WSU A Hot Mess

[WVUALLEN]

https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2020/aug/02/pac-12-players-threaten-to-boycott-season-unless-c/

Washington State football player opts out of fall season, alleges coach took issue with participation in Pac-12 unity group

UPDATED: Sun., Aug. 2, 2020

“Because I do have sickle cell trait, and with this COVID it affects the respiratory system, so I just wasn’t comfortable playing at all,” Woods told The Spokesman-Review on Sunday. “And I haven’t heard any plans ensuring we’d be safe.”

Dozens of his peers around the conference have expressed many of the same concerns, and “health & safety protections” were at the crux of the player movement – titled “#WeAreUnited” – that was rolled out Sunday morning by a group of passionate Pac-12 student-athletes threatening to boycott the fall season if the conference doesn’t meet a specific list of demands.

At least one WSU player, Woods, has already opted out, informing first-year Cougars coach Nick Rolovich on a phone call Saturday he wouldn’t be playing because of “concerns with my health.”

“We have made it clear that any student athlete who chooses not to return to competition for health or safety reasons will have their scholarship protected.”

Woods told the S-R he’d been removed from a team group text message chat and was instructed to clean out his locker by Monday. The Cougars and other Pac-12 schools are permitted to begin the 20-hour-per-week access period with coaches beginning this week.

“So you took all the actions to cut me,” Woods said. “That’s what happens when you cut somebody.”

It was understood by Woods that his medical concerns wouldn’t jeopardize his future with the Cougars, even if he couldn’t be with the team during the upcoming season, but Rolovich’s comments indicated WSU would handle the situation one way if it’s “COVID related” and another way “if it’s joining the (unity) group.”

Paraphrasing the conversation, Woods claimed Rolovich said the unity group would “change how things go in the future for everybody … at least at our school. So just think about that.”

According to Woods, the coach also said if his player planned to fight issues of racial injustice, student- athlete compensation and other points raised by the unity group, “then there’s two sides here” and suggested that would be “at a different level moving forward.”

Woods said he expected to receive “backlash” for his decision to join the movement. McDougle indicated he was in support of the unity group but later tweeted he wouldn’t allow it to compromise his participation in the upcoming football season.

“I agree with everything the movement is fighting especially the health concerns but not playing this season isn’t an option for me I got ppl that need to eat. so if the NCAA wants to use me as a lab rat it is what it is.”

 

[WVUALLEN]

The player group’s “unity demands,” which are also cited in a story by The Players’ Tribune, include health and safety precautions related to the coronavirus outbreak, the preservation of all existing sports by eliminating excessive expenditures – one of those being the salary of commissioner Larry Scott – ending racial injustice in college sports and society and economic freedom and equity for players.

Underneath a subcategory of “health and safety protections,” the players made the following demands:

• Allow option not to play during the pandemic without losing athletics eligibility or spot on our team’s roster.

• Prohibit/void COVID-19 agreements that waive liability.

Underneath another subcategory, “Mandatory safety standards, including COVID-19 measures,” is the following request:

• Player-approved health and safety standards enforced by a third party selected by players to address COVID-19, as well as serious injury, abuse and death.

The next section demands the protection of all sports, citing the following requests:

• Larry Scott, administrators, and coaches to voluntarily and drastically reduce excessive pay.

• End performance/academic bonuses.

• End lavish facility expenditures and use some endowment funds to preserve all sports. (As an example, Stanford University should reinstate all sports discontinued by tapping into their $27.7 billion endowment.)

The next section of the list cites players’ demands regarding racial injustice and providing financial support for low-income Black college students:

• Form a permanent civic- engagement task force made up of our leaders, experts of our choice, and university and conference administrators to address outstanding issues such as racial injustice in college sports and in society.

• In partnership with the Pac-12, 2% of conference revenue would be directed by players to support financial aid for low-income Black students, community initiatives, and development programs for college athletes on each campus.

• Form annual Pac-12 Black College Athlete Summit with guaranteed representation of at least three athletes of our choice from every school.

The final category pertains to economic freedom and equity and the student-athlete compensation battle that’s been a hot-button topic in college sports for years.

Under the subcategory, “Guaranteed medical expense coverage,” players listed the following demands:

• Medical insurance selected by players for sports-related medical conditions, including COVID-19 illness, to cover six years after college athletics eligibility ends.

Another sub-category is titled, “Name, image, and likeness rights & representation.”

• The freedom to secure representation, receive basic necessities from any third party, and earn money for use of our name, image, and likeness rights.

The final sub-category, “Fair market pay, rights & freedoms” requests fair pay among athletes and broaches the idea of six-year scholarships:

• Distribute 50% of each sport’s total conference revenue evenly among athletes in their respective sports.

• Six-year athletic scholarships to foster undergraduate and graduate degree completion.

• Elimination of all policies and practices restricting or deterring our freedom of speech, our ability to fully participate in charitable work, and our freedom to participate in campus activities outside of mandatory athletics participation.

• Ability of players of all sports to transfer one time without punishment, and additionally in cases of abuse or serious negligence.

• Ability to complete eligibility after participating in a pro draft if player goes undrafted and foregoes professional participation within seven days of the draft.

• Due process rights.

