As reported first the Pioneer Press Thursday night, Minnesota Golden Gophers senior center Reggie Lynch is facing suspension from the university until Aug. 1, 2020 as the result of an alleged sexual assault that was investigated by the school’s office for Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA).
Lynch is appealing the ruling with the Student Sexual Misconduct Subcommittee, who should provide a decision within 30 days. For the time being, Lynch is suspended from playing in games but will continue practicing with the team.
Athletic director Mark Coyle, who already dealt with a significant sexual misconduct incident in December of 2016 with the Gophers football team, addressed reporters Friday morning at Williams Arena. Coyle did not go into much detail about the incident due to student privacy, but repeatedly provided assurances that the school and the athletic department were following the policies laid out by the university.
“They are students first, and there’s a student discipline process that any student on this campus (would) go through,” said Coyle. “As the athletic director, we have an athletic process that we have to go through. When information is made available to me as the athletic director, then we have to make decisions. So in any situation where EOAA is involved, they handle the investigation, not athletics. They handle the investigation, they provide information to us, and then we have to react and make decisions on our part with respect to our athletic policy.”
Head coach Richard Pitino also addressed the suspension. This is not the first time he’s dealt with sexual misconduct on his team. Lynch was previously accused — and cleared — of a sexual assault charge in 2016. Former player Kevin Dorsey was suspended earlier that year after a sexually explicit video was released on his Twitter account.
Pitino was asked if the Gophers have a cultural problem.
“I don’t believe that we do,” said Pitino. “We’re going to try to get better every single day, and we take a lot of pride in our culture and educating our guys. And we’ll continue to do that, so I don’t believe [we have a problem].”
Check back to ZoneCoverage.com for updates as more information is available.
