Rice University released a statement Thursday afternoon (story is here) in response to the allegations of poor treatment of its players from a CBS Sports report. Here is the full text of the statement.
As a matter of policy, Rice University avoids commenting on personnel
matters or matters before the NCAA. However, allegations involving two
former men’s basketball players require a brief response.In September 2012, two student-athletes received permission from Rice to
transfer to the University of Southern California and the University of
Oregon. Both schools have sought a waiver of the NCAA’s one-year
residency rule so that the students can compete in the upcoming
basketball season. Unfortunately, USC and Oregon have included in those
waiver applications meritless allegations of discrimination, including
some previously asserted by a former assistant basketball coach whose
contract was not renewed last spring.Rice head basketball Coach Ben Braun and Athletics Director Rick
Greenspan strongly deny those allegations. Rice University has a strong
institutional commitment to tolerance and diversity, and both Braun and
Greenspan share those values and provide services and programs that
accommodate the needs of a diverse student-athlete population.Rice does not stand in the way of student-athletes who may wish to
compete elsewhere, consistent with NCAA rules. When these two
student-athletes requested Rice’s permission to explore transfers to
other universities, Rice readily agreed, as it has in the past for other
student-athletes. However, the efforts by USC and Oregon to set aside
NCAA rules have included unfounded claims of discrimination and, as a
result, Rice opposed the granting of the waivers and will address the
allegations of discrimination in appropriate forums.Rice University has a long history of successful, rule-compliant
athletics programs that support its student-athletes in the field of
play, as well as in the classroom and community, and it fully intends to
defend that honorable record.
