Mike Bianchi: UCF player rebellion is latest reason college football season will likely be canceled

Let’s get this straight right here and now.

There will be a college football season only if the players say there will be a college football season.

And it doesn’t appear like the players are anywhere close to signing off on such a risky proposition. In fact, it’s looking more and more like a loosely organized player movement in several conferences will result in the season being canceled altogether or at least postponed.

It’s becoming increasingly obvious, based on a reported UCF-led player rebellion in the American Athletic Conference, that the decision to play college football this fall won’t be made by old men in suits but by young men in uniforms.

It’s all well and good that the Power 5 conferences all have unveiled their plans for playing a football season, but their strategies and schedules are nothing more than suggestions. Playing football is not a decision that will be made by conference commissioners, school presidents or network TV executives.

Let me say it again: There will be a college football season only if the players say there will be a college football season.

And right now, a fall season seems dubious at best. Don’t be surprised if the major conferences scrap their fall plans and follow the lead of the Ivy League and the Mid-American Conference and try to play football in the spring.

There are seemingly too many questions, too many player concerns and too many COVID-19 risks right now to kick off the season next month. What’s happening at UCF should be eye-opening to every college football program in the country. According to a Sports Illustrated report, the Knights were forced to delay the start of fall camp after a player-led movement began concerning COVID-19 safety issues, scholarship security, “hazard pay” and 20% of AAC revenues.

It should be noted that it’s unclear how many UCF players are involved in this movement. Is it five or is it 75? One UCF player told the Sentinel that he and some of his teammates knew nothing about the movement or a player-generated list of demands.

Still, don’t kid yourself. There is a monumental social justice movement sweeping the nation and it is about to shake the very foundation of how college football has operated for generations. SI reported that UCF’s demands were outlined in a document titled a “Proposal for Change” and were shared with at least four other schools in the American Athletic Conference. The document begins by saying athletes within the conference “are disappointed with the way the AAC and NCAA has handled COVID-19,” and alleges that there are “gaps where institutions are grossly insufficient.” The document says, “this list of the actions must take place before we are comfortable playing football, or any sport.”

Translation: There will be a college football season only if the players say there will be a college football season.

You’re probably wondering why, according to Sports Illustrated, the AAC’s “Proposal for Change” originated at UCF? Is it because UCF players feel more oppressed or exploited?

Not necessarily.

The AAC’s “Proposal for Change” seems like almost the exact document being circulated by players from other leagues. It’s been reported that the player groups are being advised by National Collegiate Players Association executive director Ramogi Huma, who has tried in the past to unionize college athletes. Huma is a smart man who presumably believes organizing AAC players will be more successful if it starts with UCF — the league’s most high-profile football program.

If you’re scoring at home, this makes four conferences now — the Pac-12, Big Ten, Mountain West and AAC — where players are organizing and demanding change. And you know it’s only a matter of time before players from the nation’s premier football league, the almighty Southeastern Conference, draft their list of demands as well.

In the wake of George Floyd’s killing and surging support for the Black Lives Matter movement, college athletes have been empowered and emboldened like never before. A group of Pac-12 players began the movement when they sent a “Proposal for Change” to their conference — a document which stated that players were organizing, in part, “because NCAA sports exploit college athletes physically, economically and academically, and also disproportionately harm Black college athletes.” The letter also stated the NCAA is “systematically exploiting Black athletes nationwide.”

Part of this perceived exploitation is, of course, college football moving forward with plans to play this fall amid a raging pandemic. We all want to see a college football season, but you can certainly understand why players are concerned. I’ve written it before and I’ll reiterate it here: You don’t need to be an expert epidemiologist to realize that college football is the one major sport in this country where it is nearly impossible to control exposure to COVID-19. There are too many players and too many variables to keep college football teams in a bubble. These are, after all, college students. They’re going to go out; they’re going to go to keg parties; they’re going to do what college kids do.

As University of Florida athletics director Scott Stricklin said recently, “College athletics is very popular and it generates a lot of attention, but it’s still an extracurricular activity on a college campus — an academic institution’s campus. And so there’s nothing about that that says bubble. Unless you wanna consider 35-36,000 undergrads a bubble.”

And, unlike the NFL or the NBA, college football players are not pros; they don’t get paid; they don’t have a union to negotiate and look out for their best interests.

Until now.

Make no mistake about it, college football players are unionizing right before our very eyes.

Step aside, conference commissioners, school presidents and network TV executives, and make way for the new policy makers of intercollegiate athletics:

The athletes themselves.

Repeat after me: There will be a college football season only if the players say there will be a college football season.

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