Final report on baseball team released Seems like it was neither. To me the report reads more like an indictment of Vaughn than the players who participated in hazing the new players.
The 2018 incident seems less like the focal point and more a supporting argument to Vaughn not doing enough to prevent hazing from continuing and allowing it to happen in the first place. Wasn't really a closed issue because the hazing supposedly continued into 2020. Blue apparently considered the matter closed when it wasn't.
The report highlighted exit interviews and yearly surveys conducted by the players about the program and their coaches. The whistleblower was likely a player (or maybe more than one) who gave the program and Vaughn poor marks and chose to emphasize the hazing as the reason. Eventually the evalauations were kicked around in incompetence until someone acted on them. The whistleblower was probably even around in 2018 (perhaps the student involved in the incident ?), making them possibly a graduating senior who feared no retribution.
And what of the players transferring out ? We might assume they left because of the hazing allegations that were brought to light, but perhaps they had already planned to leave because the team sucked, and the allegations gave them the perfect opportunity to do so. So we know of at least 3 key players who left-Campagna, Carrel, and Smith. Two players who were second year students in 2021 ane one third year. Whether they actually were 'rookies" who were hazed or not, they knew about it. The only 2021 players who may not have known were the true freshmen. So clearly most of the players conspired to keep it quiet and they have been lying the whole time they were claiming to know nothing. Despicable.
By the way, they frequently used the term "rookies" where you would think they would say "freshmen", so perhaps some transfer students were hazed as well ?