Harvard men's soccer team kicked to curb after sex ranking scandal
It's not unusual for sports teams to keep scouting reports -- assuming they're scouting athletes and not sex objects.
On Thursday, however, Harvard University suspended its men's soccer team for the rest of the season after the university discovered the team had created a "scouting report" that ranked the members of the women's team on their attractiveness. A story published in the Harvard Crimson last week suggests that the practice went as far back as 2012.
"The team will forfeit its remaining games and will decline any opportunity to achieve an Ivy League championship or to participate in the NCAA Tournament this year," Harvard's Athletic Director Robert Scalise wrote in an email to students.
The team had been ranked first in the Ivy League with just two games remaining in the season. It will not be able to participate in the NCAA tournament this year.
The 2012 document, which appears to have been part of a yearly tradition, was nine pages long. Sent to the entire team via email, it included evaluations of each and every individual player, some with paragraph-long assessments.
"She looks like the kind of girl who both likes to dominate, and likes to be dominated," one student wrote in his report.
In addition to their soccer positions, players imagined what the female players' favorite sexual positions would be as well.
Six of the women rated in the report responded in a story published in The Harvard Crimson.
"Having considered members of this team our close friends for the past four years, we are beyond hurt to realize these individuals could encourage, silently observe, or participate in this kind of behavior, and for more than four years have neglected to apologize until this week," the women wrote.
The women further expressed their loyalty to one another.
"This document attempts to pit us against one another, as if the judgment of a few men is sufficient to determine our worth,” they wrote. “But, men, we know better than that."
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Heather was the Web Trends reporter at Mashable NYC. Prior to joining Mashable, Heather wrote regularly for UPROXX and GOOD Magazine, was published in The Daily Dot and VICE, and had her work featured in Entertainment Weekly, Jezebel, Mic, and Gawker. She loves small terrible dogs and responsible driving. Follow her on Twitter @wear_a_helmet.
