AMES, Ia. — Iowa State University administrators said Tuesday that they need more information and cooperation to ascertain the details of any confrontations between spectators at a home football game and members of the University of Iowa's marching band, who have said they were physically attacked.

ISU leaders held a news conference to declare that they have no doubt the state's largest universities will continue to compete annually in football — the UI's president had on Monday pondered whether safety might prompt the yearly game's cancellation. That question was largely subsumed Tuesday by a blitz of assertions about the actions of spectators, band members and officials at the schools before, during and after Iowa's lightning-delayed victory on Sept. 14.

ISU's athletics director, Jamie Pollard, condemned harassment of band members but repeatedly coupled that denunciation with insistence that Iowa State's band has been mistreated in Iowa City over the years.

He also accused leaders of the UI band of leaving Jack Trice Stadium through a gate crowded with fans after being advised by ISU that there was no traffic in a different direction.

And Pollard and ISU's police chief outlined at the news conference the steps they'd taken since learning of five specific misconduct allegations and said they could not do more unless UI students approached police to report their stories.

Pollard's counterpart at UI, Gary Barta, told reporters Tuesday that he'd heard "multiple descriptions" of skirmishes and said, "I still don't know exactly what happened." After telling the Iowa City Press-Citizen last Thursday that he and Pollard had decided "it would be difficult to verify details and elected to focus on moving forward on future events," Barta asserted Tuesday that "at no point did I say the investigation was closed."

Iowa State released surveillance videos showing the Hawkeye band leaving the field in formation and reaching a stadium gate; the videos were captured from such a distant vantage point that any confrontations with fans would be difficult to make out.

UI marching band leadership, and members who spoke out publicly last week to express frustration with the university's responses, could not be reached to comment about Tuesday's developments, including Pollard's criticism of the route the band took.

That meant that, at least on Tuesday, fans posting on social media and calling into radio talk shows were left to form and share assessments that largely fell along school-loyalty lines, reflecting the Hawkeye-Cyclone animosity that administrators say is too often sparking confrontations that compromise safety and enjoyment.

5 accusations shared with Iowa State

During Tuesday's news conference, ISU Police Chief Michael Newton and Pollard said no additional information has been provided to ISU besides a list of five incidents involving the band conveyed by UI officials.

Pollard listed the five allegations:

Something was thrown at the Iowa football team’s bus and broke a window while the team was not present.

A teaching assistant with the Iowa band had a beer thrown on them.

The Hawkeye Marching Band director had a verbal altercation with the ISU director of facilities as the band exited the stadium.

After the game, a Hawkeye Marching Band member tried to enter Iowa State's football complex through the football locker rooms, but entry was denied and a confrontation resulted.

A member of the band who was carrying a ladder suffered broken ribs because somebody pushed the person.

Newton and Pollard said some aspects of those incidents were verifiable, while others had not yet been corroborated.

Not included in that list was an accusation made by band members last week that at least one person was the victim of unspecified "sexual assault."

Pollard said that heckling and pelting of band members by fans was "embarrassing" and "inexcusable." But he also said Iowa State band members have been subjected to similar abuse while performing in Iowa City.

► More Tuesday:Peterson: Actions, not Cy-Hawk antagonism, will help fix schools' mutual clumsiness

► More Monday:Peterson: How hard is this? Get to the bottom of Iowa marching band saga

Iowa State University President Wendy Wintersteen said Tuesday the school wants to find ways to make football games safer for fans following the allegations that one student was groped while another suffered broken ribs.

"We are saddened and concerned by the reports that members of the Iowa band were harmed," said Wintersteen, who said that rude or inappropriate actions by "a few" ISU fans don't reflect the behavior by the fan base in general.

In an interview with the Daily Iowan on Monday, UI President Bruce Harreld questioned whether the football series could continue.

"We’re not washing our hands of this — this is a really bad situation," he said in the Daily Iowan interview. "Something really bad happened in Ames."

During Tuesday's news conference, Pollard said the game is important to the people of Iowa who grow up wanting to play in the football game. He insisted that the Cy-Hawk game would continue, calling it "one of the greatest economic engines this state has."

Multiple times, he acknowledged the reports of profane harassment and abuse such as throwing beer directed at visiting band members in Ames and condemned anybody who took part — and multiple times he immediately asserted that Iowa State band members have also been harassed and abused at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City.

"We all have to do a better job policing our fans, but so do the Iowa fans," Pollard said.

Pollard repeatedly blamed "misinformation" for fueling and shaping conversation of the game's aftermath.

Iowa band members raised concerns on social media last week, saying university officials weren't taking action to ensure they would be safe at football games. Pollard said he believed a public perception exists that "something" worse than what he disclosed Tuesday had taken place.

