Former UM System President calls out athletic department

Former UM System President Tim Wolfe called out the Mizzou athletic department in an email detailing his reasoning behind resigning last fall.

Wolfe said former head football coach Gary Pinkel failed to communicate with UM System officials during the football player protest.

Wolfe also said the football team’s actions were “The equivalent of throwing gasoline on a small fire.”

He’s referring to when the Mizzou football team refused to play until Wolfe resigned as system president.

Wolfe went on in his email to say Pinkel missed an opportunity to teach his players a valuable life lesson.

ABC 17 reached out to the football team Wednesday, but a spokesman said he didn’t believe there would be any formal comment.

However, Mizzou softball coach Ehren Earleywine was available for interviews Wednesday.

“I heard bits of it throughout the MATC this morning, but I don’t know enough to have an opinion on it. I do know that I had a lot of respect for Tim Wolfe and hated the way things had to end for him, but I don’t know the details of the current situation,” said Earleywine.

Wolfe concluded his assessment of the football player protest by saying the end result could be a financial catastrophe for Mizzou.

He said in hindsight, the $1 million penalty for forfeiting the game against BYU would have been much less than the more than $25 million in lost tuition and fees Mizzou will realize with reduced enrollment this fall.