Minnesota Football: Suspended players possibly connected to alleged criminal sexual conduct case per report

Earlier today I told you to expect more news about the 4 suspended Gophers. We’ve received that news and while we don’t know a lot more, what we do know isn’t great. Here’s what Andy Greder of the PiPress is reporting this morning:

Four Gophers football players are being investigated for a possible connection in an alleged criminal sexual conduct case in Minneapolis.

[snip]

The assault allegedly took place early on the morning of Sept. 2, hours after Minnesota beat Oregon State, 30-23, in their season opener at TCF Bank Stadium.

There are no names in the police report, but police spokesman Corey Schmidt said in a statement provided to the Pioneer Press on Saturday the department was investigating four Gophers football players and “working to determine how they are involved in the case at this time.”

I’m not going to issue any opinions here. Facts (or alleged facts) are still scarce but we do know the following:

• KiAnte Hardin, Ray Buford, Dior Johnson and Tamarion Johnson have not been charged as of the time of this post.
• We do not have an explanation of what specific connection the police feel the players have to case.
• The police are still investigating and I expect we’ll learn more in the coming days.
• The players are still suspended as of the time of this post.

We’ll update you with more information as it becomes available.