For those of you who’ve been consumed by the excitement of the Boilermakers in the NCAA Tournament, we’re sorry to bring a cloud over the day but some things should be covered – and covered with a minimum of our trademark smart-assery. Some may recall that four Purdue football players were accused of sexual assault last October. They were recently expelled from the University.

If you don’t remember, in October four players were suspended (some reports say four but I only found three names of players actually suspended on the timeline of this story) for unclear reasons – “some personal conduct things we have to work through,” I believe is what Darrell Hazell said. It turns out that on October 13 – three days before Darrell Hazell was fired, in fact – two young women were messaging with a couple of the players. Before long, it turned suggestive and the two women met up with two players and things…got down to business, shall we say. At some point, though, allegedly two other players joined the action and the women made it clear they were not welcome. The details of how far they went or how long this went on are not clear – but it’s clear the women felt violated and assaulted.

Pretty quickly after news of the suspensions broke, the Tippecanoe County Prosecutor’s Office announced that no criminal charges would be filed. One has to assume that there was an evidence challenge or that perhaps the stories of the two admittedly drunk young women were not solid enough to warrant criminal prosecution.

This is where the story would end at a lot of universities. No charges filed means to a lot of football programs that these guys are “innocent” – or at least innocent enough to get back on the field. However, Purdue continued to evaluate the situation and last week three of the four accused players were expelled from the University. This is decisive action and it’s also relatively swift, considering it was all done five months from when the entire situation started. It’s not clear on why the fourth was spared – again, there is likely evidence out there that the public isn’t privy to and lord knows the local media isn’t digging very hard (particularly the official outlet devoted to covering Purdue sports). But my digging through stories from the fall only turns up three players suspended from the team. I won’t name them here because they aren’t being named publicly by the University.

To that end, the University released the following statement:

Federal law prohibits the university from releasing specific information regarding disciplinary sanctions against a student, however, we reiterate that Purdue takes any report of sexual assault seriously. The university consistently follows its processes to ensure the rights of all parties involved are respected.

If you’re curious as to how the expulsion punishment was received by the accusers and their attorney, here are a few quotes:

“My clients and I appreciate Purdue’s careful review of the facts and circumstances surrounding this unfortunate incident, which led to the expulsion of these three players. Purdue has taken the necessary steps to ensure that these players will not victimize another student, for which we are grateful,” said Mario Massillamany, who represented the family.

The mother of the alleged victim said the expulsion gives the family closure.

“I would like to thank Purdue University for allowing my family to receive the closure that we needed to begin the healing process,” she said in a statement provided by the law firm.

It’s hard to piece together exactly what happened but you can take some guesses. For one, no criminal charges likely means that the prosecutor’s office reviewed the evidence and determined there wasn’t enough to truly warrant such charges as I noted earlier. A lot of decisions like this are made based on the cost and perceived likelihood of a successful outcome. But just like the way civil suits require less of the “beyond a reasonable doubt” level of proof, the University doesn’t need to have the same ironclad evidence or need to convince a judge or jury of guilt to make a decision to expel students. Perhaps the school looked at the situation – and the reported haze of marijuana and alcohol – coupled with the accusations of sexual misconduct and simply said no, you guys have no place here regardless of how guilty you are. Obviously this whole paragraph is me guessing but clearly something like this happened – no charges filed but also not welcome to stay at Purdue.

While Purdue football has been a real mess in recent years (Gerad Parker wasn’t initially made aware of these charges when he was elevated to interim head coach – yikes), I will say that I’m happy this was taken seriously and that decisive action was indeed taken. I certainly hope this would be the case even if the team was really good and the players were key to their success.