Some of the biggest stars in college football believe that the time has come to organize and create a more powerful voice for players in their sport.
In a matter of hours Sunday night, a dozen college footballers from all five major conferences came together to make a joint statement expressing their desire to play the 2020 season and sharing items they feel need to be addressed in order to be safe and ensuring a fair environment for student-athletes who are advancing. The unusual national push for unity comes as one tumultuous week in college sports flourishes into another that threatens to bring more significant change.
In a statement released on social media just before midnight on Sunday and shared by dozens of college players, the group called for uniform health and safety protocols to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and expressed its intentions in the future an association for footballers of the college. The statement also said that players should have the chance to choose for the upcoming football season and that they should be guaranteed another year of eligibility, whether they play this season or not.
#WeWantToPlay pic.twitter.com/jvQhE7noGB
– Trevor Lawrence (@Trevorlawrencee) August 10, 2020
“The wonderful thing now is that we’re all on the same page,” said Stanford defensive lineman Dylan Boles, one of the players who organized Sunday’s message. “We made history last night.”
Boles said he received an instant message on Twitter at 5.30pm PT Sunday from Clemson who turned Darien Rencher back. The two had never spoken before, but Rencher wanted to discuss the unity movement of the Pac-12 players where Boles was involved. Boles is one of the leaders of a group of roughly 400 players in the Pac-12 who published a list of requirements early last week, saying they planned to sit out the practice and potentially play as conference officials were not ready to meet with them and address their concerns. Players from the Big Ten and other conferences made similar demands on it, and others showed their support all week with the hashtag #WeAreUnited on social media.
Rencher was one of dozens of college footballers – a list that included his Heisman Trophy candidate teammate, quarterback Trevor Lawrence – who shared the hashtag #WeWantToPlay this weekend as college football administrators meet to debate the merits of a 2020 season. Rencher and others were of the opinion that fans and commentators were unfair to the #WeWantToPlay honorific against the #WeAreUnited group, Boles said. Rencher, Boles and Lawrence talk briefly about a FaceTime call before deciding to bring in more players from across the country.
“We came down to talk and agreed that both of our goals were in line with each other,” Boles said. “We want to play it all this year. We just want to make sure players have a thing about this thing.”
The players organized a Zoom call within an hour that included players from teams in all five major conferences. Players on call included Lawrence, Boles, Rencher, Alabama representing Najee Harris, quarterback Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Chuba Hubbard, Penei Sewell, Johnny Johnson III, Jevon Holland and Kayvon Thibodeaux, Utah’s Nick Ford, Washington State Hobbs and Hunter Reynolds of Michigan.
Many of the Pac-12 players have been connected since the beginning of July through the #WeAreUnited group. Reynolds, a junior defensive back for the Wolverines, was linked with several other players through an organization he founded earlier this summer called College Athlete Unity. He helped organize the movement of the Big Ten players over the past several weeks.
“There’s a feeling that this is something groundbreaking and that we feel it’s too late,” Reynolds said Sunday night. “I think now it’s finally ready.”
Boles said the players spoke for a little over 30 minutes before deciding to issue a concise message to share the key takeaways of their conversation. He said they were unanimously in agreement on the topics mentioned in the statement. He also noted that there was rapid and universal support for pressure to create a players’ association that would give all college athletes – not just footballers – a voice in decision-making in the future.
Reynolds and Boles both said their top priority is to address pandemic-related concerns as soon as possible. They said they hope to open a line of communication with administrators and other officials in college sports that will eventually lead to a players’ association similar to the groups that give athletes in professional sports a say in major decisions made by the leagues for which they play.
Boles said he hopes a players’ association can serve as a gateway to more change to benefit all college athletes in the future. The next step in that process, the players say, would be a meeting with NCAAs and conference leaders.
The players asked Hobbs, a sophomore defensive line with experience in graphic design, to create a graphic for everyone to share on social media. Shortly before midnight on Sunday, less than four hours after Boles and Rencher first joined, the message was released.
“Social media today is so prevalent that uniting players is easier than it has ever been,” Reynolds said. “You can connect with people in a matter of seconds, which makes it a lot easier to dismiss ideas from each other and determine how people feel in different parts of the country and really put a plan in place.”
Boles said he believes the pandemic and protests for racial justice this summer created a situation where more players felt the need to speak out. The Pac-12 group of which he is a member once met with League Commissioner Larry Scott, Boles said. He said players were able to express their concerns but that they did not resolve any of their agreements. Boles said Scott and league officials did not appear for another meeting with the players and rejected a request to hire the players and involve legal representation in the discussion.
Boles said he and other players began organizing in early July and that Sunday’s rapid development was the ‘crown jewel’ of the unity they have been trying to achieve.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Boles said. “It was inevitable. It was just a matter of how quickly we were able to get it off. We rode against the clock. We all want to play; we just want to do it the right way.”
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