from the team for a semester, it doesn’t want to explain why. Not even a basic explanation. Nothing.
There has to be a better way of handling this, one in which privacy rights can be honored but one that also is more transparent.
As it is, we’re left to wonder not only why Tupou isn’t on the roster this season, but if the process that produced this result was fair to him and anyone else involved. We’re left to wonder who made the decision and on what information that person or group based its decision. We’re left to wonder if a high-profile student-athlete is treated the same at CU as a normal student in whatever process produced this result.
This lack of transparency is ridiculous.
We’re left to assume that Tupou was suspended by the Office of Judicial Affairs after being arrested in March on suspicion of second-degree assault, two counts of third-degree assault, criminal mischief, trespassing and reckless endangerment. All those charges were later dropped. But we don’t really know for sure if it was that situation that led to this or some other situation because no one is allowed to talk about it.
Maybe the school got it right here. Maybe Tupou deserves to have football and his scholarship taken away from him for a semester. Again, we don’t know because no one is talking.
A year ago we were told defensive lineman Samson Kafovalu was taking the 2014 fall semester off to return home to Southern California for personal reasons. But when Kafovalu returned to school in January, he indicated it wasn’t his decision to leave CU for a semester. Kafovalu said he spent last season doing construction work and helping to coach his old high school team. He said he was ‘extremely infuriated’ to not be playing football for the Buffs last season. Kafovalu also had off-the-field problems prior to his semester off.
The early word on Tupou is that he plans to rejoin the program in 2016 and is trying to get a job in the Denver-Boulder area this summer and fall to bridge the gap. That would be the ideal end to this situation. Tupou returns, plays his final season, earns his degree and puts this in the past.
In the meantime, George should get together with his bosses and the school’s legal team and find a way to standardize with more transparency the way these situations are handled in the future. That should include at least some context and explanation of what happened when a student-athlete is removed from the roster.
CU’s paying customers deserve at least that much.
Kyle Ringo: ringok@dailycamera.com, on Twitter: @kyleringo