Along with Hobbs, the Pac-12 players who have seemingly taken a leadership role in the movement include Stanford’s Treyjohn Butler, Cal’s Jake Curhan, Valentino Daltoso and Joshua Drayden, Oregon State’s Jaydon Grant, UCLA’s Elisha Guidry, Arizona’s Malik Hausman, Oregon’s Jevon Holland, Washington’s Ty Jones and Joe Tryon and Arizona State’s Cody Shear.

 

[MichiganHerd]

If these guys are crying, I hope other coaches will remember them when they attempt to transfer out of conference.

 

[Rootmaster]

Get a job losers. Black Lies Matter is destroying sport.

 

[.Bodhi.]

I think players who are going to some of the most prestigious universities in the world who have a 5th GRADE LEVEL, for free, should reconsidering the real injustices going on here.

 

[spartansstink]

That's the price to pay for "our" entertainment. The value of the play on the field or court goes up, the value of the diploma goes down.

 

[SeronimusPratt]

Every day, I like the NHL even more. Those guys aren’t pussies

 

[3xWVUenginEER]

I think players who are going to some of the most prestigious universities in the world who have a 5th GRADE LEVEL, for free, should reconsidering the real injustices going on here.

ouch!

well imo as a 4 decade season ticket holder (who didn’t renew this year before this started), the quickest way to hurt the popularity and revenue of a sport or any entertainment product is bring politics or sociological agendas into where it doesn’t belong and isn’t required. Any side you promote will offend or turn off 50% of the people either for ideology reasons or apathy towards it and not wanting to be bothered by it.

Me personally I don’t even like seeing those anti tobacco (smoking, chew, etc) PSAs from RazeWV at games and I don’t even use tobacco. It’s just a judgement from higher ups and info I don’t want hear at a football game. I don’t like it when a Governor, etc comes to the games and makes himself part of the program. Stay out of the spot light.

College football is a small town flyover area sport and most fans view it as an escape from the BS of life for 1/2 a Saturday. This game is a meat and potatoes game with a cold one on the side. It’s not a jet set big city wine & cheese game where they want something extra. The fans just want the game and don’t care about anything else and they pay for only that.

My advice to the powers that be, don’t think for a second you’re untouchable—see MLB & NAPCAR as examples of how quickly the crowd in the stands can change and go away. Attendance for college football is dropping as it is. There is a pandemic going on which will allow fans to realize they can save thousands by staying home in 2020 and find new cheaper interests for the future. I think the popularity of this sport will drop considerably just like a lot of sports as this goes on.

The more players talk, who in many cases can’t legally buy a beer due to age and don’t know jack squat about life, the more fans will be turned off and are more likely to stay home in the future .

 

[Butler-eer]

I think players who are going to some of the most prestigious universities in the world who have a 5th GRADE LEVEL, for free, should reconsidering the real injustices going on here.

That may be a little harsh, but I'd bet that 1/2 of the FB schollie players would not be in college if they didn't play FB.

 

[.Bodhi.]

That may be a little harsh, but I'd bet that 1/2 of the FB schollie players would not be in college if they didn't play FB.

and 99.98% of the players at Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, NW, ND, Vandy, Wake, UCLA, USC, Rice, UVA, UNC, and UofM wouldn't be at these institutions that virtually guarantee success simply through the networking provided to alums, nevermind capability.

Non-athletes with near-perfect ACTs, SATs, and graduating with higher than 4.0s get denied to these schools. And a segment of players have the audacity to ***** about being oppressed?

 

[Butler-eer]

Bodhi, while I agree that there may be a few very smart kids rejected by the Dukes, Vandy's, ND's of the world, those numbers mean nothing in this conversation. If you ONLY LOOK at grades a d scores almost every athlete would not be admitted to these Universities.
Fact is, these athletes are given an opportunity to get an education ..... a degree ..... from these universities. Given an opportunity to get a degree that they don't have to pay for ..... unlike the kids that are privileged and get admitted to the same school because of their "status" and still have to pay hundreds of thousands for the same diploma.

 

[3xWVUenginEER]

and 99.98% of the players at Stanford, Berkeley, Duke, NW, ND, Vandy, Wake, UCLA, USC, Rice, UVA, UNC, and UofM wouldn't be at these institutions that virtually guarantee success simply through the networking provided to alums, nevermind capability.

Non-athletes with near-perfect ACTs, SATs, and graduating with higher than 4.0s get denied to these schools. And a segment of players have the audacity to ***** about being oppressed?

I disagree with one point, ‘Being at certain institutions virtually guarantees success through the networking provided to Alums.’

There’s so many studies and books on wealth and success that show prestigious universities primarily guarantee only prestigious costs of attendance. No guarantee of success just cause you attended Harvard, Yale, Vandy, Duke, etc. Most millionaires in the USA attend state schools and community colleges if they attend college at all. I realize UVA, Michigan, and UNC are state schools but VCU, Western Michigan, and UNC Charlotte are too and offer quality educations in certain fields.

I do agree with your statement that without athletics most student athletes (I doubt it’s as high as 99.98% though) would have ABSOLUTELY no chance of even getting into many of these Universities. It’s the biggest problem with how universities are now run. The universities have now turned into minor league sports franchises and therefore diploma mills where many of the degrees are worthless except to the University charging the tuition to get it. Nobody hires an applicant because they have a PhD in German Polka History from Harvard or a Masters in Left Handed Puppetry from Yale.