Around College Football: Northwestern President Says He 'May Have Erred' in Weighing Appropriate Sanction On Pat Fitzgerald

The Northwestern football program is in muddy water due to a recent disturbing hazing allegation.

A bombshell was dropped on Northwestern football as an anonymous player made disturbing hazing allegations in an article released this week by The Daily Northwestern. 

Head coach Pat Fitzgerald was placed on a two-week suspension without pay, which many have seen as not nearly enough given the circumstances.

Northwestern president Michael Schill has since said he “may have erred in weighing the appropriate sanction” for Fitzgerald.

“I focused too much on what the report concluded he didn’t know and not enough on what he should have known,” Schill said in a statement sent out to the Northwestern community on Saturday night.

Schill said Fitzgerald failed to uphold the school’s “institutional commitment” to give all students the proper environment to thrive. “I failed to sufficiently consider that failure in levying a sanction,” he said.

In the allegations, the anonymous player said in the locker room, the freshman would go through an activity called “running,” which saw the freshman being restrained while eight to 10 upperclassmen performed sexual acts on the restrained player.

"It's a shocking experience as a freshman to see your fellow freshman teammates get ran, but then you see everybody bystanding in the locker room," the former player told The Daily Northwestern.

The Northwestern football team sent a statement to ESPN Saturday night and said the allegations were "exaggerated and twisted."

Fitzgerald was unavailable for comment on Sunday. He signed a 10-year contract extension in 2021 that will run through the 2030 season is he is ultimately retained.