Colorado State has hired an outside search firm to head up an investigation into possible improprieties regarding the athletic department’s handling of COVID-19 testing, a Rams athletics department official confirmed to The Post on Thursday.
The Kansas City-based firm of Husch Blackwell will conduct the investigation, university president Joyce McConnell told department employees and CSU student-athletes Thursday in an email first reported by the Fort Collins Coloradoan.
The firm is the same one recently hired by the University of Iowa this summer to independently investigate claims of racial inequality and mistreatment of players by the Hawkeyes football staff and head coach Kirk Ferentz.
That report cost Iowa athletics as much as $675 per hour in attorney rates, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. Iowa State University paid the firm $120,325 for its services on three athletic department cases, the Iowa State Daily reported in 2018.
McConnell said in a statement earlier this week that the investigation would begin immediately. The department official said CSU athletics had no further specifics on a timetable.
The Rams suspended football activities July 29 because of a spike in coronavirus positives within the program. CSU officials on Monday announced that the program had 16 total COVID-19 positives, 11 of those coming from within the football program. CSU declared six active positive coronavirus cases as of Monday, with all those infected coming from the football team.
Football coach Steve Addazio said in a statement that he “fully” supports the investigation, and that he wants “every student-athlete to have confidence that we are taking every possible measure to ensure their safety, and we will continue working with the training staff, the athletic department and the University to evaluate and implement any additional steps necessary to live up to our high standards.”
