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UCLA’s Elisha Guidry and USC’s Tyler Vaughns at a November 2019 Pac-12 game in
Los Angeles. Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images
Vox
Covid-19 is exposing inequalities in college sports. Now athletes are demanding change.
Hundreds of athletes are threatening to skip the upcoming season, unless economic and racial issues are addressed.
By Anya van Wagtendonk
Aug 2, 2020
Several hundred college athletes have announced their intention to sit
out the coming season as the coronavirus pandemic continues across the
United States, and as confirmed case rates rise in almost every state.
Sunday, hundreds of football players from the Pac-12 Conference, which
is made up of 12 Western schools, announced they would not participate
in training camps or games this fall unless their conference negotiates
with them on certain demands, including the implementation of health
and safety procedures, creating protections for other conference
sports, and addressing racial injustice.
That communal action — organized under the hashtag #WeAreUnited —
describes the new push by college players as one of racial and economic
justice. With respect to the coronavirus, it notes that Black college
athletes, like Black Americans in general, will be disproportionately
placed at risk of infection if conference leaders do not implement
measures that will protect players against Covid-19.
But the athletes argue disparities in coronavirus outcomes also
highlight existing inequalities that disproportionately hurt Black
players, particularly those from low-income homes. The players point
out that they bring significant economic value to their conferences and
colleges, while receiving almost no compensation themselves beyond
scholarships that are contingent upon strict requirements of behavior
and performance.
“Because NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically
and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college
athletes, #WeAreUnited,” the athletes’ statement reads in part.
“Because we are being asked to play college sports in a pandemic in a
system without enforced health and safety standards, and without
transparency about COVID cases on our teams, the risks to ourselves,
our families, and our communities, #WeAreUnited.”
According to Sports Illustrated, the players spent more than a month
organizing before presenting their demands; they hope the threat of a
boycott will lead to a “formal negotiation process” with their
conference.
“The coronavirus has put a spotlight on a lot of the injustices in
college athletics,” Valentino Daltoso, an offensive lineman at the
University of California Berkeley, told Sports Illustrated. “The way to
affect change and the way to get your voice heard is to affect the
bottom line. Our power as players comes from being together. The only
way to do this is to do something collectively.”
Briefly, what the Pac-12 athletes want
The Pac-12 athletes have four areas in which they want to see their
conference make critical changes to its policies: health,
non-revenue-generating sports, racial justice, and financial matters.
The changes would apply to both scholarship and walk-on athletes.
The health demands would primarily require the conference to make
changes to limit the effects of the coronavirus, like allowing players
to opt out of the season for the duration of the pandemic without
losing their eligibility, and enacting minimal safety standards that
cover “Covid-19 as well as serious injury, abuse and death.”
Second, the athletes want all sports governed by the conference to be
given equal weight. They demand an end to “excessive pay” for NCAA
administrators and coaches, including Larry Scott, the Pac-12
commissioner, arguing the reductions would allow for the funding of
sports that do not generate as much revenue as football or basketball.
They also suggest institutions with means use a portion of their
endowments to cover some sports costs.
The group also wants to see the conference put some of its money — 2
percent of its revenue — toward supporting financial aid packages for
Black students, as well as toward community initiatives. They propose
starting a yearly summit for Black Pac-12 athletes, and demand the
conference fund a council populated by student-selected experts that
would work toward eradicating racial inequality.
Finally, the group wants major changes to how revenue is distributed.
They demand that half of the conference’s revenue be evenly distributed
among its athletes and that players be allowed agents and the right to
use their own names, images, and likenesses to earn money. And they
have asked for guaranteed medical coverage for athletes for six years
after their eligibility ends, for issues related to their sport, as
well as the freedom to volunteer and pursue activities outside of
sports as they choose while on their teams.
Race and economic issues have long been a part of college football
The unified front presented by the Pac-12 athletes represents a
near-unprecedented level of solidarity among college athletes, who
bring billions of dollars into their conferences and campuses, but face
stringent requirements and receive no compensation beyond educational
scholarships.
As Vox’s Jane Coaston has explained, there is a significant overlap
between college sports and issues of racial justice, especially in
football programs. Football powers entire athletic departments, Coaston
writes, which translates to money and prestige for universities.
And college football is disproportionately fueled by Black athletes:
Half of all Division 1 football players are Black, with higher numbers
in the SEC and some other conferences. For this reason, as the Pac-12
statement says, issues that affect athletic programs disproportionately
affect Black student athletes.
In part because of these demographics, college football players are
uniquely poised to demand change on their campuses. While they do take
on risk when they speak out against their programs, particularly with
respect to losing their scholarships, they also are powerful when
united, a fact schools are increasingly acknowledging.
“[C]ollege football programs are beginning to respond to demands from
players — players on whom those programs rely,” Coaston writes. “That’s
because in real-world terms, black college football players are part of
an infrastructure that brings in billions of dollars to universities,
cable networks, and sponsors — an entire industry, in fact.”
But college players have had limited access to the wealth that they
accrue for their programs. They cannot benefit from being turned into a
video game character, for example, or from sales of jerseys with their
own names across the back.
The NCAA has repeatedly argued that players receive compensation in the
form of their athletic scholarships, but those are also contingent on
stringent standards of behavior and on performance, as well as on not
getting injured.
As Coaston points out, college athletes attempting to leverage their
power to address social issues is not new. In the 1960s and ’70s,
players at institutions like Michigan State spoke out against racism,
risking both college scholarships and, sometimes, professional career
opportunities.
But the current moment is a singular one, with its confluence of a
major civil rights movement and a global pandemic. As the coronavirus
has shined a bright light on differential access to health care,
education, and safe jobs — among many other issues — student athletes
have found themselves with a unique opportunity to leverage their
earning power to enact lasting change.
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