CSU football investigation cost Rams $107,397.50 after “discount,” invoice says

An investigation into CSU athletics and the behavior of new football coach Steve Addazio will set the Rams back roughly $108,000, according to records provided to The Post by the university.

In an invoice dated Nov. 30, CSU was charged $113,050 by the Kansas City law firm of Husch-Blackwell for 304.6 billable hours during the firm’s investigation into allegations of COVID-19 protocol violations and accusations of abusive and racist behavior within the football program.

That puts the rate on this case at $371.14 per hour for services rendered. The invoice also notes Husch-Blackwell giving CSU a 5% discount, bringing the final total to $107,397.50.

A university spokesman told The Post that the discount was included because the Rams are paying the firm “before the end of the year.”

Husch-Blackwell had been hired by university president Joyce McConnell on Aug. 6 after reports published by The Fort Collins Coloradoan in which on-record and off-record sources within the athletic department accused Addazio and his staff of willfully bypassing coronavirus protocols. Further Coloradoan stories alleged Addazio of abusive behavior and depicted a climate within CSU athletics and CSU football that was insensitive to issues involving race.

The investigation was completed in early October, in tandem with the resumption of the Rams’ COVID-delayed and COVID-interrupted football season.

The results of the investigation proved inconclusive, with witnesses refuting the published accusations against Addazio and his assistants, or suggesting a different interpretation of exchanges between various staff and students and football staff and non-football staff.

Notably, Husch-Blackwell investigators had no recommendations or major criticisms for CSU athletics in terms of how the department or the football staff handled COVID-19 protocols.

The firm did, however, make suggestions as far as improving the athletic department culture with regards to race relations.

To put the $107,397.50 bill in context, in the offer sheet the university wrote up for Addazio shortly after he was hired, he was granted a salary pool for his assistants of $2.8 million for 20 staffers. That’s an average of $140,000 per assistant football coach.

CSU athletics operated at a deficit of $4.09 million in the 2019-20 fiscal year, according to data released by the university this past August.

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