College students shouldn’t get decision on whether football season starts

It’s understandable if some players don’t put their safety first; they’re chasing NFL dreams

Clemson Tigers quarterback Trevor Lawrence was one of a group of players who tweeted the hashtag ‘#WeWantToPlay’. Picture: Joe Robbins/Getty Images

College football is slated to start as early as this month, with all teams scheduled to have played by the first weekend in September. However, as we draw closer to kick-off, the conferences seem to be closer to a postponement.

The system for sports in the US is vastly different to that of Europe. Ironically, we have a free capitalist market; they have a much more socialist system 
of drafts and salary caps to maintain parity.

But that is all built on the fabric of a college sporting system, where attaining a degree – or at least spending enough time in college to have been able to achieve a degree – is central to their professional goals.

Of course for the players, that’s the case, but the reason it’s encouraged is that universities are making millions on the back of these young athletes. So keeping them in college for three years, as is required for the NFL, means a lot of zeros in TV money and gate receipts.

When the first sports were 
cancelled due to the ongoing 
pandemic, it was said that college sports couldn’t go ahead without “all students being back on campus”. Of course, at the time, the people in charge of the purse strings didn’t think that would be a problem because they had the summer to stamp out Covid-19.

Alas, here we are, and both the 
Division II and Division III boards have announced the cancellation of the upcoming season, sighting no way of protecting the players, and putting academic resumption as their priority.

But that makes sense. These schools, after all, don’t have eight-figure TV deals, or even entire TV networks devoted to them. They will, of course, miss gate receipts, will still have players’ scholarships to factor in and will lose substantial revenue.

At the top end of the spectrum in the much-publicised Division I,
which carries the big-name teams and the even bigger TV contracts, a decision has yet to be made on the upcoming season.

The Big Five (The Big Ten, SEC, ACC, Pac-12 and Big 12) are the divisions that claim the most prestige and with it, the biggest revenues, and they’re in a 
quandary. All five conferences
have announced changes to their schedule, with games being regionally-focused, conference-only fixtures.

Meanwhile, MAC (Mid-American Conference) announced that it would postpone the fall schedule, with the spring in mind as a new date for the season. This was the first of the Division I conferences to cancel the season outright. Elsewhere, there appears little movement from the 
decision-makers, whose jobs and salaries rely on TV revenues.

From the player standpoint, there is growing support on both sides of the fence. On Sunday, a group of high-profile players including the supposed first pick in the 2021 Draft, Trevor Lawrence, co-ordinated a series of tweets and statements with the hashtag “#WeWantToPlay”.

Across the trenches is a group of players and parents who have opted out of the season and are also garnering national media attention as they decide to 
petition schools to postpone all college sports until they can 
guarantee player safety.

The division this is causing between the players only benefits one group: the NCAA and 
Colleges.

Of course, there will always be players willing to take risks. What do the NCAA and the presidents and chancellors of the colleges expect? These are young people, who are rolling the dice on their dreams. For some of them, this season may be the last roll of the dice. They know that the 2020 college football season is their last chance to get on the radar of NFL teams, their last chance to put together a highlights reel that could not only take them, but their whole family to a new life.

So why are these presidents and chancellors even allowing the players to make these decisions? The players aren’t thinking about their health or that of their families’. These players are stretching for their golden chalice, while the rich and powerful work from home, and conduct business over conference calls.

Now is the time colleges should remove the decision from 
players who are too focused on the future. If management has any scruples, they must cancel the season and lead like they are paid to.

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