Purdue Responds to Harbaugh/Michigan’s Locker Room Criticisms

As we reported earlier today, Michigan head coach, Jim Harbaugh, discussed the conditions at the visitor locker room in Ross-Ade Stadium on Saturday. Moments ago, Purdue released an official statement on the matter:

The full text of the statement reads:

Purdue regards the welfare of all student-athletes as its No. 1 priority. We would fully support a conversation regarding a conference-wide set of guidelines for visiting football team accommodations because we have experienced less-than-ideal conditions on the road. There IS no place for gamesmanship when it comes to player care and safety.

The after-the-fact concerns expressed by Michigan are somewhat surprising because a member of its football staff conducted a walk-thru of our facilities with our athletics department staff at Ross-Ade Stadium on July 18.

Furthermore, to help teams prepare in advance, our visiting team manual highlights in bold type "there is no air conditioning in the (visiting) locker room," with accompanying Purdue Athletics staff contact information about how to request preferred temporary accommodations. We did not receive any such request.

Basic x-ray is available within our athletic footprint and more-sophisticated capabilities are located two blocks away, similar to the arrangements at many other schools. Our sports medicine staff members, in fact, have received numerous compliments from their Michigan counterparts regarding the care they received at Purdue.

Additionally, Harbaugh mentioned the lack of medical facilities at Ross-Ade Stadium in his press conference today. As Nathan Baird pointed out, Speight received the same treatment a Purdue player would have received:

Here’s hoping that we can put this fiasco behind us. Perhaps this will accelerate the timeline for the South End Zone project, which would include a new visitor’s locker room.