When asked today about recent allegations that Michigan’s football program violated NCAA rules, one of the members of the University’s Board of Regents said, “We are taking it very seriously.”
Regent Olivia Maynard (D-Goodrich) said in a telephone interview that the Board plans to “in an objective way, go after what the true answer is.”
The Board is taking the matter seriously, Maynard said, despite the fact that the reports are currently based on “allegations from individuals who are nameless.”
A Detroit Free Press report posted Saturday cited unnamed current and former players, as well as parents, as saying that the workout regiment implemented by head football coach Rich Rodriguez violates NCAA regulations.
Maynard said that the regents first found out about the allegations in an e-mail from University Vice President and Secretary Sally Churchill sent the day before the Free Press article was published. The e-mail alerted the regents that the report was coming.
Interview requests to other regents were not immediately answered.
In response to an interview request today, University Spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said University President Mary Sue Coleman would not be commenting on the allegations. He said Coleman is instead deferring all such inquiries to the Athletic Department.