Pac-12 football group threatens to sit out season

The players issue a list of demands that includes a 50% share of revenue

A group claiming to represent hundreds of Pac12 football players issued a list of demands Sunday and threatened to sit out the upcoming football season if they are not met.

The demands, which include extended healthcare and 50% of revenue — football generates hundreds of millions of dollars per year — were issued in a press release that listed 13 players from 10 schools as media contacts. Among them were three Cal players and one player from Stanford.

The three Cal players are senior offensive linemen Jake Curhan and Valentino Daltoso, both three-year starters, and senior cornerback Joshua Drayden, who has played in 39 games the last three seasons. The Stanford player is senior cornerback Treyjohn Butler, who has played in 20 games for the Cardinal.

Arizona State offensive lineman Cody Shear told The Associated Press the players began connecting about a month ago and have been communicating via group text. He said the number of players in the group has grown to more than 400.

In the release, the group outlines four areas of necessary change starting with health and safety concerns, specifically about playing amid the pandemic.

“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,” the statement reads. “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.”

The other three areas of change include protecting all sports, ending racial injustice and promoting economic freedom and equity.

Stanford was singled out for recently having cut 11 sports, including men’s volleyball, wrestling, fencing and synchronized swimming.

“Stanford University should reinstate all sports discontinued by tapping into their (sic) $27.7 Billion dollar endowment,” the group said.

The group is also asking conference commissioner Larry Scott, administrators and coaches to “drastically reduce excessive pay” and end performance bonuses in order to help preserve existing sports. In addition to those financial requests, the student-athletes are demanding guaranteed medical expense coverage for six years after their college eligibility ends.

The group said it wants 2% of conference revenue to be used on financial aid for low-income Black students and other programs.

The current system “exploits Black athletes physically, academically, and financially. Black athletes

make up the majority of revenue sports rosters but have the lowest graduation rates and are denied basic economic rights and freedoms.”

The group is asking the Pac-12 to distribute 50% of each sport’s conference revenue evenly among athletes in their respective sports, to give six-year athletic scholarships and for the ability to transfer one time with impunity.

A study, written Ramogi Huma, executive director or the National College Players Association, and Drexel professor Ellen J. Staurowsky, sets the fair market value of a Pac-12 football player at $274,454. (The Big Ten leads at $412,099, followed by the SEC at $392,534.)

“If we are treated like employees then we should be compensated as such,’’ said Jevon Holland, a junior safety from Pleasanton (and Bishop O’Dowd) who has led Oregon in interceptions his first two years and is seen as a first-round NFL draft pick.

Until the publication of the demands Sunday morning, the specifics were not known to the conference or the schools.