Pac-12 is league to watch as athletes organize
I’m usually not too moved by Power Five conference athletes in football and men’s basketball whining about their treatment at Big State U.
These guys eat the best food their universities can provide, get an obscene amount of swag (shirts, shoes, hats and such), travel by air, stay in the best hotels on the road (and sometimes at home), dress in locker rooms that would make the Ritz envious and have more tutoring help than university policy should probably allow.
Yes, a few of them almost certainly generate more money than they receive. A very few of them — such as former Duke basketball star Zion Williamson — may even be grossly undercompensated.
But until much more attention is given to what a college grad with all the free recognition a big-time athlete receives is paid, as opposed to what someone with only a high school diploma makes in a lifetime, spare me the sob story about how we’re using and abusing the majority of these jocks in those two revenue sports.
That said, the Pac-12 football players who have written a letter to The Players’ Tribune threatening to opt out of practices and games unless their demands for fair treatment, safety regulations and concerns about racial justice are met by the conference may
be on to something to which every Power Five league — including our beloved Southeastern Conference — should pay close attention.
Declaring they represent athletes from every school in the Pac-12 — though players from Colorado, Southern California and Utah weren’t mentioned — they state in the letter: “Because NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college athletes, #WeAreUnited.”
In this emotional summer of #BlackLivesMatter, some of what they ask for, while understandable and necessary, is probably going to be addressed by every school everywhere as soon as campus life returns to some form of normal.
What should be of concern for the rest of the Power Five leagues determined to play football at any cost — though with the considerable financial safety net of lucrative television contracts to fill at least some of the fiscal void created by limiting fans in the stands due to COVID-19 concerns — is what these players want from a health and safety standpoint.
According to an ESPN report Sunday morning, the athletes leading these demands — including All-America Oregon safety Jevon Holland and Washington star linebacker Joe Tryon — are concerned about playing in a pandemic without transparency and guarantees for their safety. They are also worried they’re being asked to sign documents that could serve as liability waivers.
Per the letter, their demands regarding the coronavirus pandemic center on A) allowing student-athletes to opt out of play during the pandemic without losing eligibility or a spot on the team; B) prohibiting any COVID-19 agreements that waive liability; C) player-approved health and safety standards enforced by a third party selected by players; D) and this may be the biggest one, demanding guaranteed medical expense coverage for six years after eligibility ends.
Within the letter, the group writes: “We should not be stuck with sports-related medical expenses, including COVID-19 related expenses.”
In a Sunday release, the athletes also wrote that their group includes “hundreds of Pac-12 football players throughout our conference who are very concerned with the risks COVID-19 poses to our personal health and the health of our families and communities.”
Maybe this was always going to happen. Maybe the early rash of coronavirus cases in Major League Baseball’s first full week highlighted the need for concern. Maybe the realization that the Power Five leagues likely have the funds to cover at least some of the players’ demands spurred this action.
Regardless of the why, the athletes are 1000% in the right regarding safety. Especially because the Pac-12, and every other league, has already said that it will honor scholarships if a student-athlete isn’t comfortable playing this season due to COVID-19.
Everyone is under pressure here. For once, the overwhelming desire to have a college football season isn’t so much due to greed as need. Athletic departments desperately need any revenue a football season, even one in which overall attendance will be dramatically lowered by the pandemic, can generate.
However, if these young people are going to put their careers, and possibly their lives, at risk — not to mention the lives of families and friends — by playing, they should certainly do so without the possibility of financial hardship.
Let the schools assume those risks, and only the schools. There needs to be a price for this lunacy, and covering any and all medical costs if players, coaches or support staff contract the virus should be that price, at the bare minimum.
In Sunday’s media statement, the group wrote: “There’s not enough transparency about health risks, no uniformity to ensure we’re all safe when we play each other, and no adequate enforcement infrastructure. NCAA sports has truly failed us, it doesn’t enforce any health and safety standards. We believe a football season under these conditions would be reckless and put us at needless risk. We will not play until there is real change that is acceptable to us.”
If these Pac-12 athletes are not the last to take this stance, the already shaky prospect of any type of college season may have just become a lot less certain.