Cal has issued a response to critics of how the investigation into the football strength and conditioning program was handled. They issued their response to College Football Talk of NBC:
The recent series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on our football strength and conditioning program bring up a couple of issues from the past – important matters that nobody here has ever minimized or dismissed – but matters that have been properly investigated and adjudicated.
The investigation of football’s strength and conditioning program was commissioned by (then) Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, John Wilton and (former) Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Sandy Barbour, and conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Tanji.
Dr. Tanji is a professional with the highest ethical standards and there is zero evidence to the contrary. The central finding of the Tanji report is absolutely clear: that the strength and conditioning program under Harrington’s direction was in no significant respect different from football conditioning programs all over the country. In terms of the safety of the program, what stood out about it was its utter normalcy — a point not mentioned in the Chronicle piece, and also not disputed by it.
Our concern has always been, is, and will continue to be doing what is in the best interest of our student-athletes. The progress our football program has made over the past three years academically and athletically is well documented. The work our kids are doing in the community continues to shine. We are on an upward trajectory — the right trajectory — and we will continue to move in that direction. And, we will no longer allow negative stories that are based on and influenced by the opinion and conjecture of a couple of long-standing critics of intercollegiate athletics at Cal to derail the progress we have made and the positive path forward we are on.
The recent series of articles in the San Francisco Chronicle on our football strength and conditioning program bring up a couple of issues from the past – important matters that nobody here has ever minimized or dismissed – but matters that have been properly investigated and adjudicated.
The investigation of football’s strength and conditioning program was commissioned by (then) Vice Chancellor of Administration and Finance, John Wilton and (former) Director of Intercollegiate Athletics, Sandy Barbour, and conducted by Dr. Jeffrey Tanji.
Dr. Tanji is a professional with the highest ethical standards and there is zero evidence to the contrary. The central finding of the Tanji report is absolutely clear: that the strength and conditioning program under Harrington’s direction was in no significant respect different from football conditioning programs all over the country. In terms of the safety of the program, what stood out about it was its utter normalcy — a point not mentioned in the Chronicle piece, and also not disputed by it.
Our concern has always been, is, and will continue to be doing what is in the best interest of our student-athletes. The progress our football program has made over the past three years academically and athletically is well documented. The work our kids are doing in the community continues to shine. We are on an upward trajectory — the right trajectory — and we will continue to move in that direction. And, we will no longer allow negative stories that are based on and influenced by the opinion and conjecture of a couple of long-standing critics of intercollegiate athletics at Cal to derail the progress we have made and the positive path forward we are on.
