From ESPN:    10:58am Saturday

Minnesota’s football team has ended its boycott and will resume preparations to play in the National Funding Holiday Bowl.

The Gophers had been protesting the suspension of 10 players connected to a sexual assault allegation, demanding that the players be reinstated immediately.

The team released a statement, which was read Saturday morning by wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky.

“As a team, we understand that what has occurred these past few days, and playing football for the University of Minnesota, is larger than just us,” the team said in its statement. “So many before us have given so much to this University and this football team … we will not … and we recognize that we must not, let these people down.

“We now ask that you, the members of the media, our fans, and the general public hold all of us accountable for ensuring that our teammates are treated fairly, along with any and all victims of sexual assault. We also ask that the public dialogue related to the apparent lack of due process in a university system is openly discussed and evaluated.”

Previously reporte:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The entire Minnesota football team says it is boycotting all football activities until it gets satisfactory answers from the university about the suspension of 10 players this week.

The school suspended the players after an internal investigation into a sexual assault case. Police declined to charge any of the players, but the school suspended them based on internal regulations involving sexual assault allegations.

The team’s players said Wednesday that have not ruled out skipping the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 against Washington State in San Diego. They asked the bowl’s committee to be patient while they work through the situation.

 

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A chronology of key events leading up to the threat by University of Minnesota football players to boycott the Dec. 27 Holiday Bowl over the suspension of several players:

 

SEPT. 2: The day after opening the season, several players engage in sex with a woman in the early morning hours at an apartment building near campus. That evening, the woman’s mother calls Minneapolis police to report that her daughter may have been sexually assaulted.

SEPT. 3: The woman meets with police, describes the events of night before, including going out after drinking five to six shots of vodka. In a police report, she describes going to Carlton Djam’s apartment and having sex with him and roommate Tamarion Johnson. The woman describes several people watching, and her yelling to stop sending people into the room “because she couldn’t handle it.”

She says two more players, Ray Buford Jr. and Dior Johnson, entered the room and forced or tried to force her to engage in oral sex, and that Buford had intercourse with her. She told police she got dressed and eventually left.

SEPT. 6: The woman meets with police, says sex with Djam may have been consensual but sexual contact with Buford, Tamarion Johnson and Dior Johnson was not. She names Kiante Hardin as someone who “may or may not” have been in the room and suggests police speak with Seth Green, a player in the room where she first met Djam who was not believed to have been in the apartment where the sexual contact happened.

SEPT. 6: Djam shows investigators video from his cellphone taken during the sexual contact with him and others. Investigator Matthew Wente watches one eight-second clip and one 92-second clip and writes that the woman was conscious and aware of what was going on and not slurring her words. Her coordination “appears to be normal, and the sexual contact appears entirely consensual,” he wrote.

SEPT. 7: Djam is interviewed, tells investigators the sex was consensual and identifies Hardin as also involved in the sexual activity.

SEPT. 9: Investigators interview and collect DNA samples from Tamarion Johnson, Dior Johnson, Buford and Kiante Hardin. All four say the sexual activity was consensual.

SEPT. 30: The case is sent to Hennepin County prosecutors for possible charges.

OCT. 3: Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman’s office announces no charges will be filed, citing insufficient evidence to prove “that either force was used or that the victim was physically helpless as defined by law in the sexual encounter.”

OCT. 4: Buford, Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson, who had been suspended since the incident, are reinstated to the team.

OCT. 19, 21, 22: A judge grants the woman’s request for restraining orders against six players asking they be required to stay away from TCF Bank Stadium.

NOV. 2: A settlement is reached to drop the restraining order but require the players to stay 20 feet away from woman or have no contact.

DEC. 13: Minnesota suspends Buford, Hardin, Djam, Dior Johnson, Tamarion Johnson, Antonio Shenault, Antoine Winfield Jr., Kobe McCrary, Seth Green and Mark Williams from team activities. The school gives no details, citing privacy restrictions. The university recommends expulsion for Buford, Hardin, both Johnsons and Djam, one-year suspensions for Winfield, McCrary, Green and Williams and probation for Shenault.

DEC. 14: The school says 10 suspended players will not play in the Holiday Bowl.

DEC. 15: The entire Minnesota football team says it will boycott all football activities until administrators explain the suspensions.