If the allegations are true, Seton Hall University doesn’t just have a toxic baseball culture—it has a criminal one.
A federal lawsuit filed this week accuses Seton Hall’s baseball team of institutional hazing that escalated into violent and sexual abuse. The program, currently ranked No. 174 in NCAA RPI, is now being sued by a former freshman walk-on who claims teammates assaulted him, forced him to expose his genitals, and subjected him to humiliating rituals in front of the team. The suit further alleges that head coach Rob Sheppard knew—and let it continue.
From “Kangs” (nude wrestling matches) to the so-called “Lotus” ritual—where players allegedly lay naked and manipulated themselves in front of teammates—the filing describes a culture where sexual degradation was not just tolerated, but encouraged.
And it didn’t stop at humiliation.
The player, identified only as John Doe, alleges that he was forcibly pitted against an upperclassman in a staged wrestling match, where he was “dragged across the floor, body slammed, and placed in a chokehold” that left him spitting up blood. He says he still has scars from the incident.
The lawsuit, filed in the Eastern District of New York, names Seton Hall University, Rob Sheppard, and three teammates. It accuses the university of violating Title IX, New Jersey’s Anti-Hazing Law, and failing to protect a 17-year-old freshman from “a cycle of abuse under the guise of tradition.”
“Seton Hall University’s baseball program turned a blind eye to a culture of vicious hazing,” said the plaintiff’s attorney, Mark Shirian, “betraying the trust of young athletes and perpetuating abuse.”
Among the most shocking details:
On move-in day, the lawsuit says Doe was coerced into exposing his genitals in the locker room. One upperclassman allegedly told him, “We’ve got to see what you’ve got down there.” The room reportedly erupted in laughter.
The “Lotus” ritual allegedly involved players lying naked and touching themselves in front of the team. When Doe refused, he was called a “pussy.”
After being labeled a “rat” for contacting the coach, Doe says teammates retaliated by freezing him out, ignoring him at practice, and excluding him from social events.
The complaint claims Doe’s father called Coach Sheppard, who promised the hazing would stop and that the player’s name would be kept confidential. Instead, the abuse escalated.
The head coach has been in charge since 2004, part of a long-running family regime that has controlled Seton Hall baseball for nearly half a century—one now stained by scandal.
A Dynasty of Silence?
Rob Sheppard has been Seton Hall’s head coach since 2004, succeeding his father, Mike Sheppard Sr., who ran the program for over 30 years. Together, they’ve led the Pirates for half a century—an era now overshadowed by allegations of physical and sexual abuse under their watch. Rob Sheppard has taken the Pirates to just two NCAA Tournaments in two decades.
It’s worth noting that Rob Sheppard is the brother-in-law of St. John’s University head coach Ed Blankmeyer, who is married to Sheppard’s sister, Susan Sheppard Blankmeyer. The family’s deep ties to Northeast college baseball—and its Catholic institutional roots—raise questions about what power structures and cultural dynamics have been allowed to persist across programs.
As far as public records show, Sheppard is unmarried, has no children, and has not publicly identified a partner. While there’s no known personal misconduct tied to him, he now stands accused of protecting a program where underage players were humiliated, assaulted, and coerced into sexualized hazing rituals.
A Program in Decline, Now Under Scrutiny
Seton Hall hasn’t reached the NCAA Tournament since 2011, and the team has posted back-to-back 24–30 seasons with little national relevance. Despite the lack of on-field success, the program appears to have maintained a culture of tight-knit loyalty and silence—conditions that, if the allegations are true, allowed hazing and abuse to go unchecked.
Now, the team’s recent struggles are the least of its problems.
Larger Pattern of Secrecy at Seton Hall
Even as this lawsuit dominates headlines, Seton Hall is also under fire in a separate case for allegedly withholding a 2019 report detailing sexual abuse cover-ups by university president Monsignor Joseph Reilly.
That report, commissioned during the Archdiocese of Newark abuse scandal, allegedly shows that Reilly failed to report sexual harassment complaints while leading Seton Hall’s seminary. Reilly was promoted to university president in 2023 despite those findings.
“Seton Hall was under an obligation to produce [that report],” said victims’ attorney John Baldante. “They’ve repeatedly violated court orders and tried to conceal information.”
The judge overseeing that clergy abuse case, Avion Benjamin, was stunned to learn the report existed only after Politico reported on it this year:
“This report is from 2019. They had to find out about it in 2025 in Politico? That just sounds crazy to me.”
Developing Story
What connects both stories—one from the baseball field, the other from the president’s office—is a chilling pattern of secrecy. Read the full lawsuit.
This is a developing story.
