Last weekend, the Central Michigan University football team benched one of its best players, Thomas Rawls. Why? They were not saying. Now it has come to light that the running back faces felony charges for allegedly stealing a woman’s purse at the Soaring Eagle Casino and committing credit card fraud.

The Saginaw Chippewa Tribal Police issued a warrant for Rawls’ arrest on April 16. A little more than three weeks later, he signed on to the CMU football team.

CMU’s athletic department offered no comment on the status of Rawls since the incident surfaced.

In fact, following the Rawls-less blowout loss Saturday, Director of Athletic Communications Rob Wyman prefaced the press conference by saying what they would not be talking about.

“If there are any questions about the status of Thomas Rawls, we will just move on to the next question," Wyman said. "If we can’t talk about anything other than Thomas Rawls, we will stop the press conference.”

Such a threat to a roomful of reporters does not bode well for the image of the Athletics Department. Everyone on campus is wondering what happened to Rawls, the aggressively recruited star player who shone as a glimmer of hope for a struggling program, but fizzled out almost immediately after starting.

The damage our university has suffered from recent criminal behavior of athletes, and the athletic department’s lack of transparency toward these situations, cannot be tolerated.

The beginning of the fall sports season has been shrouded in controversy, even before the Rawls incident.

Athletics announced Monday that wide receiver Andrew Flory has been suspended indefinitely for the second time this season. His first suspension was the result of an arrest for attempting to steal $500 worth of snacks and DVDs from Walmart.

CMU officials have refused to specify why he has been suspended again, citing only a “violation of team rules.”

Really? What rules?

Misbehavior among athletes is nothing new at CMU, nor is the athletic department’s sluggish response time when it comes to facing the public.

Prospective athletes should be subject to criminal background checks before they are allowed on our teams. As we learned Monday, they are no. Otherwise, Rawls may have never made the team, in which case we could have avoided this debacle altogether.

CMU's football team is not privately owned. Student tuition – the main source of revenue for the university – funds the football team and other athletics.

We paid for Rawls to come here, and we deserve to know all the details surrounding his leave.

The department should be held accountable for what transpires on its turf. This means screening recruits and coaches before allowing them onto teams and into our community. This also means punishing misbehavior appropriately. It means being forthcoming to the public when players or coaches fail to live up to the university’s standards.

Athletics has become comfortable with give nothing answers, and sometimes no answers at all, to tough questions. It is a poor display from a group of administrators who prop themselves upon the ideal of creating a championship culture.

Their actions have not only tarnished the reputation of the department, it has further alienated, fatigued and frustrated football fans.

On Saturday, Athletics filled Kelly/Shorts Stadium with a sea of students on the promise of a great game. By not answering simple questions about the absence of their star player, Athletics showed what little regard they have for those that keep them afloat – the students.