Citing student privacy laws at both the federal and state level, Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle was permitted to offer few specifics regarding the allegations of sexual misconduct against Gophers center Reggie Lynch that led to a recommendation from a campus panel that Lynch be suspended from school and barred from campus until 2020.
What Coyle could say without condition during a Friday morning press conference were these two things:
“Yes, Reggie is a member of our basketball team.”
But …
“Reggie Lynch will not be playing tomorrow. He is suspended … from athletic competition.”
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The University of Minnesota’s Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office found Lynch responsible for an incident that occurred in April 2016, near the end of the academic year in which he did not compete in intercollegiate basketball after transferring from Illinois State. The office commenced its investigation last fall, following a complaint by a female student.
Lynch’s suspension from the university technically would begin Tuesday, unless he appeals to the decision to another campus committee focusing on sexual misconduct reports.
The Minneapolis Star Tribune cited a source close to Lynch as denying the allegation and declaring he will appeal the ruling.
The Star Tribune reported that Lynch arrested in another circumstance in May 2016, involving an allegation from a different woman. The county attorney said there was insufficient evidence to support a case and declined to press charges. He was cleared by the university in that case but suspended from Gophers basketball. He was reinstated in September 2016.
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Minnesota coach Richard Pitino said there had been “no red flags” when he and his staff checked Lynch’s background during the transfer recruitment process.
Pitino said he believes in the way the athletic department has worked to educate student/athletes on the subject of responsible behavior.
Lynch is a 6-10, 260-pound senior from Edina, Minn., who transferred from Illinois State and was named the Big Ten Conference Defensive Player of the Year for 2016-17. He averaged 3.5 blocks and 6.1 rebounds per game in his junior season and was one of the most important reasons the Gophers rebounded from just 8 victories in the 2015-16 season to 24-10 and a No. 5 NCAA Tournament seed.
Coyle did not provide information about when he learned of the accusations against Lynch but stressed that all students on the Minnesota campus are permitted due process.
“Any student on this campus – don’t talk about student/athlete, because they’re students first; the 750 kids that represent this institution are students first – they all have access to the same policies and procedures that we have in place,” Coyle said.
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He added that although Lynch is suspended from competition, he remains permitted to engage in other team activities.
"Every time you have a student/athlete situation, you always want to look at it from a holistic perspective, in totality, Coyle said. "And we felt that, when we suspend a student athlete, we suspend him from athletic competition, we want to make sure that student/athlete has access to athletic medicine and treatment, to academic services, the opportunity to continue to compete and be around his team. We felt it was important to go in that direction.
“For any student athlete, any student on the Twin Cities campus, when they go through this process, they have an opportunity to file an appeal. And he and she has an opportunity, that due process right, to through that appeal process.”
Minnesota (13-3), winners of its last five, faces Indiana at home Saturday.
Asked if he’d given any thought to suspending Lynch during the time since the alleged incident, Pitino said, “When certain things like this happen – you know, big things – you go to your boss and certainly discuss it. You go with the policies that are in place more than anything. And we did that.”
Pitino said he had “no idea” if Lynch would return to the team this season.
