ASU's outside review studies the policies, not the field
Former chief justice Scott Bales will review Arizona State's workout rules by December, but Matthew Mayich's family wants to know who's responsible.
Arizona State finally hired someone from outside to look at what happened on Aug. 20. It's the right call, and it's aimed at the wrong question.
The school has retained Scott Bales, the former chief justice of the Arizona Supreme Court, for an independent review. His brief covers ASU's guidelines for outdoor athletic activities, how it responds to an adverse event, and how it uses outside strength and conditioning consultants. ASU wants it done by early December.
That's a policy review. Matthew Mayich's family asked for something else.
Mayich, a 21-year-old St. Louis Blues prospect in his first year at ASU, collapsed during an outdoor, military-style workout on Aug. 20. His family's attorneys say he remains in a coma and is unlikely to recover.
"What is necessary, and what the Mayich family has asked for and deserves, is an investigation of what went wrong on that field and who is responsible," family attorney Robert Carey said.
He's right, and the timeline is why.
ASU's own preliminary review came out the day after the collapse. It listed the rules that weren't followed and assigned no blame, as the Desk laid out at the time. Seven players then released an unsigned letter disputing that account. Only after that did head coach Greg Powers go on paid administrative leave.
A review of policies can tell ASU what to write down next time. It can't tell anyone what happened on that field in August, and that's the question every family with a kid in a college program is asking.
There is one part of Bales's brief worth praising. ASU says players will be invited to take part, with confidential and anonymous options. The players who wrote that letter left their names off it. A review that lets them keep doing that is one they might actually talk to.
"We want the answers and as much clarity as we can find," athletic director Graham Rossini said.
Then widen the brief. Carey's other request, a second independent investigator to examine what ASU's employees did and failed to do, is the cleanest fix. Bales keeps the policies. Someone else gets the field.
The hockey went on Friday night. By our count from the college scores feed, the Sun Devils opened with a 5-0 win over Lindenwood with Powers's staff still behind the bench. A shutout in October is a nice line in the record book. The review is what this season gets judged on.
