Sports Illustrated released a detailed report on the predatory culture of the San Francisco Men’s Soccer program on Thursday. The reporting done by Jenny Vrentas and Priya Desai look at the decades of alleged sexual misconduct from former players at the University of San Francisco. 

The outside attention on the men’s soccer team’s behavior gained social media attention in July of 2020 with a social media post from recent graduate, Will Midence. The attention to that post spurred Midence to set up a change.org petition on July 13, 2020 that has over 5,000 signatures and includes accounts from survivors. 

Midence’s action forced the University into looking into the matter in a serious nature. The University of San Francisco hired the law firm of Hulst & Handler on July 20, 2020 to handle the investigation. The 50-page report was released in January of 2021. The summary of the report states:

“After conducting nearly 90 interviews and reviewing numerous documents and relevant data, we find it more likely than not that sexual misconduct and/or disrespectful behavior toward women and/or LGBTQIA individuals was not pervasive among members of the USF men’s soccer team over the past decade Rather, the facts demonstrate that a limited number of USF men’s soccer players engaged in such conduct during this time period.”

Vrentas and Desai, from Sports Illustrated, conducted interviews with a number of people named in the report, but also many women who would not speak to the investigators from the law firm. They go into painstaking detail about how prevalent the culture of misogyny and sexual misconduct was within the men’s soccer team. 

“In hindsight, I think they should have suspended the soccer program,” Nicola McLaughlin told Sports Illustrated. “I don't think just kicking a player off the team is going to stop an institutionalized problem.”

The Sports Illustrated report is worth reading in full for the grand scope of the problems and to see how this was able to persist and grow for over two decades through multiple coaching changes and athletic directors. 

Both recent coaches Eddie Soto and Leonard Griffin are both named in the report. Both declined interview requests from Sports Illustrated. SI reported that Griffin attempted to instill a culture of high standards when he was hired in 2019. He spent his two seasons at San Francisco trying to dismantle the soccer house (an off-campus residence known for having parties where members of the team lived), and was successful in July of 2020. Griffin left the school in May of 2021 to take the job as head coach at Grand Canyon University. 

The video attached to the Sports Illustrated details how the new regulations that went into effect in August of 2020. The new rules release schools from investigating incidents that occur off-campus and raise the bar of proof for sexual misconduct. 

Sports Illustrated quotes President Joe Biden in saying: “They have rolled back the clock and given colleges a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of the civil rights under Title IX.”

The bravery of the survivors who came forward will shine the light on the cancer that is the San Francisco men’s soccer program both on campus and in the college athletic world. Hopefully, the light is enough to extinguish that program’s disgusting pervasive behavior and bring forward a better culture in athletics in the future.