Steve Kelley / Times staff columnist
Barnett is back, so nothing's changed

Gary Barnett

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So there's this recruit. Say he's a quarterback, about 6 feet 5, with a rifle arm and a 4.2 time in the 40-yard dash. Everybody in the Big 12 wants him, and on this day he's in Boulder, visiting the University of Colorado.

It's a beautiful, sunny day. The Rocky Mountains are so vivid you can almost reach out and touch them.

The recruit is walking about the campus, past the science labs and the English department. He listens to a list of impressive graduates, which includes former Byron White, Supreme Court justice and All-American halfback.

The hosts do their best to sell the university, but all the recruit hears is, "Yada, yada, yada. Blah, blah, blah."

This isn't the Colorado he cares about. This isn't the tour he wants. He wants the Colorado he has been reading about in all the papers. The one the other recruits have visited.

Finally, he is asked if he has any questions.

"Yeah, I want to see the real Colorado. When does that tour start? Where are the strippers? Where's the beer? Where are the drugs? Heck, if I wanted to see a science lab, I'd a gone to MIT."

This is the atmosphere created under the regime of Colorado football coach Gary Barnett. These were the lures that helped woo blue chippers into the program.

Recruits came to campus and were wined, dined and lap-danced. Parties were thrown for them that made "Animal House" look as tame as "Shrek."

Apparently, when they say a football player has been given a full ride, it means something entirely different at Colorado.
 
Barnett's staff could have written a recruiting manual and called it: "Strippers and Blue Chippers."

In a recent report on the program issued by an independent commission, the seedy side of college athletics once again was revealed. For 50 pages that read like something that should be in a men's magazine, the commission's report talked about the wild parties thrown for recruits, which included the attendance of strippers and the viewing of pornography.

Let's not be naïve. These kinds of recruiting excesses happen almost everywhere this side of Pacific Lutheran. But that's not an excuse for what went on at Colorado.

Although no charges have been filed, nine women have accused Colorado players of rape.

When asked three months ago about rape allegations made by former placekicker Katie Hnida, Barnett practically snickered in a now-infamous sound bite that she was an "awful" kicker. He said she "couldn't kick the ball through the uprights."

It was a statement so insensitive, it can't be disregarded.

Colorado had a chance this week to rock college football. It could have made a statement to every other school where abuse of alcohol, sexual harassment and misogyny are considered part of the recruiting process.

It could have said that it won't happen here, not in Boulder, ever again. It could have, should have, fired Barnett and athletic director Dick Tharp.

It could have, should have, sent the clear message to its athletes that sex isn't a recruiting vehicle, that the university isn't in the adult entertainment business.

Instead, university president Betsy Hoffman and chancellor Richard Byyny announced yesterday that Barnett, who had been on administrative leave, has been reinstated. And Tharp will remain as athletic director.

They sent a message, all right.

"Party hard, Buffaloes."

Did Hoffman and Byyny bother to read the commission's report? Or are they waiting for the CliffsNotes?

"To the degree that a good old boys club still exists within the athletic department, those days are over," Hoffman said yesterday. But there was no muscle to her words.

She kept the old boys.

Before yesterday's announcement, sweeping changes were promised, but Hoffman and Byyny forgot to bring the broom. All they promised was to make the athletic department more accountable to the university's administration.

They had to do more.

How could Barnett not have known what was happening when recruits came to campus? And how could he have been so insensitive, not only to Hnida, but to the whole issue of rape, when he made his comments earlier this year?

Mike Price got fired at Alabama for much less. And certainly the abuses under Barnett are more heinous than the betting brouhaha that got former Washington football coach Rick Neuheisel fired.

"Did coach Barnett say things that I and others found offensive? The answer is yes," Hoffman said. "And for that he has paid a price."

The price wasn't right.

Barnett will remain at Colorado. And to celebrate his reinstatement, his players did what they do best.

They threw a party.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com