"We really care, but the statement that 'something really bad happened' has created another narrative that there was something that happened that wasn't part of those five allegations," he said.

Pollard: Band erred in choosing exit

During Tuesday's news conference, Pollard chastised the Iowa band for failing to exit from the open east gate and, instead, exiting through a crowded west gate with "thousands" of people.

Pollard acknowledged that the Iowa band's buses were closer to the west entrance, but he implied it would have been easy for band members to walk the extra distance.

"For whatever reason, the Iowa marching band did not do that," Pollard said. "They chose to leave the field through the west side ... where there were thousands of people still shoulder-to-shoulder in a snail's space trying to work their way through the tunnel."

The band and fans were leaving about six hours after kickoff because of about three hours of weather delays. Iowa won the game, 18-17.

Newton said there was a skirmish as the band exited the stadium because members of the band were marching in formation, pushing into the backs of people as they walked out of the stadium.

“They were marching faster than people could walk,” Newton said.

Newton encouraged any potential victims to make a police report by calling 515-294-4428.

"Not a single student has come forward to us," Newton said, adding that he asked UI Police to forward relevant reports to his department. "At this point, UI Police have still not received any word from those band members."

Asked why the victims had to come to police, rather than police reaching out to people who have spoken out, Newton said: "A victim needs to come forward to the police first. Generally, the police don't reach out to a victim. And actually, from the social media reports and other reports that are out there, I don't know that those folks are the victims. They're saying these things happened. It doesn't appear that, from the ones I've seen, that people are saying that happened to them, necessarily."

Newton didn't elaborate further on the mechanism of ISU Police investigations. Contacted by a Des Moines Register reporter, former Des Moines Police Chief Bill Moulder said it sounded to him like Newton was trying to evade the question.

Speaking generally about police investigations, he said, "can they investigate from social media? Sure. But no one has come forward." Moulder said the ambiguity around the allegations complicates the task for police.

Day by day

Pollard reviewed the evolution of the story from his perspective in a statement before taking questions Tuesday. He said he found out about the allegations after Barta called him Sept. 16, two days after the game, and told Pollard he'd received a media inquiry about mistreatment of the band.

On Sept. 17, Pollard said, ISU Police received the list of five incidents. Police also reported that no incidents involving the UI band had been reported to local law enforcement or to the four police officers assigned to the Hawkeye band.

Pollard made a public statement at an unrelated news conference that day that he regretted that news of the allegations was detracting from the positive portrayal of the state that followed a national television audience for the game and an ESPN pregame show.

On Sept. 18, Pollard and Barta issued a joint statement saying that fan behavior in Ames and Iowa City needed to improve, that it would be difficult to ascertain the facts from the Sept. 14 game, and that they were focused on moving forward productively.

Pollard said he read Thursday that Barta had closed the UI's investigation.

On Friday, band members posted on social media and told reporters that they were upset that their stories were not being investigated. And on Monday, Harreld said that student safety might need to trump the tradition of the Cy-Hawk football rivalry.

In Iowa City, 'we're trying to get to the bottom of it'

UI officials sent an email to band members last week, listing among other resources, contact information for the UI Department of Public Safety. In the email, Barbara Burke, UI deputy director of athletics, said UI police are limited in the actions they can take in response to reports in the media or online.

"If you have been a victim of assault, UI Police can assist you in filing a report with the appropriate law enforcement agency," reads the email from Burke.

Reporters reaching out to UI's Music Department for comment were told that Hawkeye Marching Band Director Eric Bush had not been in his office and that administrative staff is on vacation until Wednesday. Members of the Hawkeye Marching Band could not be reached.

Reporters were similarly unable to reach Christian Carichner, the director of the Cyclone Varsity Marching Band.

"At this point, we're just, we're trying to get to the bottom of it. Again, there have been other groups involved," Barta told reporters Tuesday. "This hasn't been — the athletic department doesn't do investigations, and so it's been people outside of athletics trying to follow up. What athletics has been doing is trying to support the students going through this, provide them the resources so that they can get to the bottom of it."

Josh Lehman, spokesman for the Iowa Board of Regent, which oversees the universities, said, "The board is confident that the universities will be able to get together and work through this. We want to be able to provide a safe environment for everyone; that's the priority for all of us. We don't want anyone to feel unsafe at our events."

Reporters also asked Gov. Kim Reynolds whether the football series should be canceled.

"I just really don't believe that that's even an option," Reynolds said Tuesday. "I have full confidence in the two universities, sitting down and being able to figure this out."

Reporters Aimee Breaux, Andrea Sahouri, Isaac Hamlet, Tommy Birch, Randy Peterson, Mark Emmert and Chad Leistikow contributed to this story.

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