STrib: Amid pandemic, college athletes are finding their voice and beginning push for solidarity

[BleedGopher]

per Megan:

With reports swirling last weekend that the Big Ten and Pac-12 were readying to cancel the football season, players from the Power Five conferences joined together to issue a list of demands.

One of those has the potential to change college football forever.

“Use our voices to establish open communication and trust between players and officials: ultimately create a college football players association,” the statement read.

While the Big Ten and Pac-12 fall football seasons were indeed canceled, and the SEC, Big 12 and ACC continue to grapple with a way to safely play amid the coronavirus pandemic, players’ renewed call for representation feels more real than ever — and could emerge as the single most defining development from these past several months.

“I don’t want to specifically say unionization, but the way it’s headed is, we want to make sure that all the athletes are more organized and on the same page,” Gophers senior Seth Green said, “and all voices are heard from different perspectives.”

Amid pandemic, college athletes are finding their voice and beginning push for solidarity

In distorted times, college athletes find their voice and generate a movement for solidarity

www.startribune.com

Go Gophers!!

 

[Goldmember]

With all of the decades we have heard about how players are getting a raw deal “from the NCAA”, it took the players having to actually defend their right to play that has spurred the need for them to organize.

 

[alchemy2u]

With all of the decades we have heard about how players are getting a raw deal “from the NCAA”, it took the players having to actually defend their right to play that has spurred the need for them to organize.

They don't have a fckg right to play. That is like saying you have a right to eat the baby back ribs at Dave's BBQ.

There are at last count, over 40 players that have opted out of the 2020 season. Schools that insist on playing are in bigger jeopardy by "forcing the players to play" in what is deemed as unsafe conditions. There are schools that insist on playing even when their own medical professionals say they should not play. Those students are even more interested in organizing.

 

[LakerFan]

With all of the decades we have heard about how players are getting a raw deal “from the NCAA”, it took the players having to actually defend their right to play that has spurred the need for them to organize.

The solidarity was formed around the demands that had to be met for safety (and revenue sharing) before the players would agree to play. Hard to demand revenue sharing when the season is cancelled, so now they advocate for a season to resume, but bet your bottom dollar they will turn around if the season was reinstated and say "Whoa, not so fast, let's talk about our demands to play again."

 

[MplsGopher]

They don't have a fckg right to play. That is like saying you have a right to eat the baby back ribs at Dave's BBQ.

There are at last count, over 40 players that have opted out of the 2020 season. Schools that insist on playing are in bigger jeopardy by "forcing the players to play" in what is deemed as unsafe conditions. There are schools that insist on playing even when their own medical professionals say they should not play. Those students are even more interested in organizing.

Trying to claim players have a right to play, is like trying to claim that soot covered children forced to work in the mills before labor protection laws had a right to work there.

There's a line where you cross from just having a wrong or misguided viewpoint, to where it's a lie. You know it's wrong and you're trying to push a false view. It's the latter, here.

 

[Goldmember]

The solidarity was formed around the demands that had to be met for safety (and revenue sharing) before the players would agree to play. Hard to demand revenue sharing when the season is cancelled, so now they advocate for a season to resume, but bet your bottom dollar they will turn around if the season was reinstated and say "Whoa, not so fast, let's talk about our demands to play again."

No. The two movements really don’t have anything to do with one another.

There was a small, politically-backed group of mostly west coast players that have been made laughably insignificant now that a more significant, larger more important group is organizing and has countered that group. And the larger group cares more about plying than any revenue sharing model.

Let’s face it... the entire Pac12, (and Northwestern) could cancel football forever and college football would hardly notice. They don’t have a leg to stand-on if they can’t convince a majority of the players in the programs people actually care about in the conferences that matter.