Minnesota players threaten to skip Holiday Bowl game

minneapolis» The entire Minnesota football team says it is boycotting all football activities until it gets satisfactory answers from the Big Ten school 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 they haven’t ruled out skipping the Holiday Bowl on Dec. 27 against Washington State in San Diego.

Minnesota announced the suspensions Tuesday night without disclosing why. The incident at an off-campus apartment in September led to three-game suspensions of four Gophers players this season — and now they are benched again, with six of their teammates.

Ray Buford Jr., KiAnte Hardin, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson were suspended for three games when their names came up in the police investigation. But the players weren’t arrested.

The other six players are defensive backs Antonio Shenault and Antoine Winfield Jr., running backs Carlton Djam and Kobe McCrary and quarterbacks Seth Green and Mark Williams. Hardin and Winfield are starters. Buford and Shenault are key backups.

According to police records released Wednesday, a woman told police she was drunk when she was sexually assaulted in Djam’s apartment by several men, including some of the suspended players. She said her sexual contact with two men may have been consensual, but her contact with four of them wasn’t consensual. Several players told police it was consensual.