The lawyer for former Yale captain Jack Montague released a statement to the media on Monday morning condemning the school’s decision to expel his client and referring to the ex-player as a “whipping boy” for our nation’s problems with campus sexual assault.

Max Stern, Montague’s lawyer, also confirmed in the statement that it was an allegation of sexual misconduct which resulted in Montague’s expulsion.

Montague plans to sue the school for his dismissal.

“We strongly believe that the decision to expel Jack Montague was wrong, unfairly determined, arbitrary, and excessive by any rational measure,” Stern wrote in the statement. “Yale has been oblivious to the catastrophic and irreparable damage resulting from these allegations and determinations.”

“The expulsion not only deprives Jack of the degree which he was only three months short of earning, but has simultaneously destroyed both his educational and basketball careers.”

Montague was dismissed on February 10th, but the story started to gain national traction later that month when the basketball team wore t-shirts with Montague’s nickname and number on the back and Yale written backwards on the front. After that game, flyers began appearing around the Yale campus stating that the team was “supporting a rapist”.

The incident in question happened in October of 2014, but Montague wasn’t accused of non-consensual sex by the female student student until this past fall. He’s stated that the sex was consensual and that the woman had spent the night with him.

“We cannot help but think it not coincidental that the decision by Yale officials to seek expulsion of the captain of its basketball team followed by little more than a month the report of the Association of American Universities (AAU) which was highly critical of the incidence of sexual assault on the Yale campus, and the Yale President’s promise, in response, to ‘redouble our efforts,'” Stern wrote. “From what appears, Jack has been pilloried as a ‘whipping boy’ for a campus problem that has galvanized national attention.”

“There is no doubt that institutions of higher learning must take the problem of sexual abuse seriously and take effective steps to protect its women students. But that obligation cannot justify imposing so drastic a punishment on the basis of such flimsy evidence.”

Montague is not facing criminal charges in Connecticut.

Yale will open NCAA tournament play against Baylor in Providence this week.