IRS Examining Football Camps Run by CU Coach

Gary Barnett, the embattled football coach at the University of Colorado, whose program has been investigated for sexual assault and recruiting violations over the past several years, now has Uncle Sam to contend with. The Internal Revenue Service has begun an investigation into two summer football camps that Barnett operates for boys ages eight to 13. Although university officials and the IRS declined to reveal what the investigation has centered on, Barnett's lawyer told the Rocky Mountain News that he thinks the probe is related to media reports that focused on allegations of questionable accounting and lax oversight of camp expenditures. Barnett said that he was cooperating and was "anxious for the truth to get out." The IRS probe follows a report by a Colorado grand jury that criticized how Barnett's football camps tracked money, alleging that the procedures amounted to a "slush fund" for the coaches. The grand jury convened about a year ago to delve into allegations that the CU program freely used sex and alcohol to procure potential recruits.In 2001, three women charged that they had been sexually assaulted by CU football players. Those charges quickly morphed into a series of investigations by the police, prosecutors and the grand jury.