In the wake of the Pac-12’s decision to keep all sports at least for the remainder of 2020, the Pac-12 #WeAreUnited unit group issued a statement calling for renewal for the establishment of a players’ association for university athletes , was critical of the handling of the conference over Tuesday’s decision to postpone and outline requests for athletes whose sports are paused.
“It goes without saying that the Pac-12 was unfortunately not prepared to protect the athlete’s safety in response to COVID-19 and could not adapt to the basic and essential safety requirements created by #WeAreUnited,” the group said in the statement, which was critical of the lack of transparency in making Tuesday’s decision. “The failures of the Pac-12 have made it clear that the time for change is now. The system is broken. College athletes deserve and need a real voice in the form of a players’ association.”
While the Pac-12 athletes will wait until at least January before the resumption of competitive activities, the unit group made three key requests for conference leadership to address: maintaining athletic qualifications, continuous access to support (medical, academic, meals for those staying on campus) and making all athletics-related activities optional to uniform health and safety standards are conference-wide required.
Most of what the athletes asked for has already been addressed by the Pac-12. However, it is unclear how well things are communicated to the athletes.
Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott said during a webinar to discuss the proposal that the conference will strongly lobby the NCAA for athletes to be eligible if the conference in early 202 cannot play a season. After the NCAA canceled in the spring of 2020, it gave qualification to affected athletes, but the decision to honor that eligibility was left to individual schools.
Medical care, academic support services and meals for athletes will continue to provide, as they would have been if there had been an autumn season, a conference source confirmed to ESPN.
Although the Pac-12 has made it clear that its athletes will retain their scholarships, Scott said decisions on how to support them without competitive activities will be made on a campus-to-campus basis.
“They will be able to continue with the 20 hours that are permissive [each week], but I think all of our campuses need to come back and see what is in the best interest of supporting them, ”Scott said.
In addition to the requests, the unit group reiterated their frustration with their perception of how seriously the conference has handled communication.
“In all its dealings with Pac-12 leadership, the rights of college athletes were not taken seriously by conference leadership,” the statement said. “When we raised concerns about the lack of enforced health and safety mandates in the conference as a condition for a season, we were met with hostility.”
Asked about the interactions with the Pac-12 unit group Tuesday, Scott was referred to Arizona State athletic director Ray Anderson.
“We thought it was productive. We listened to her concerns, and so we will have follow-up discussions with her as appropriate, as this whole situation evolves,” Anderson said. “There have been a ton of things we’ve dealt with and talked about, and we’ll be circling back for sure.”
Also on Tuesday, the Big Ten postponed all seasons of the fall sport, including football, amid the coronavirus pandemic, hoping to play in the spring. In response to the news, a Big Ten player told ESPN that “we are currently processing the information and discussing what steps we will take forward.”
ESPN’s Tom VanHaaren contributed to this report.
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