California college overwhelmed by athletic scandals enters national spotlight

[ASFN Admin]

You must be registered for see images attach

The Harvey L. Hall Family Plaza at Cal State Bakersfield. (Google Street View)


A litany of scandals in the athletic department at Cal State Bakersfield over the past year has led to five people leaving their jobs and one men's basketball assistant being arrested.

On Thursday, ESPN published a comprehensive story that detailed the full breadth of scandals at the Big West Conference school in 2025. The biggest scandal focuses on Kevin Mays, a former Cal State Bakersfield player and men's basketball staffer who was set to be an assistant coach for the 2025-26 season.

While he ascended the ranks of the men's basketball program, Mays was allegedly also working as a pimp for a sex worker all across the West Coast. The school was first made aware of the possibility by an anonymous email sent to then-head coach Rod Barnes on Aug. 29, 2025. In that email, the tipster identified the woman Mays had been allegedly trafficking to Washington, Oregon, California and Las Vegas since May 2025.

After police set up a sting operation to make contact with the woman and interview her, Mays was arrested on numerous charges, including pimping, illegal possession of an assault weapon and high-capacity magazines, and possession of illegal drugs with intent to sell. A week after May's initial arrest, further investigation led the Kern County District Attorney's Office to add two charges of possession of child pornography, including an enhanced charge of possessing obscene images of a minor under 12 years of age engaged in a sex act.

You must be registered for see images attach

Cal State Bakersfield Roadrunners forward Kevin Mays during the game against Northern Arizona at Icardo Center, in Bakersfield, Calif., Dec. 5, 2015. (Corbis/Icon Sportswire/Getty Images)


After Mays was arrested on Sept. 5, 2025, the school quickly fired athletic director Kevin Conder, officially terminating him on Sept. 8. Barnes also stepped down as head men's basketball coach later that month, ending his 14-year run at the school.

While that scandal was roiling the men's basketball program, another was unfolding with the school's softball team.

In March 2025, then-Cal State Bakersfield softball player Violet Salazar took to TikTok to allege that assistant coach James Davenport and his wife, head coach Letty Olivarez, had verbally and physically abused her and others on the team. Salazar also alleged that Davenport had looped her into a side hustle selling forged autographed Kobe Bryant jerseys but that when Salazar attempted to stop participating, Davenport threatened her and displayed guns to her while on a FaceTime call.

The school placed Davenport and Olivarez on leave after Salazar's allegations and launched an internal investigation. According to ESPN, Lori Blodorn, Cal State Bakersfield's vice president of people and culture, found that the school was justified in removing Davenport from the job, saying he attempted to "facilitate the sale of illegal weapons" in a June 2025 report. The school didn't actually fire Davenport but instead let his contract expire in May 2025. Olivarez remains on paid leave ahead of her contract expiration later this May, according to ESPN.

But in an October 2025 report from the softball-specific outlet Softball on SI, multiple players on the Roadrunners softball team, as well as Davenport, alleged that Salazar had a relationship with Mays and that Salazar's accusations against the softball coaches were intended to cover that relationship up. The story also alleged Salazar and Mays performed illegal activities together, like dealing drugs and human trafficking, citing an anonymous parent of an unnamed teammate of Salazar's.

Further corroboration of this account came from a lawsuit filed by Conder, the former athletic director, against the school later that month. Conder's suit alleges the school retaliated against him in violation of whistleblower protections because he heard the complaints about Salazar from a number of her teammates and their parents, who voiced their support for Davenport and Olivarez, and passed along the allegations against Mays to the school. School spokesperson Jennifer Self told ESPN that Cal State Bakersfield officials "strongly deny the claims" made by Conder.

Salazar left the school after the 2024-25 season and transferred to Hampton University in Norfolk, Virginia. She has also deleted the TikTok videos in which she outlined her initial allegations against Davenport and Olivarez. But in addition to Salazar's public accusations on TikTok, two anonymous softball players sued the school and Davenport last year, as well, alleging Davenport sexually harassed, abused and assaulted them and others.

The various lawsuits and scandals have been covered by local outlets in Bakersfield over the past year, but the story had received little attention nationally - until ESPN's story on Thursday. In its report, ESPN described the school as having a "culture of chaos" because of all of the interconnected scandals. Reporter Shwetha Surendran wrote, "Inappropriate activity either went unnoticed or uncorrected by people in charge until a full-blown public scandal loomed."

All told, five members of the school's athletic department - the two softball coaches, the two men's basketball coaches and the athletic director - are no longer working in their roles at the school since the first accusations in these various scandals came to light. Mays remains in jail, with a preliminary hearing for that case scheduled for March 13.

More College Sports

- 'I believe in Cal': Stud frosh QB skips transfer portal, will return to Berkeley
- The night ESPN watched two college mascots try to kill each other
- Cal mercilessly trolls Bill Belichick, girlfriend Jordon Hudson at stadium
- Neon spandex, expired Yoo-hoo and IKEA: The greatest college mascot love story

Full college sports coverage

For all of our Bay Area sports coverage, sign up for The Catch newsletter here.

This article originally published at California college overwhelmed by athletic scandals enters national spotlight.

Continue reading...